Denver’s A Taste of Colorado tradition endured this year, drawing thousands downtown on Monday from college-age country music connoisseurs to sellers of homemade green soap.
Festival organizers claimed total attendance topped 500,000 over the four-day celebration. And while many frequently checked smartphones, most also munched, milled about and reveled on an orchestrated day off.
Amusement rides such as a zipline and musicians — including Joan Jett, Bruce Hornsby, Craig Campbell and bagpipers — mixed into a marketplace featuring 275 art isans, sellers and food from 50 separate stands.
“Human contact has definitely been affected by smartphones. But this is the kind of thing that reminds you people still like contact,” said real estate broker Renee Spicer, sipping a beer with a friend after savoring Peruvian spiced meats.
The Downtown Denver Partnership in 1983 revived the Festival of Mountain and Plain, adding the name A Taste of Colorado, rooted in a Mardi Gras-type celebration that started around 1895.
Surgical technician Chris Hardy, 29, who was waiting Monday while his 7-year-old daughter made a mask, said smartphones “are like a crutch … I use it as a time-filler. But I’m usually doing things, hiking or biking.”
Home-schooled student Mirella Brannon, 13, whose family moved from West Virginia with their Gaia Blends soaps, salves and beeswax candles, sat beneath a tree reading a science workbook. “I like being out. It’s just fun. I like interacting with people,” she said.
Drifters dropped in on Trends of Africa merchant Jerome Ajavon of Colorado Springs, who emigrated from Togo 20 years ago, asking about wildlife in Africa.
“The reason so many people are here is the performers,” Ajavon said. “Just selling in stores is not going to bring people out.”
