MONTE VISTA – This year’s San Luis Valley Potato Festival is sure to be a hot and tasty one, with a freshly harvested Colorado potato and potato bar, along with all the other exciting activities the festival always has to offer.

According to Assistant Director for the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, Jessica Bradshaw, this year’s event is sure to be a good one.

Bradshaw spoke about what people can expect out of this year’s Potato Festival on Sept. 6 at Chapman Park in Monte Vista.

“We are so excited. This year’s Potato Festival will be Saturday, September 6, the Saturday right after Labor Day. We are in the final stages of planning right now, and everything seems to be going well so far. A little bit of a change, we will only have one AG Tour this year, with the bus leaving the park around 8 a.m., and returning around 11 a.m., but everything else, like the free kids games, the bounce houses, the trampoline, those will all be there, along with the trackless train at the park as well. It’s just going to be a fun time for everyone, and we hope everyone decides to come out,” she said.

Every year, the San Luis Valley Potato Festival celebrates harvest here in the Valley. This well-known event always features many games for families and children, along with information about Colorado potatoes.

Bradshaw said that this year’s festival will kick off with the ever-popular 5K Tater Trot at 8:30 a.m. According to Bradshaw, all the proceeds of the 5K go to the San Luis valley Pediatric Diabetes fund. Bradshaw said that it is a great fund to help families who have children with pediatric diabetes with any costs associated with travel, or anything else they may need.

Bradshaw said that recently the fund helped doctors purchase some more equipment for pediatric diabetes testing.

“We were so excited to be able to help purchase this equipment and people always come out and support the tater trot event every year, so we appreciate that a lot too,” she said.

Bradshaw stated that there are also quite a few craft and food vendors signed up for the event.

Bradshaw was also excited to announce that the Chef Demonstration they are having this year has been updated and will be a Chef Competition.

“We are going to have professional chefs. We will have two chefs from Potatoes USA, and we will have a professional chef who owns a company called 5280 Culinary. We will also have Chef Tim from the Windsor (Hotel) in Del Norte. Another fun aspect is, each of the chefs will also have one of our ‘growers,’ in the kitchen, helping them cook. We are super excited about that. It should be a fun little test to see how good of a chef they are, to have someone in the kitchen with them that doesn’t really know about being a chef. It will be lots of fun, throwing in a curve ball there. We are hoping it works out for us,” she said with a smile.

The San Luis Valley Community Band will be performing at 11 a.m., and there will also be a dunk tank. The Colorado Gators will be on site will a reptile zoo from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Pro Chef Competition starts at 1 p.m., and the Swoop of the Cranes Auction will begin at 3 p.m. The craft and food vendors will be at the park from start to finish, along with all the free kids games, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Bradshaw said another new addition that she is excited about this year is some education that will be brought to the festival.

“We are going to have a classroom from CSU come down, and the Monte Vista Future Farmers of America is hosting them. They are going to do a presentation for the students. They are going to focus more education towards kids. I am really excited about that addition too,” she said.

Bradshaw said the festival is always an enjoyable time, and they appreciate the Monte Vista basketball team who always comes down to provide the toppings for the potato bar, and anyone who purchases a spud helps support them too.

“You get a delicious spud, and you can buy a fresh potato from us, and support the team,” she said.

Bradshaw said overall they are hoping for a large crowd and perfect weather.

“We will see what the day brings, but nice weather would really help.”

For more information about the event, or to register for the AG Tour, or 5K Tater Trot, visit Coloradopotato.org or call 719-852-3322.