DENVER: Two major festivals return to Colorado after a hiatus in 2020.
Both the Taste of Colorado and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival are being held in Colorado this weekend after retiring last year due to the pandemic.
“We’ve been planning this event since January without knowing what it would look like Sept. 4-6,” said Sharon Alton, senior vice president of Downtown Experience with the Downtown Denver Partnership.
Despite this uncertainty, vendors showed up Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to set up their stands and ready for the holiday weekend.
“We’re very excited to show you all the local Colorado stuff,” Alton said.
This year, the festival is also back in a new place. In previous years it had been held in the Civic Center Park, but with physical distancing as a concern, organizers moved to the 16th Street Mall.
“The biggest thing we wanted to do was spread out over an 8-block radius so people don’t have to pack in one space,” Alton said.
The extra space provides people like Jonathon Nesvik, the president of Mystic Mountain Distillery, with the opportunity to recover while helping other fellow business owners along the way.
“It’s hard to even explain how it was last year because it was like trying to get through it and wait for everything to return to normal,” Nesvik said, “some have fought worse than others.
Nesvik helped organize the “Stills in the City” event within the Taste of Colorado. Their purpose is to show other distilleries and what they can offer.
“While we are all competitors against each other in terms of shelf space, there is a certain amount of camaraderie within the guild,” he said.
While the festival is primarily about food and drink, art vendors also set up their stands at the 16th Street Mall, ready for any business that has come their way.
“We’re doing really well at Taste,” said Melody Krob, who helps direct Reflections and Metal. “This is our life, this is our livelihood. This is what we do.”
Krob said selling her husband’s artwork at the Taste of Colorado has been something the family has been doing for years. Last year it took them a lot, but this year they are back with more inventory than ever and a great package to fill with cash.
“It’s worth the sales,” he said.
The Taste of Colorado takes place September 4-6. For more information, click here.
The Cherry Creek Arts Festival also takes place September 4-6. For more information, click here.