By Samantha Medina

This year’s Chile Frijoles Festival was definitely one to remember. With the social distancing rules and limitations on the amount of people, the chile fest was not the same. In previous years, the chili fest was always filled with locals and people from out of town and state shoulder to shoulder walking through the streets of downtown Pueblo.

This year there were only 175 people allowed per area which is very low compared to what is usually seen. There were two lines of people waiting to get in. As people left, people got to come in.

Loretta Rodriguez, an administrative coordinator for the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce helped at a T-shirt booth over the weekend. Loretta states, “It was a pretty exceptional weekend. We had to follow all the rules of the health department and maintain that social distancing. Good show of people but not like how it’s been in previous years.”

Rodriguez also mentions they found that there weren’t as many local people that went this year but many people from out of town and state showed up. “There were very few people I knew and talked to that were from Pueblo. I noticed there were many from Denver, Wyoming and surrounding areas,” Rodriguez explains.

There were some vendors that made an appearance this year like Simply Delicious, Romero’s Catering, Passkey and more. They usually had 4 and even 5 stages for entertainment but due to the new rules there were only two stages that were able to provide entertainment.

Although it was a different experience, many were still able to enjoy the Chile festival in good spirits. Rodriguez and many others hope that next year can bring something new for the Chile & Frijoles Festival.