{"id":1315259,"date":"2019-10-03T17:04:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T23:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=988535"},"modified":"2019-10-03T17:04:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T23:04:06","slug":"carbondales-oldest-festival-potato-day-celebrates-110-years-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/carbondales-oldest-festival-potato-day-celebrates-110-years-on-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbondale\u2019s oldest festival, Potato Day, celebrates 110 years on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Members of the Carbondale Historical Society makes their way through downtown during the traditional parade kicking off Potato Day last year.<\/strong>
AEPotatoDay-gpi-100419-2<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Celebrating over a century of tubers, Carbondale\u2019s Potato Day celebration returns Saturday for the 110th installment with a \u201cGhosts of Potato Days Past\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s oldest festival, which began in the early 20th century, was a time for the community to come together following its annual potato harvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the ranchers around here and farmers who grew potatoes, they lived in outlying areas,\u201d Carbondale Historical Society President Sue Gray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen everybody harvested their potatoes they would put them on their wagons and bring them into town to load into storage to later put on the trains.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ranchers and farmers also took the time to enjoy a picnic that included barbecued beef roasted in a pit \u2014 and plenty of potatoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have barbecued beef that is provided by a local rancher, Nieslanik Beef, and we\u2019ll have the potatoes that will be baked,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a vegetarian potato bar for those who don\u2019t eat meat and there will be a little coleslaw and beans to go with that and some rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Gray, festivalgoers will consume nearly 300 pounds of russet and Yukon gold potatoes at this year\u2019s Potato Day.<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the $10 plate lunch will go to the Carbondale Historical Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one of the biggest growers of potatoes in the United States back in the early 1900s,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWe picked the theme, \u2018Ghosts of Potato Days Past,\u2019 so that we could educate some of our community members about how the town of Carbondale was formed and by whom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning at 9 a.m. festivalgoers may enjoy a farmers and craft market in Sopris Park followed by the Potato Day parade, which kicks off at 10:30 a.m. The parade also doubles as the Roaring Fork High School homecoming parade.<\/p>\n

The parade forms along Second Street and then travels down Main Street before concluding at Sopris Park.<\/p>\n

Additionally, live music featuring local singer-songwriter Wes Engstrom will begin at 11:30 a.m. in Sopris Park. Pam and Dan Rosenthal will perform their brand of Americana beginning at 1 p.m. and Tami Suby and numerous local student musicians will conclude the Potato Day live music schedule with a performance slated to begin at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorite events of the year,\u201d Gray said. \u201cJust like in the old days when it was first celebrated, it\u2019s a chance for me to see all of my friends and neighbors and have a big party together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Potato Day festival ends at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Carbondale Historical Society makes their way through downtown during the traditional parade kicking off Potato Day last year.AEPotatoDay-gpi-100419-2 Celebrating over a century of tubers, Carbondale\u2019s Potato Day celebration returns Saturday for the 110th installment with a \u201cGhosts of Potato Days Past\u201d theme. The town\u2019s oldest festival, which began in the early 20th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 21:05:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}