CRESTONE – Approximately 50 people attended Crestone’s third annual Harvest Moon Festival at Casita Park on Sept. 28. The park was welcoming with a live group playing upbeat music out of a two-car garage just in front of the park. 

In front of the garage, chairs were laid out with a few people sitting and swaying to the music, as a slight breeze slipped through.  

A large buffet table was laid out at the park with mouthwatering meat and vegetarian stews. There were also pulled pork sandwich fixings, along with green chile chicken enchiladas, homemade apple crisp, and home-made tortillas. People sat under the Casita Park pavilion enjoying the food and talking and socializing. The food was free and a silent auction was held. 

Assistant event planner Nick Nevares spoke about the event and its history. 

“The Harvest Festival is an annual festival that I helped the Friends of Casita Park produce by providing a free meal for the community,” he said. 

Nevares said he had prepared enough food to feed at least 300 people at the event. 

“This is also made possible by the Valley Roots Food Hub, and the Saguache County Sales Tax Grant. They are the reason that we can host this meal for free,” Nevares said.  

Friends of Casita Park vice president and member at large of the property owners’ association, Eddie Byerly spoke about the planning that went into the event. 

“We all live here at Casita Park. We are part of the POA, property owners’ association. Our annual Harvest Fall Food Festival here is for trees. We used to have a few trees along this fence side, and they died, so we thought let’s replace them, and make sure we get water to them. We have a few funds for trees, but the money that we raise here will help us with more. We have a silent auction going on today, and other things like that. We are hoping that we can use the funds to help us get some more trees out here, some taller ones. We want some shade for the kids, and taller ones to protect the view and helps us manage the sun. We couldn’t have asked for better weather today too,” Byerly said.  

Byerly said that Nevares did wonderful job putting the meal and festival together. 

“This is our third meal with him. He has worked hard and done a great job for us with the meal, and we appreciate him,” he said.