ColorFest tickets now on sale

Posted

By Mary Jo Coulehan
Pagosa Springs Area
Chamber of Commerce

The highly anticipated tickets to the ColorFest weekend, including the Passport to Pagosa Food and Wine Festival and the Bands and Brews Festival, are now on sale through the Chamber’s website. 

Interested attendees can access tickets for these events through the Chamber’s homepage at www.pagosachamber.com. Scroll down the page and click on the ColorFest graphic under Community and Chamber News. This link then takes you to the online “store.” You may purchase tickets for the following: Wine Tasting General Admission, Wine Tasting Reserved Seating, Beer Tasting tickets and Beer Tasting General Admission (no tasting and no souvenir glass). 

Various weekend combination packages are also available. For example, you can purchase a reserved seating wine ticket and a beer tasting ticket or a reserved wine tasting ticket and general admission beer festival ticket if someone in your party wants to come and enjoy the music and purchase wine by the glass while others in the party enjoy samplings of beer. You will be able to choose from a range of ticket package options this year. The Passport to Pagosa is a 21-plus event. The Bands and Brews event is family friendly with youth 15 and under attending for free. 

ColorFest weekend will take place Sept. 17-19. In addition to the Chamber’s sponsored ColorFest events, there will also be Breakfast with Balloons and Brats with Balloonists events sponsored by the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership in Centennial Park and the ColorFest Color Run/Walk now hosted by Aspen House and Aspen Services. More information about these events will be coming soon. 

This ColorFest weekend would not happen without the community’s participation, especially our restaurants, lodgers and regional brewers. Another big highlight of the weekend is the hot air balloons and all the pilots who come into town, colorizing our skies. Currently, we have over 30 balloons slated to fly on Sept. 18 from the downtown area and Sept. 19 from the west side. 

Chamber welcomes
new board member

Every year, the Chamber membership elects three new board members to serve on the Chamber Board of Directors for a three-year term. Unfortunately, sometimes life issues get in the way and full terms cannot be fulfilled. This is the case with new board member Tabitha Zappone. Because Zappone was in her initial year on the board, per the Chamber’s bylaws, a replacement board member will be selected from the remaining list of candidates in order of the voting. 

Taking Zappone’s place on the board will be Wyndham assistant general manager Shane Prince. Prince has been a Pagosa resident for eight years. He is keenly interested in keeping the needs of the business community, such as workforce development as the No. 1 focus. Along with his expertise in the travel industry, he has a financial planning background. Prince will fulfill this open board seat with the term expiring in 2024. 

There will be multiple occasions for the membership to meet not only Prince, but the other eight Chamber board members in an upcoming Business After Hours, special event or when one of the board members contacts a new business. We thank Prince for stepping up to the board plate. We also thank Zappone for her commitment over the past months and wish her the best in her business and with her family. 

Upcoming deadlines concerning community issues

The Pagosa Housing Partners (PHP) is concluding its housing survey on Saturday, July 31. 

The survey may be taken in a variety of formats including online and hard copy. The easiest way to complete the survey is online through a QR code that people can scan with their phone and complete online. Physical copies of the survey can be obtained and returned to the Chamber of Commerce, the Ruby M. Sisson Memorial Library, Pagosa Springs Town Hall, Higher Grounds Coffee or Turkey Springs Trading Post. This survey, which asks a number of housing and housing challenged questions, is looking to determine the types of housing needed, the demographics of who needs housing and other pertinent information to try and create housing that is at the most critical level. The survey is easy to complete and takes only a few minutes. Businesses are encouraged to have staff complete the survey. Give them time at work to log in and answer the questionnaire. 

Another important document that the community is encouraged to read and weigh in on is the Archuleta County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). The Chamber article in the SUN’s July 22 issue was dedicated to explaining what the CEDS is and its importance to our community. Yes, it will take a little time to read through the initiatives and strategic goals; however, I again encourage our business community and residents to learn what our community’s top priority issues and strategic goals are. The survey can be accessed through https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQRi18BG1LUXT3OZhq30FVAKZB6yGO9xR7r7qDKIojdq4EoA/formResponse. Comments can be submitted until Aug. 15.