Rainbows to Renaissance: Colorado festivals this weekend and beyond
With summer in full swing, it’s festival season.
From celebrating rodeos and renaissance, parades and pride, this weekend is packed with festivities.
Pikes Peak Pride Parade and Festival
(10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 215 S. Tejon St.; free)
Pikes Peak Pride will host its annual festival and parade in honor of Pride Month, which celebrates and recognizes LGBTQ culture and community. The two-day festival will take place on the lawn of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum with live entertainment (from drag performances to poetry reading and dance troupes), vendors and educational programs. There will also be a Rainbow Youth Square for kiddos with rainbow art and family friendly activities.
The parade is planned for Sunday at 11 a.m. This year’s parade route will start at America the Beautiful Park (Colorado Avenue & Cimino Street) and travel eastbound along Colorado Avenue; the path will turn south on Tejon Street, ending on Vermijo Street at Alamo Square Park.
Renaissance Festival
(10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. weekends Saturday-Aug. 3; 650 Perry Park Ave, Larkspur; $32)
The Colorado Renaissance Festival is returning for the summer, transforming Larkspur into a mythical kingdom each weekend through Aug. 3. For almost five decades, people have celebrated this immersive fair that transports visitors back to a prosperous 16th-century village complete with jugglers and jousters, fairies and fair maidens, aristocrats and artisans.
Throughout the season, the festival will have different themed weekends, including Celtic, pirates, wine, revelry and romance. Local artisans and crafters will have stalls throughout the village market, selling everything from handmade garments to wooden swords, as well as offering tarot card readings and fortunes. Entertainment will be scattered at stages throughout the grounds, with sword swallowers, jugglers, magicians and comedians. Dressing up is encouraged, whether you want to don dainty fairy wings or adorn yourself in a full gown and cape. Huzzah!
Feast of St. Arnold Festival
(8:30 a.m.-noon Friday; noon-4:30 p.m. Saturday; Chapel of Our Saviour, 8 Fourth St.; $50)
There really is a patron saint for everything. Take St. Arnold, for example, who’s the patron saint of brewers. In celebration of his feast day, the Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church will hold a family-friendly beer festival, with live music, local food trucks and plenty of kids’ activities. The fest will host nearly 30 beverage vendors, including craft breweries, distilleries, wineries and nonalcoholic options. The party is planned for a good cause, with proceeds going to support Westside CARES, a local nonprofit that provides aid to those in need, including food, medical services, housing and utility assistance.
Filipino Heritage Festival
(11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday; Ent Center, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.; free)
This Father’s Day, local vendors will head out to the Ent Center for the Arts to showcase Filipino culture, featuring food and goods. After the afternoon festival, which is free to attend, the center will host a ticketed concert starring world-renowned Filipino singer Martin Nievera. The artist’s son will be performing on stage with him to celebrate Father’s Day. Nievera, who is dubbed as the leading balladeer in the Philippines, has a career spanning over four decades. He’s among the most popular and highest-selling Filipino recording artists of all time.
Both events, put on by Aces of the Rockies Productions, will benefit the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Southern Colorado.
Cripple Creek Gold Rush Rodeo
(Friday-Sunday; Teller County Fairgrounds, 500 Colorado Ave. No. 1, Cripple Creek; $15)
Previously known as the “Top of the World Rodeo,” this rodeo is the highest in the world, taking place at an elevation of 9,640 feet. Held in Cripple Creek, this event carries on the rich tradition of the former mining town’s ranching culture. Some highlights of the festival include Western Street Dances and the Chuckwagon Cook-Off. There’ll also be plenty of bull riding, barrel racing and mutton busting.
This event has been sanctioned a Colorado Professional Rodeo Association rodeo for over a decade now, rebranded this year as the Cripple Creek Gold Rush Rodeo in honor of the area’s mining history.
visitcripplecreek.com/event/top-of-the-world-rodeo
