Another year of ColorFest activities has come and gone and, as with every year, there were some highs and challenges.
Starting off with the Passport to Pagosa Wine and Food Festival, the big winner goes to Sage Eatery, who participated for the first time this year. They walked away with four of the six awards, including Best Vegetarian for their mac and cheese, Most Flavorful for their brisket mac and cheese, Best Decorated Booth — it was a food truck, and People’s Choice.
The winner of the Most Original food was Black Bart’s, another first-time contender, for its Korean BBQ chicken and waffles.
The Best Sweet award went to Farrago Events — yes, Todd and Kellie are back for catering events — for their spiced peach mini trifle layered cake.
There were many very close second-place winners, including Archuleta Seniors Inc. in the Most Original category for its lavender blackberry cheesecake bites, Farrago Events in the Most Flavorful category for its jerk smoked pork street tacos, Black Bart’s in the Best Sweet category for its liege waffle with Belgian chocolate, and Pagosa Springs Medical Center for Best Decorated booth.
Rounding out the evening was the amazing performance of Maxwell Miller as attendees listened and danced to his classic songs.
All in all, it was a stellar event with delicious wines pairing with the fantastic food.
On Saturday, Sept. 22, the Bands and Brews event was dampened somewhat by the rains that plagued the area for most of the day. However, hundreds of hearty souls dealt with the weather, hunkered down in the tent and enjoyed the music of CW Ayon and SolOverLuna.
Turtle Mountain Brewery, out of Rio Rancho, N.M., swept the beer honors with both the Brewer’s and People’s Choice awards.
Unfortunately, the weather prohibited an evening balloon glow typically held in the park. The pilots also had a little trouble with winds on Saturday, so the full contingency of attendees did not ascend. However, Sunday morning was stunning and almost 29 balloons took to the skies.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend with a little moisture that we always need, the beautiful backdrop of Pagosa Springs scenery to complement the colorful hot air balloons, the continuous discovery of our local food establishments and the culinary skills that they possess, and the generosity of the breweries that come and share their special quaffs.
Most importantly, a weekend like this does not happen without all the volunteers who participated. From setup and breakdown to decorating, pouring wine, registration and even selling merchandise, please know your help is so greatly appreciated. Look for our thank you ad in The Pagosa SUN.
Health fair set for Oct. 19
The second annual Health Fair and Expo will be held on Oct. 19 at Pagosa Springs High School from about 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This event is important on so many levels for people in our community.
A component of the fair will be the ability to get your blood drawn and have a variety of tests performed at extremely reasonable rates. Regardless if you have insurance or not, you may want to take advantage of this special pricing for a range of tests.
Another facet of the Health Fair will be the ability to meet with health care providers, find out about insurance options, and receive other services such as hearing tests, STD testing or other exams.
There will also be a lunch with a keynote speaker, which was a hit last year.
There will also be a Spanish-speaking component to the Health Fair, so please reach out to our Spanish community.
More information about products, services, classes and testing will be forthcoming soon.
