Erie Town Fair, Colorado 2023

CoolKay interviews Pat Vero, Executive Director of the Erie Town Fair, Colorado about this years event taking place May 13th, 2023

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
County Fair bounds and cool. Okay, here do I have pad who is
in charge of the Erie County Chamberevent that's happening soon? You do?
How are you? I'm busy?So your event is May thirteenth, right,
it is May thirteenth, correct?And what hours is it? The
event runs from ten am to fourpm and that is with the crafters,

(00:32):
artists, food vendors, vendor boots. Then at from twelve to six is
where we have our beer garden inlive music. Okay. Isn't there usually
a balloon fiesta with this? Thereis usually a balloon fiesta with this.
This year the pilots asked if wecould possibly move the date into June.

(00:56):
Last year, of course, wehad a blizzard the day before the events,
so the balloons didn't get off.We're hoping for a little bit better
weather in June, so yes,we're splitting it up, so we're gonna
have two separate events. Okay,all right, So how many years has
this event's been going on? Twentysix years? This will be the twenty
sixth annual. Okay, and youhave you have a lot of vendors.

(01:21):
About how many vendors do we have? You know, we have over two
hundred vendors, craft, artists,food, some businesses. So yeah,
about over two hundred and this isa one day event. This is a
one day event only rains shine.Oh what about parking, that's always a

(01:42):
question. Well, we do havedifferent areas for parking. You know,
it is kind of a free forall going in the residential areas downtown,
just asking that nobody parks in frontof a fire hydrant or a driveway,
things like that. So we alsohave the north and south parking lots of

(02:08):
town Hall, which is at Holbrookand Wells Street. There's parking in the
Methodist Church that's directly west of townHall on Holbock Street, and at Calvary
excuse me, Calvary Bible Church sixfifteen Evans Street. Okay, all right,

(02:29):
So what kind of entertainment do wehave? So the entertainment this year
in the beer garden, we've gotthree separate bands coming in. So from
twelve to one we have a studentjazz band from the Saint Vraine School District
and that's going to be fantastic.From one thirty to two thirty, we

(02:49):
have Ken and Lorie case Trio,and then we have a headlining band from
four to six and the band isCody Quails and the brand new Ancient And
Cody was previously with the face ofVocal Band and he's very well known around
here. Okay. Where is thebeer garden in relation to the events?

(03:12):
So the Crafters Okay, So thebeer garden is on Wells Street from Briggs
to Piers. So you can't missit because the boost spaces go all along
Briggs and you'll run right into it. Okay, all right, Well,
I would imagine the parking everything willbe much better because the balloons aren't going
to be there, right Well,the balloon launch always that's from six am

(03:38):
to nine am in the morning,and that's heeled over at Collier's Hill.
So there was no parking for theballoon launch within the event area. Okay,
But and now when is it goingto be So that we've moved the
balloon launch and that is the ninth, tenth, and the eleventh of June.
We have over twenty balloons registered sofar. We're very excited. That

(04:01):
is going to be held over onCounty Road five, just west of the
High School and the k school there. Okay, so it's going to do
it for three days, may bethree days a weather permitting, of course.
Colorado. Oh yeah, it isColorado. I do wander. It

(04:24):
is Colorado. And I'm hoping thatwe're really hoping that June will bring us
a little bit better, better weatherto launch. Okay, So do we
have any new exciting vendors you wantto talk about this year? You know,
we we have a lot of justdifferent vendors coming in. You know,
there's a lot of pottery that Ihaven't seen before. I've got a

(04:46):
couple i'll pack of clothing vendors.Usually we only have one um. This
year, we actually have a firepit vendor who makes his fire pits out
of wine and whiskey bear earls.So he's new. Yeah, so he's
new coming in. I've seen alot more photography coming in this year.

(05:09):
What do you get for kids?So we have a lot of kids activities,
not as many as we normally dowhen we're over in the park,
but since the park is still underconstruction, we have an area downtown at
the corner of Briggs and Moffatt forkids activities and we'll have cotton candies,
snow cones, gelato, bouncy castle, there's actually a pull arcade coming in

(05:34):
and then face painting. Okay,all right, well, do you have
anything else you want to add?Well, you know, I just was
going to give a little history ofthe town fair. It was. It
was very interesting that the first yearof the town Fair in nineteen ninety six,
there were twenty five vendors and twelveI think it was six to twelve

(05:56):
hot air balloons. And at thattime Erie had no paved streets, so
it was all dirt streets. Andthe town wanted to bring in in the
chamber, wanted to bring in residentsfrom around Erie and outside of Erie,
and I turned into this great eventthat it is today. Okay, sounds

(06:20):
good, sounds like a lot offun. Well, thank you very much.
I've enjoyed talking to you. Allright, I've enjoyed talking to you
also. And we'll get this postedand hope you'll get a lot of traffic.
Okay, thank you so much,Bye bye, bye bye.