While the Iditarod is Alaska's biggest winter event, there are several others including the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, Talkeetna's Winter Fest with its Wilderness Woman competition and Seward's Polar Bear Jump off Festival. The highlight of Seward's weekend festival in mid-January is the Polar Bear Plunge: Folks dress up in outlandish costumes and dive into Seward's Harbor. Seward is the northernmost ice-free seaport in North America, but the water isn't much above freezing. Winter events help Alaskans fight off cabin fever. That's not a problem in the summer, but there are plenty of summer events, too, such as summer solstice celebrations, the Halibut derby in Homer, Seward's July Fourth Mount Marathon race and its Silver Salmon Derby - there's even a salmon derby at Ship Creek, in the shadow of downtown Anchorage.

Main events of Alaska:

February 26 - March 23 - World Ice Art Championships, Fairbanks
March 1 - 17 - Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Anchorage
March 28 - 30 - Camai Dance Festival, Bethel
April 7 - 13 - Alaska Folk Festival, Juneau
April 9 - 13 - GCI Arctic Man Ski and Sno Go Classic, Paxson
April 18 - 30 - Kodiak Whalefest
April 23 - 27 - Stikine River Migratory Bird Festival, Wrangell
April 24 - 27 - Stikine River Garnet Festival, Wrangell
May 8 - 11 - Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival, Cordova
May 10 - June 8 - Wrangell's 56th Annual King Salmon Derby, Wrangell
May 15 - 18 - Little Norway Festival, Petersburg
May 16 - 25 - Juneau Jazz & Classics, Juneau
May 22 - 26 - Kodiak Crab Festival, Kodiak
June 6 - 27 - Sitka Summer Music Festival, Sitka
June 28 - 29 - Arctic Thunder Air Show, Anchorage
July 1 - 5 - 4th of July celebration, Wrangell
July 4 - 6 - Girdwood Forest Faire, Girdwood
July 24 - July 27 - Southeast Alaska State Fair & Bald Eagle Music Festival, Haines
August 1 - 9 - Tanana Valley State Fair, Fairbanks
August 21 - September 1 - Alaska State Fair, Palmer
August 30 - September 1 - Kodiak State Fair and Rodeo, Kodiak
November 5 - 9 - Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, Haines
November 7 - 9 - Sitka Whale Fest, Sitka