Something for everyone at upcoming Peachfest

It takes people of all talents to put together an event like the Palisade Peach Festival. The annual gathering kicks off later this week.

After months of planning and hard work, the Palisade chamber and the town of Palisade are making sure all is ready for Thursday evening's festival kickoff.

"(The) town of Palisade puts on the ice cream social and street dance," explained Kathy Fernandez with the Palisade Chamber of Commerce. "We have several thousand people that take advantage of this, because you can get all the peaches and ice cream you can stand."

Then the fun really begins.

"Saturday morning will be the 3 and 5 mile run," she explained. "We're going to have the peach cuisine with Colorado chefs. And we're going to have the peach eating contest in the afternoon."

Dave Parsons says it'll be top quality music to your ears, from the beginning to the end of the festival at Riverbend Park.

"We've got Megan Tubb and the Shady People coming out of Austin, Texas, a fantastic blues band," Parsons explained. "We've got Stray Grass, who plays all over the valley, and as far as I'm concerned, they're two headliners in the same night. So what a great Friday night."

Rondo Buecheler says pedal, paddle, pedal for peachy fun and exercise at the festival.

"Pedal, Paddle, Pedal is just a really fun race where you start out with an 18-mile mountain bike loop and then you get back to the Colorado River, paddle 4 miles downstream to Riverbend Park, and then hop on a road bike and do an out and back to Z's Orchard," Buecheler explained.

Rondo's all about adding festival activities and enjoying peaches.

"(It) just gives a lot of people the opportunity to come out here and have some good healthy fun and eat a peach," he said.

Mike McDermott, with Suncrest Orchard Alpacas, brings an interesting twist to his involvement in the festival.

"We're putting together a fiber expo," he explained. "We're bringing together all different animals that are used to create different fabrics, textiles. We want to educate people on that to show them what things are about."

All this, and he carries on the family tradition as a peach grower?

"We also have an orchard," McDermott said. "We've got a little over 4-thousand trees as well."

Agri-tours are all a part of it as well.

"You can go out and visit a farm and see what they do to get that food to your table," McDermott explained. 

From outdoorsmen like Rondo, to talented organizers like Kathy, to hard-working growers and farmers like Mike, it takes a group effort to keep the tradition of the Palisade Peach Festival alive. 

For more information on what you've read in this story, you can visit these websites:

http://www.palisadepeachfest.com

http://www.suncrestorchardalpacas.net

http://www.rapidcreekcycles.com (to register for Pedal, Paddle, Pedal)

http://www.active.com (to register for the 3 or 5 mile run)