🌶️ A summer of Colorado food festivals worth the trip

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In this week’s Nibbles, it’s time to plan a taste trip outside of Boulder County to some of Colorado’s best food and beverage festivals. Plus: more Boulder eatery openings and a panzanella salad recipe with a charred cucumber vinaigrette.

May 9 is the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, the nation’s largest one-day annual collection drive for food banks. Leave a bag of non-perishable food — think tuna, peanut butter or canned beans — by your mailbox.

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— John Lehndorff

Your community needs you: 51% of Boulder County nonprofits have had to cut programs or change services in the last year, and 70% of nonprofit leaders say community members’ access to basic needs is being threatened. So from May 1-15, we’re asking Boulder County to go all in. Community Foundation Boulder County’s Community Trust program supports 100+ organizations across animal welfare, arts & culture, civic engagement, education, environment, and health & human services. Donate at allinboco.org.

If it wasn’t for Julia Child, Boulder might never have risen to its current level of award-winning international culinary notoriety.

The legendary cookbook author and TV cooking teacher visited Colorado every June for several decades to be the star attraction at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic.

These days, the event is regarded as one of America’s greatest food festivals. When it launched in 1983, it was a hard sell to draw foodies to an empty ski resort in what was then considered “flyover country.”

I attended those early Aspen gatherings as a journalist for one simple reason: I wanted to spend time with the legend. In person, Julia Child was as tall and charismatic as she appeared on TV. (Yes, she really talked that way.) When she walked through hotel hallways, the crowd parted as if for the pope.

Because Julia and her friend Jacques Pepin visited Colorado every June for decades, so did the world’s chefs, foodies and critics. Slowly, visitors discovered the state’s culinary hotbeds, including Boulder.

This year’s Aspen Food & Wine Classic, June 19-21, features notables including Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Andrew Zimmern, Nancy Silverton and locals like Mawa McQueen of Boulder’s Crepe Therapy Cafe and Bobby Stuckey of Frasca Food and Wine.

The Aspen gathering was never inexpensive, but I gasped when I found that the least expensive consumer passes for the three days are $2,950 each. Premium passes, priced from $3,950 to $5,000, are already sold out.

Add in transportation, lodging and dining costs, and you are talking about an experience that is out of reach for most of us.

Culinary icon Julia Child was a frequent visitor to Colorado in the early days of the Aspen Food & Wine Classic. Credit: Julia Child Foundation

Colorado’s stellar 2026 feast of festivals

The good news is that for the price of that Glitter Gulch golden ticket, you can afford to attend a slew of the state’s remarkable gastronomic gatherings.

The following curated guide to summer taste experiences across the state is packed with destination events worth your attention and dollars. Just be sure to plan ahead.

For instance, the celebrated Colorado Mountain Winefest on Sept. 17 in Palisade has dramatically reduced the number of attendees this year. Other state food and drink gatherings have also been discovered and will sell out ahead of time.

The Big Eat really is a big deal. More than 75 locally owned independent restaurants and beverage brands gather on July 23 in the comfy confines of the Denver Performing Arts Complex for hours of bites, sips and conversations.

What Longer Tables has in mind is an alfresco community repast on Aug. 1, a dinner for you and 5,297 strangers at a mile-long table, set at Denver’s National Western Center. Reservations here.

Also on Aug. 1, don’t miss the 5th annual Denver International Festival in its new location on Welton Street in the Five Points neighborhood. This is a perfect event for families to get immersed in global flavors at 25-plus international food trucks and free cultural performances.

The Denver Food & Wine Festival, Aug. 26-29, always has an extra edge because Colorado’s restaurant community gathers to show off, compete and have a party with their peers.

Luckily, the public is invited to events including a Shake + Brake Showdown (cocktail/food truck competition) and a grand tasting on the Tivoli Quad on Denver’s Auraria Campus. Reservations here.

A June full of wine, whiskey and ice cream

Colorado hosts dozens of wine festivals and gatherings through the year, but the one that feels most like home is the Manitou Springs Colorado Wine Festival. On June 6, only whites, reds, rosés and bubblies will be poured by the Colorado winemakers who crafted them. Don’t dawdle on getting those VIP tickets.

I don’t always sip spirits, but when I do, I choose one distilled locally. Find one you like June 20 in Castle Rock, where Abbott & Wallace, Ironton, Minturn Whiskey, Spirit Hound, Stranahan’s, The Family Jones, Valor Peak and many others will pour at the 6th annual Colorado Whiskey Fest.

If your idea of a good time is sampling all the frozen desserts you want on a summer day, bring your palate to Loveland’s 6th Annual Ice Cream & Treats Festival, June 19, in The Foundry Plaza. Experience varieties of brain freeze licking everything from gelato to Italian ices.

In heaven there is no beer, but Colorado summers are awash in ale-centric events. For hardcore brew lovers, the Colorado Brewers Rendezvous on June 11 in Salida is the ultimate campout party for the state’s brewers with views of the Collegiate Peaks. Get tickets here.

If you regard stouts and lagers as sacred beverages, make a pilgrimage to the Feast of Saint Arnold June 13 at the Chapel of Our Saviour in Colorado Springs. The annual event honors St. Arnold, the patron saint of brewers, and features brews from Colorado brewers. Funds raised support the church’s charity efforts.

Wine, beef, empanadas, melon and fungi fill hot August weekends

It’s only fitting, according to cobeef.com, that we celebrate ranchers, as Colorado is home to more than 2.6 million cattle. The Colorado Beef Festival, Aug. 8 at Metro State University, features chefs including Manny Barella and Michael Diaz De Leon competing in a live fire showdown featuring Colorado beef. Attendees can also watch cooking demos, buy beef directly from ranchers, pair beef with craft beer and dance to country music.

Everything from Argentinean empanadas to Mexican ceviche will be dished up by a dozen food booths at the multinational Sazón Latin Food Festival Aug. 9 in Denver. Music, dance and fare from the Caribbean and Central and South America will be featured. Tickets here.

Melon fanciers from across the globe make a beeline to the oldest county fair in Colorado every year in Rocky Ford. The 148-year-old Arkansas Valley Fair, Aug. 13-16, includes mutton busting, a rodeo and a demolition derby. Watermelon Day, Aug. 16, is a day to celebrate all manner of juicy sweetness with a watermelon carving contest, free watermelon for all and the made-for-TikTok Watermelon Seed Spitting Competition.

A longtime fixture of the Arkansas Valley Fair, Watermelon Day is celebrated with free watermelon and a celebrated Watermelon Seed Spitting Competition. Credit: Arkansas Valley Fair

Some of the nation’s leading fungophiles and foraged foods experts will be on hand for the 17th Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival Aug. 21-23 in Eagle. Forays, classes and feasts are featured. Reservations here.

As long as you can handle sipping wine at 9,600 feet, we recommend the Breckenridge Wine Classic Aug. 20-22 as one of Colorado’s most relaxing and well-organized getaway wine weekends.

Set at 9,600 feet, the Breckenridge Wine Classic is one of the world’s highest-altitude wine festivals. Credit: Breckenridge Wine Classic

Wake me up when September comes

If you are a Colorado foodie, your bucket list must include at least one visit to the annual Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival. There is nothing like being immersed in the pungent smoke infusing every square inch of the festival grounds in Pueblo on a fall day. Green chile stew, red chile-infused chocolate and sausage are served with green chile quesadillas with green chile-saturated beer. Plus: Don’t miss the Chihuahua Parade and the Jalapeno Eating Contest.

The Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival features freshly roasted chilies, green chile beer, a chihuahua parade and a jalapeno eating contest. Credit: John Lehndorff

Louisville and Nederland farmers markets open for the season

The Louisville Farmers Market opens for the season 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 9, on Front Street in Louisville and continues Saturdays through Oct. 10. Vendors include Miller Farms, King Pappy’s BBQ and Fair Lady Pastries.

The Nederland Farmers Market opens May 10 for its 10th season in downtown Nederland. Sunday markets are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every other week. Mini markets are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on alternating Sundays. Vendors include Peace Love and Cake, Mountain Girl Pickles and Susan’s Samosas, and Market CSA shares are available.

The Nederland Farmers Market opens May 10 for its 10th season in downtown Nederland. Credit: Nederland Farmers Market

Women-owned East County bistros merge

Sarah Morgan, owner of Longmont’s Martini’s Bistro, has acquired the 10-year-old 24 Carrot Bistro in Erie from Bianca Retzloff. According to an email from Sarah Morgan, the goal is to maintain each eatery’s identity, staff and menus.

Catch up on local food news at 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday on KGNU’s Kitchen Table Talk hosted by BRL food editor John Lehndorff with chef Dan Asher and apiarist Chris Borke of Boulder Valley Honey.

Coming Attractions

True Food Kitchen will open an outlet at 1710 29th St. in the Twenty Ninth Street Mall. Lickity Splitz ice cream shop is set to open at 705 S. Public Road in Lafayette.

Do your kids really know where their dinner comes from? Slow Food Boulder County and the Museum of Boulder host a family event May 11 at Boulder’s Growing Gardens featuring gardening advice from experts, seed necklace making, painting with Boulder Colors paints made from local flowers, farm tours and tastings, and cute baby goats. Tickets here.

(Get your upcoming food event, festival or class listed free on Boulder Reporting Lab using the self-submission form here.)

Market Meals: Panzanella salad with local Hakurei turnips

Panzanella is not a bowl full of croutons. In this salad, chunks of soft, good bread are tossed with spring veggies including Hakurei turnips in a charred cucumber dressing. Get the recipe here.

Panzanella salad features fresh local Hakurei turnips in a charred cucumber dressing. Credit: Boulder County Farmers Markets

“A meal doesn’t have to be like a painting by Raphael, but it should be a serious and beautiful thing, no matter how simple. What nicer way for a family to get together and communicate? Which is what life is all about, really.” — Julia Child