There hasn’t been a county fair in Denver for at least a century, but that might soon change, spurred by the urban-homesteading trend and one woman’s success in her neighborhood pie-baking contest.
Artist Chandler Romeo won blue ribbons for her pies a few years in a row at the annual Harkness Heights neighborhood picnic. This year, her prize-winning entry was “Hooker Street Fruit Pie” — named for her street, and filled with Italian plums and rhubarb from her West Denver yard.
“I thought, ‘Wow, country fairs — wouldn’t it be great to have one in Denver?’ “
She also makes jellies and canned goods from her vegetable garden, traditional staples in county-fair competition, but also an offshoot of the new urban homesteading trend.
“A lot of people are interested in growing food, the local food movement, raising chickens and honeybees,” she said, “which ties in nicely with a county fair. It’s such a nice place to see what everyone is doing, or has done, or aspires to do.”
She shared her bright idea with urban-hipster friends Tracy Weil, an artist in River North, and Dana Cain, an event promoter known for such productions as the Denver Modernism show at the National Western Complex.
“I could immediately envision it,” Cain said. “I’d just been reading about a couple of county fairs, particularly one in Southern California that’s fun, quirky and wild — a new, super-fun take on an old traditional idea.”
They envisioned Denver’s fair including traditional 4-H-type elements, but with city-sized animals like chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, reptiles, maybe even goats.
“Plus an urban rodeo, with skateboarders and bicycles and that kind of stuff,” Weil said.
In less than a month, they’d formed a company — Denver County Fair LLC, launched a website and Facebook page, and are close to signing a contract with the National Western Complex with tentative dates for the last week of next July.
“The bizarre thing was, we couldn’t believe there wasn’t one already,” Cain said.
Local historians can’t recall anything like a Denver County Fair during the past century.
Historian Tom Noel said Territorial Governor John Evans and William Byers founded the Colorado Agricultural Society in 1863, and bought 40 acres east of Denver for a fairgrounds in what is now City Park.
But there was no money for a fair that first year, he said, and “the second year the Indian Wars and the Civil War were going on, so there was no fair.”
The first territorial fair was finally held in 1866, with “giant pumpkins and turnips,” he said, along with crops, livestock, and prizes for creative farmers and ranchers.
The Denver Stock Show started in 1906, said Noel, author of “Riding High: Colorado Ranchers and 100 Years of the National Western Stock Show.” “I’m guessing that would have served the purpose of a Denver fair.”
Financial plans for creating a real Denver County Fair include corporate sponsorships, fees from exhibit booths and reasonably priced tickets — say $5 — for a projected crowd of 50,000 to 100,000 people.
Emphasizing an urban edge, the music program would heavily feature rockabilly, and there would be lots of art, maybe even some installations with a country-fair theme.
And, of course, a sideshow.
“I really want to amp that thing up, like a classic Twilight Zone sideshow with the bearded lady,” Cain said. “I used to own a fake Bigfoot corpse that I sold to a sideshow in Texas.
“I’m going to call them and say we need really good props up here.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
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