Berthoud Day

Berthoud Day starts at the griddle. For the 2026 Berthoud Day, Boy Scout Troop 6 served pancakes from 7 to 10 a.m. at the Berthoud Lions Club, 600 Third St., for $8 for adults and $6 for children. At 8:45 a.m. the Berthoud Day 5K set off in downtown Berthoud, at $30 a runner or walker. The parade down Mountain Avenue came next. The sources give different hours for it. The Loveland Reporter-Herald listed it at 9 a.m. K99 radio put “the 73rd annual Berthoud Day Parade” at 10 a.m. BizWest’s events listing called the whole day the 72nd annual Berthoud Day. A Reporter-Herald file photograph shows young dancers performing in a past parade. In 2018 the paper counted decorated floats from roughly 100 local businesses and organizations.

After the parade the day moves to Town Park, where the Berthoud Area Chamber of Commerce runs vendors, food trucks, and live music. The chamber asks people to bring lawn chairs and blankets.

The park on Seventh Street

Town Park, at 200 N. Seventh St., is the town’s oldest park. By the town’s account it has served Berthoud for almost 100 years, and it has recently been rebuilt. Its fully inclusive playground covers 12,000 square feet and reaches up into the mature trees. A 6,000-square-foot water feature of natural stone has 15 interactive waterspouts and a waterfall that starts at the push of a button. There is shaded grass throughout, and a Monument Garden kept for quiet conversation.

At 1 p.m. on the 2026 Berthoud Day, the Berthoud Blues Vintage Base Ball club played a game that K99 described as similar to the way baseball was played in the 1800s. That same morning, a few blocks away at the Little Thompson Valley Museum, 224 Mountain Ave., Moon Theatre Company and the Berthoud Historical Society presented scenes from “Beets,” Rick Padden’s play set in Berthoud.

The Reporter-Herald gave a fuller account of the park program in 2018, the 64th Berthoud Day. That year the festival ran from noon to 9 p.m. It had three live bands, more than 70 vendor booths, a Split the Cash 50/50 raffle, and outlets for beer and wine, with ID required. A steady run of acts filled the main stage. Grace Place, the Berthoud Fire Protection District, and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office put on events for children. The paper reported that roughly 5,000 people had come the year before. Deanne Mulvihill, then executive director of the chamber, said: “It’s just a great day to get outside with your neighbors and fellow residents, eat some great food, and enjoy some wonderful music.”

A granite marker also stands in the park. In 1937 the Pioneers of the Little Thompson, who called themselves “men and women who blazed the trails,” set it on Highway 287 southwest of town. It marked the vicinity where the Overland stage road crossed Little Thompson creek. The marker was later moved to Town Park.

From Flap Jack Day to a bomb-squad robot

The town takes its name from Capt. Edward L. Berthoud (1828-1898). He surveyed the route of the Colorado Central Railroad through the Little Thompson Valley, and Berthoud Pass also bears his name. Berthoud Day itself, according to the Reporter-Herald in 2014, began as a pancake breakfast called Flap Jack Day. The paper credited the chamber with running the celebration for much of its 60 years.

The 2014 Berthoud Day ran from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. It opened with the Boy Scouts’ pancakes. Hundreds turned out for the 11 a.m. parade on Mountain Avenue. With more than 75 entries, it was the largest in the event’s history. “Our parade was the biggest we’ve ever had,” Mulvihill said. For the first time the parade had an announcer giving commentary in the style of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The grand marshals were Nikko Landeros and Tyler Carron, gold medalists at the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office had recently begun providing law enforcement for Berthoud, and it came to the park that year for the first time. “They brought the bomb squad, their canine units, forensic teams, crime units,” Mulvihill said. Deputy Brian Wangler of Loveland took children’s fingerprints. Ryan Ertman of the Northern Colorado Bomb Squad operated ANDROS, a remote-controlled bomb-retrieving robot that had recently disposed of a suspicious package at the Loveland Recycling Center. Michael Wangler, 12, of Loveland, watched it work. “I think it’s very cool,” he said. “It saves lives.” The park also held more than 50 vendors, a petting zoo, games, and two stages with music from 12:30 to 9 p.m. The first act was The Steve Manshel Band. Manshel is a former member of the Boulder rock band Firefall.

“This town has 5,000 people so they all want to be a part of it,” Mulvihill said that day.

Out to Waggener Farm and back

The COVID-19 pandemic brought two years without a full Berthoud Day. In March 2022 the chamber announced that a full-scale event would return on its traditional date, the first Saturday of June, which fell on June 4 that year. The parade stayed on Mountain Avenue at 11 a.m. The festival moved to Waggener Farm Park, 1000 North Berthoud Parkway. Town Park was being redeveloped, and the chamber’s board had also decided the old site could no longer hold the growing event.

The sources give different closing times for that 2022 festival. The Berthoud Weekly Surveyor reported noon to 7 p.m. The chamber’s own announcement, printed in North Forty News, said noon to 9 p.m. The chamber’s lineup included The Don Elwood Big Band and Chris Daniels, a Berthoud Talent Show, dance performances, DJ Lil Coop, an old-fashioned pie-eating contest, and an old-time baseball game. A professional parade coordinator, a Berthoud native, was hired to organize the parade.

While working with the Waggener family and the Berthoud Historical Society, the chamber learned that the farm had been one of several sites of the Pioneers of the Little Thompson Picnic. That event began in 1925 and brought Berthoud families together to celebrate the town and the beginning of summer. A photograph from the 1920s, printed by the Surveyor, shows residents gathered on the Waggener property for the first “Little Thompson Pioneer Day.” May Soricelli, then the chamber’s executive director, said she looked forward to “a big event that still feels quaint and small-town Berthoud.”

By 2026 Berthoud Day was back in the rebuilt Town Park. The 2027 Berthoud Day is listed for June 5 there, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The old name now belongs to a separate event in September. On September 6, 2027, City Star Brewing hosts a Flapjack Day with free flapjacks, breakfast beer flights, vintage cars, 1950s dress, and a Flapjack Queen Contest, with support going to the Berthoud Historical Society.