The vastly popular Wheat Ridge Olde Thyme Herb Festival will be held this weekend, Oct. 9-11.
This will be the 12th consecutive year the festival has been held, hosted by Herb and Kim Erwin, with son Brad.
A week before the festival Kim Erwin can be seen perusing her assortment of gourds and pumpkins, fastidiously picking over each cart to make sure each vegetable is properly placed and perfect. She is also using her eye for color to pick the perfect gourd which would deepen the complexity and add that much more vivacity to her festival decorations.
Up until the festival, each day is filled with copious amounts of preparation in multiple avenues.
“I feel like people need a place to get out and enjoy an event that’s outdoors. I think everyone is tired of being cooped up, whether you’re in town or even in the country. I mean, you’re still limited as to where you can go, and events that you can go to, because so many of them have been canceled,” said Erwin.
For the vendors and everybody in the community, Erwin felt the festival needed to continue this year.
“We’ll have]at least 125 vendors. I’m still getting more right now, because my vendors who go to other events tell other vendors. So, I’m getting more every day it seems like,” said Erwin, laughing.
While the community can expect the same delicious assortment of food vendors this year, Erwin said there a quite a few new craft vendors. The assortment of new vendors include hooked rugs and wall hangings, wood turned bowls, hand-painted pumpkins, owl lights, Dallas’ Wagons, Bourbon Barrel Boutique, vegan olive oil soaps, goats milk, dried wreaths, birdhouses, gourd ornaments, burlap wreaths, wooden assortments, antiques and primitives, soy candles, pottery and dog treats.
“We have all the same food vendors, of course people like coming and picking out fall decorations. I don’t have my mums here yet, they’ll come in next Thursday before the festival, but we’ll have lots of mums; and, of course, pumpkins, gourds and squash,” said Erwin.
Along with vendors, attendees will be entertained with music from bands such as The Kinner Express, The Hitchhikers, and Strings Attached.
“Last year, our parking lot attendants kept count of the number of people, and the weather was perfect. So, I know that bears a lot of influence on how many people come, but they said we had between 20 to 25,000 in three days. If the weather cooperates, that’s what we expect,” said Erwin.
The usual guidelines have been proposed by the health department, such as social distancing, hygiene, and masks.
“The CDC has said that being outdoors is the safest place you can be. 90 percent of our festival is outdoors, so [I think] we’re safe. I leave it up to the individuals, whatever they feel comfortable with. Some people are okay without masks, some would prefer to have them on, so, I leave it up to my vendors [and the individuals],” said Erwin.
The only thing attendees can expect that has changed is the lack of hay bale seating in the barn.
“We normally have bales of straw down the middle for people to sit on and socialize, visit and eat, that’s the only thing [they] had us change this year. The man who takes care of and runs the portalet company, he has some special precautions that he’s going to take this year, because of what he’s done at other events, so he’s going to carry that on here,” said Erwin.
Other than that, the festival is expected to promise much of the same merriment it has in years passed.
“Come out and enjoy it. Lots of good food and entertainment and vendors,” said Erwin.
The 12th Wheat Ridge Olde Thyme Herb Festival will be held at 817 Tater Ridge Road on Grindstone Farm from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. each day.
The Link LonkOctober 08, 2020 at 09:45PM
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Wheat Ridge herb festival this weekend - Ledger Independent
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