Granada-Bristol Days

Early on the Saturday of the third weekend in June, the streets around Granada Park are blocked off, and by nine o’clock the vendors are set up. Granada is a Prowers County town of about 445 residents as of 2020. It lies roughly 12 miles west of the Colorado–Kansas border, at an elevation of 3,484 feet. Granada Bristol Days falls on the same weekend as the Granada School alumni gathering, and in 2026 it ran June 19 and 20. The Granada Bristol Days board runs it, and its committee meets on Sunday mornings.

Friday night on the football field

The 2026 weekend opened on the night of Friday, June 19, with a volleyball tournament on the Granada School District RE-1 football field. In April the board counted 22 teams from the year before and predicted more than 30. It bought more nets and “competition quality volleyballs” to get ready. On the night there were six courts and 23 teams, “All for bragging rights,” as the board put it, with food and drink from the Granada Rec Department. A team called the Bobcats won: Dominic Coleman, Kinsley Williams, Camryn Coleman and Maddox Coleman.

Saturday in Granada Park

Saturday starts with the parade. In 2026 the Granada High School and Junior High cheerleaders marched in it and then went to the park to help the youngest children with the games. The high school girls also worked the GBDays booth, signing people up for prize giveaways and selling tickets for the prize drawing.

The Famous Flyover comes from overhead. A pilot, whom the board calls the “infamous ‘pilot’” and always puts in quotation marks, drops streamers to the children. The Granada Volunteer Fire Department follows with a cool-down of water. The 2026 Saturday was hot, and the board reported 30 mph gusts of wind.

The frog and turtle hunt pays $1 for each one a child finds. Bicycles go to winners in two age groups, 3 to 6 and 7 to 10, and in 2026 they went to Wyatt Bay and Camila Morales. The Amache Preservation Society sponsors the hunt. Its name comes from Camp Amache, one of ten sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during the Second World War. The camp was built at Granada in 1942 and held more than 7,000 people at its peak. The name also belongs to the Amache Run & Walk, which names three winners: one for the men, one for the women, and one for the best poker hand. In 2026 those were Ayden Otto, Lillian Hartshorn and Camilla Marquez.

The rest of the program runs through the park:

• Horseshoes. A third pit was added for 2026. Raymond Sandoval and Amos Hernandez won personalized hats from G5 Imprints and $25 gift certificates from Sylwa’s Liquors.
• Corn hole. Prizes go to the top three teams. In 2026 the top two each included a Harbert: Gary Oral and Brent Harbert first, Gary Joe Harbert and Dakota Lewis second.
• Water bucket relay. Divisions run from pre-K through 12th grade, plus adults.
• Water balloon toss. Played by grade and sponsored by Granada Stop 2 Shop.
• Tic-tac-toe basketball and water pong.

Dinner, the dance, and the honor classes

The junior high cheerleaders help serve the alumni dinner on Saturday evening. The Granada Alumni Association honors certain graduating classes each year, and in 2026 those were the classes ending in 1 and 6. After dark there is an open-air dance in the park, which the board posted under the words “El Baile.”

On the morning after the 2026 dance the board wrote that cleanup went fast because the dancers helped. Its Facebook post said all the trash was picked up in ten minutes; its Instagram post said five. A few vendors told the board they had sold out. The board’s line for the town is “Back Where I Come From!”

The board says the celebration was created for alumni and community in a small town. Its schedule is aligned with the Alumni Association “to extend the alumni experience,” and the money it raises goes toward improving the community. It billed the 2026 weekend as the 34th Annual Granada Bristol Days.

Down Hoisington to Main, 2015

The Lamar Ledger covered the parade of June 20, 2015, under the spelling Granada/Bristol Days. Police Chief David Dougherty led it with lights and sirens. “We are going to go down Hoisington to Main, across the highway to Cottonwood and then over to the park,” he said. Mayor GW DeForest rode with him in the lead car and had been going since 4 a.m.

Parade organizer Jerene DeBono listed the color guard, veterans, the Prowers County Commissioners, children on bicycles, and “everybody who has older, antique cars.” The class of 1955 rode in a horse-drawn wagon. “This is our 24th year so they just show up and we put them in line,” she said. For her the main event was the food after the parade: “We have gorditas, turkey legs, you name it. The cooks have been set up since 6 a.m. this morning.” There was also a Cowboy Up at the Wagons event at the End of the Line arena that day.

Don Peters of the VFW brought eight members, a couple of them Granada natives home for the celebration. Earnest G Ramos and John Navarrette, who by then lived in Mc Clave and Lamar, carried candy for the children along the route. “This is my first time marching,” Ramos said. Rory O’Neil of the American Legion and the VFW had carried the flag in the Lamar parade and carried it again in Granada. “The flag is banded before the parade so it will save my back,” he said.

Commissioner Henry Schnabel, who lives in Hartman four miles away, graduated from high school in Granada. He planned lunch in town and then a drive to Wiley Hay Days for pie and ice cream, which fell on the same day. He understood why: “Father’s Day is a time when a lot of people come home and have reunions.”

Nine-year-old Steven Givan rode a mini dirt bike in the parade, as he had for three years. “I’ve been riding about two years,” he said. “I play second base on my baseball team.”