CRESTONE — The Crestone Energy Fair has brought resourceful ideas, broad views, and ways for community members all over the Valley to better sustain their lifestyles through alternative living and energy, and this year is no exception.
The 34th annual Crestone Energy Fair will be held Sept. 16 and 17. The theme for this year’s event is Reimagine: Self-Village-Nature. This event is one of the longest-running sustainability fairs in the nation, according to organizers. Approximately 2,000 people attended the event in person last year and approximately 1,000 livestreamed the event. The Crestone Energy Fair is billed to be a fun-filled, informative, packed event this year, comprised entirely of volunteers. This event is free to the public.
Some people in Saguache County have chosen to use alternative building material for their homes, rather than traditional construction methods. Some examples are strawbale homes, hempcrete and earth ship-built homes, and solar and methane bio-digesters. The Crestone Energy Fair offers tours of completed and under construction homes of these types of dwellings to people who attend.
Event Producer Nick Nevares spoke about the event and the importance of teaching people how to use alternative methods of building to help them begin construction of their dwellings.
“There is definitely a need to help educate people with these other methods, that empowers people to allow them to build, with all of these alternative materials,” Nevares said. “Saguache County doesn’t have building codes. Finding a school that can teach all of this is almost impossible to non-existent. When the Baca Grande community started, they realized that there was a need for this education. This event was created to do just that.”
Nevares said that the Crestone Energy Fair has grown to be so much more than just educating people on alternative construction of homes. It also provides information on new and diverse ways to generate power and provides other ways to live a sustainable life, alternatively.
“As an example of energy sources, Valley View Hot Springs, which is just down the road from us, they power their entire facility with human methane biodigesters,” Nevares said. “This means that they don’t use anything other than the septic system. They are able to compact that methane, created from the septic system, and turn it into something that is clean burning and fuels their heating and their cooking. It also doesn’t smell bad.”
The Crestone Energy Fair is a non-profit organization with the Saguache Sustainable Environment and Economic Development Association, remaining their fiscal sponsor. This has helped them create a part-time director position and some independent contractor positions.
In addition to the two-day event, continuing education is available in two-day workshops that are held once a month to give people the chance to dive deeper into this type of living.
The Crestone Energy Fair has music both days, speakers, presentations, performers, tours, live streaming, and vendors selling their goods. Food trucks will be at the event.
For more information on the Crestone Energy Fair, visit their website at crestoneenergyfair.org.
