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A feast for the senses
By Joe Nguyen
nguyejos@mscd.edu

A plethora of laser-cut aluminum mobiles catches the sun and attracting visitors to a vendor’s booth.

Music, carnival rides and a whole lot of food filled Civic Center Park Labor Day weekend for this year’s A Taste of Colorado.

Despite a rough start of chilly temperatures on Friday and Saturday, the Taste finished strong with bright, warm weather on Sunday and Monday. According to atasteofcolorado.com, hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds made their way to the four-day festival. They were treated to a wide variety of food, from traditional all-American barbecue to exotic Indian flavors to fried alligator, which tastes a lot like chicken. There were more than 50 restaurants featured this year.

This year’s festival also included more than 250 vendor booths and seven stages showcasing a variety of acts ranging from rock to jazz to country. The Qwest Main Stage featured popular acts such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and former Styx singer and songwriter Dennis DeYoung.

At the culinary showcase, locally- and nationally-renowned chefs gave recipe tips.

This is the festival’s 23rd year. In 1983, the inaugural Festival of Mountain Plain took place at Civic Center Park. It sought to recapture the spirit of the original festival, which took place from 1895-1902. According to the website, the fair “was a celebration of Denver and Colorado’s heritage, rich cultural and ethnic background, and the lifestyles of the region.”