46. Genuine Jazz & Wine Festival
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (866) 837-2996 (ticket sales)
Description: Copper Mountain’s 3-day jazz festival in late August features Colorado artists as well as national headliners such as Stanley Jordan. The ticketed music fills the Conference Center Ballroom and free music happens out on the deck of the center. Evening impromptu sessions take place at local bars. Along with listening to smooth jazz, fans also have the opportunity to taste excellent wines from around the world. Prices vary depending on which shows and wine tastings are attended.
47. Gilpin County Historical Society’s Annual Cemetery Crawl
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 582-5283
Description: Lend an ear to the living dead at this entertaining and educational event portraying the life of Gilpin County 100 years ago. Members and friends of the Gilpin County Historical Society transform into “spirits” of former residents, leaders, and movers and shakers of the period. The spirits share their stories as visitors walk through a different historic cemetery each year in mid-August.
48. Mountain Melodies Music Festival
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 526-0744 or (303) 526-07
Description: Focusing on bluegrass and string bands, this annual festival highlights both established and new Colorado music groups. Bring a picnic and blankets or lawn chairs and bask in the warm summer air while enjoying spectacular views of the Continental Divide, Pikes Peak, and the Denver skyline. Food is also available at the full cafe located in the gift shop. While you’re here, visit the museum and Buffalo Bill’s grave. The event is free.
49. Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (800) 624-2422
Insider Pick:
Description: This festival in mid-August features folk, bluegrass, blues, and Americana music performers, in the past including Warren Haynes, Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, Norah Jones, and Rufus Wainwright. There is also the Song School, with workshops and activities geared toward future musicians, and a song seminar that includes sessions on songwriting, copyrighting, and bookkeeping. Situated along the idyllic St. Vrain River, this is one of Colorado’s favorite musical festivals. Campsites are available for an additional fee.
50. Sculpture in the Park
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (970) 663-2940
Description: Loveland bills this as one of the largest and finest outdoor juried exhibitions of sculpture in the US. The Benson Sculpture Garden ordinarily is home to about 40 pieces, but on this day during the second weekend in August, it attracts about 170 artists from around the world who show over 2,000 pieces and sell their work. The event features entertainment, demonstrations by artists, a silent auction, and speed-sculpting (artists who sculpt while you watch). Proceeds from this event buy new art for the garden.
51. USA Pro Cycling Challenge
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Colorado is home to the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, the most demanding bike race ever held on American soil. Every August, after 7 days of riding through some of the most picturesque terrain in the world, professional riders sprint into Denver’s Civic Center Park on the final stage for an epic finish and a day of parties for spectators.
52. Western Welcome Week
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 794-4870
Description: This is Littleton’s big yearly celebration, which runs for 10 days beginning the second Thursday in August. You’ll find arts and crafts and continuous entertainment on Littleton’s Main Street, with a circus, a parade, concerts, fireworks, a barbecue, pancake breakfasts, and used-book sales. Most events are free.
53. Winter Park Famous Flamethrowers High Altitude Chili Cookoff
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 316-1689
Description: Held toward the end of August, this 2-day event is an opportunity to sample different types of chili and salsa produced especially for the cook-off. Costumed chili chefs vie for the Flamethrower title. Guests can buy tickets to sample entries each day after they have been judged. The festival has been going for more than 30 years, and attendees can expect good music, wacky contests, and lots of wild slicing, dicing, and simmering. The event benefits the National Sports Center for the Disabled.
54. Breckenridge Festival of Film
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (970) 453-6200
Description: This 4-day fest includes premieres of documentaries, feature films, and children’s features as well as parties in local clubs and bars. Past years have seen visits by James Earl Jones, Mary Steenburgen, Elliott Gould, and Angie Dickinson. The Peak Ten Pass costs $199 and includes admission to all the films and events, plus a festival T-shirt.
55. Castle Rock ArtFest
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 688-4597
Description: This arts festival is held in mid-September, with family entertainment, cultural activities, live music, and food. It features more than 170 artists displaying, selling, and working in a full range of media. There is an admission fee but parking is free. Pets are not allowed.
56. Colorado Balloon Classic
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (719) 471-4833
Description: The Balloon Classic is a grand spectacle. Typically about 125 hot-air balloons from around the nation are invited to ascend en masse at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of Labor Day weekend. They are preceded by the “dawn patrol,” about five balloons going up at 5:30 a.m. and dangling strobe lights, just to let folks know that the big event is coming. About 50 balloons light up Saturday and Sunday nights in the “Balloon Glo.” (Albuquerque trademarked the name “Balloon Glow,” so the folks in the Springs had to drop the “w.”) Other regular events include live entertainment, food vendors, balloon rides, photo contest, and evening concerts on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
57. Corn Maze
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (720) 865-4336
Address: 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Rd.
Description: Each fall the Botanic Gardens folks create a winding maze through 8 acres of cornfield, providing kids and adults with a giant puzzle to figure out. Average time to navigate the tricky pathways and dead-ends and find the way out is approximately an hour. Hayrides and pony rides are available, and a variety of fall foods, including fresh-squeezed lemonade, funnel cakes, and kettle corn, are offered by vendors.
58. The Festival of Mountain and Plain: A Taste of Colorado
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 295-6330
Description: One of Denver’s largest annual gatherings, A Taste of Colorado runs 4 days over the Labor Day weekend and attracts more than 400,000 people. Organizers usually even block off a couple of streets. You can sample culinary delights from more than 50 Metro Denver restaurants, so it’s a good way to find new restaurants. In addition to the food, the festival offers entertainment on seven stages, kids’ activities, cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts booths, a carnival midway, stages with live entertainment, and a kaleidoscope of buskers and vendors. Entertainment is free; food can be purchased with tickets.
59. Great American Beer Festival
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (303) 447-0816
Insider Pick:
Description: This is the king of America’s beer festivals and the largest commercial beer competition in the world. In 2012 the festival sold out months in advance, a mere 45 minutes after registration opened. It’s usually held in late September or early October. Bring an ID that proves you are at least 21 and a designated driver because more than 2,700 festival beers will be available to taste, the product of some 580-plus American breweries, microbreweries, and brewpubs.
60. Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival
City: Denver, CO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (970) 586-6308
Description: Held the weekend after Labor Day, the Highland Festival celebrates the Celtic tradition for 4 straight days—Thursday night through Sunday night—with performances and competitions by bagpipe bands, highland dancers, Irish step dancers, highland dogs herding sheep, and Scottish athletes throwing the hammer and the caber. There are parades, medieval reenactments and folk concerts, performances on the Celtic harp, and fiddle and tin-whistle contests. Each year organizers schedule a special seminar topic such as Scots and the military. Expect to pay a daily gate fee.