La Veta Oktoberfest

On the first Saturday in October, Main Street in La Veta, at the foot of the Spanish Peaks, is given over to booths from ten in the morning until six in the evening. The festival’s own listings count more than a hundred vendors of food and merchandise. Garage-sale and flea-market tables are not allowed. Admission is free, and the day goes on rain or shine. Around the booths are a beer garden, two bands, a raffle, family activities, and the Twin Peaks Rodders car show with a Jeep expo. The 2026 festival fell on October 3. Cuchara Mountain Park was among the exhibitors and posted an invitation to stop by its booth.

Polka in the morning, a car show past the bank

The World Journal’s preview of the 2023 festival, held October 7, gives the day hour by hour. It opened at ten with the National Anthem, sung by Dr. Bree Jones, the RE-2 superintendent. The Alan Pollvka Band played traditional polka and old favorites through the morning. At one o’clock the Rifters took the stage with what Bob Kennemer called an “Americana infused blend of country/folk music,” and dancing in the street went on “until the asphalt on Main Street gets rolled up at 6 p.m.” Food ran from bratwurst and sauerkraut to burgers. Several restaurants sat inside the festival area, and the shops on Main Street stayed open. Sharona Whitley, a Walsenburg educator and founder of the Flamingo Book Club, painted faces and gave children free books. The treasure hunt, a tradition for adults and children alike, was skipped that year. Shane Clouse was master of ceremonies and called the raffle, whose prizes come from local merchants.

The Twin Peak Rodders and Leonard Martinez of Walsenburg brought the car show, dedicated that year to Jo Rogers, a long-time participant and fan of the festival. “We even had to expand our [rodder] space up to the bank parking lot because we have so many!” said Mitzie Keairns, the festival’s spokesperson. The 2023 entry form lists a best-of award for every decade from the 1920s through the 2020s. Its other classes include street rods, rat rods, muscle trucks, works in progress, imports and motorcycles.

That year the beer garden poured only craft beer. JD and Jen Lind, owners of La Veta’s Mountain Merman Brewing Company, were joined by Spare Keg Beerwerks, Platt Park Brewing Company and Woods Boss Brewing Company, along with wine and non-alcoholic drinks. “We think that it will make it extra special to have ‘our own’ beer this year and JD has some special items brewed up,” Keairns said.

According to a 2008 account, the Biergarten is named for Pete Giadone. He came from Pueblo every week all summer, and for years at Oktoberfest, with his vegetable stand, and he was an early Oktoberfest King. The raffle-ticket booth carries the name of Charlie Masinton, who put hundreds of dollars into raffle tickets. Each year a board picks a king and queen from among people with outstanding community service. The names are kept secret until they are announced around noon in the Biergarten.

Gas money, eyeglasses and propane

The festival is run by La Veta Oktoberfest, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its committee lists Alaine Byers, Cher and Shane Clouse, Dave Heikes, Peggy Hoobler, Sandy Johnston, Mitzi Kearns, Wendy Lockamy, Gary Ryan, Joe Young and Valrie Eisemann. The group holds three fundraisers a year. One is a chili cook-off and silent auction in spring, held March 29, 2025, at Skinny’s in La Veta. At the 2026 cook-off, Best Red went to Cheri, Best Green to Coral Anderson, and Best Soup to Laurie Gibson Erwin.

The money goes to the Candy Cocco Memorial Student Awards and to what Keairns called “sort of an unofficial outreach program.” Scholarships go each spring to graduating seniors in La Veta and Walsenburg. The 2023 article put the scholarships at $2,000 to $3,000 on average, with another $5,000 to $7,000 a year in aid. The organization’s site reports $4,000 in scholarships awarded in a single year. “We have provided gas money for people who couldn’t afford the costs of driving for essential medical treatments, eyeglasses and help with dental expenses. Or help with grocery bills, propane, electric, and so on. The money goes right back into the community,” Keairns said.

In 2008 the scholarships were two of $500 each to La Veta schools and two to Walsenburg schools. Other money went to the library, to families facing medical bills, and to the Special Olympics of Huerfano County for trips and athletic events. The Twin Peaks Rodders had begun helping with scholarships too. Laurie Erwin, a former board member, put it plainly that year: “this is not a drunk fest in the middle of Main Street. We have raised a lot of money for local entities.”

Candy Cocco’s party, October 17, 1987

The festival’s vendor application says Oktoberfest has been held annually since 1986. Nancy Christofferson, writing local history for the World Journal, dates the first one to October 17, 1987. The festival’s own site billed the 2026 edition as the 40th.

Christofferson credits the idea to Candy Cocco. She staged the first party with volunteers from the town as a reward for residents after a long season of entertaining others. Paid booth space was expected to make it a modest fundraiser. A 2016 column calls it the closing event of the vacation season. A 2008 account calls it an end-of-summer, before-the-snow-falls party.

That first day had two bands. One played early for listening, and the Captain Cooker Band of Colorado Springs played for a street dance. Portable fencing went up in the morning around a beer garden serving St. Pauli Girl. Area ranchers brought hay bales for seating around the dance area. The rest of Main Street held craft and food booths, two dozen of them by Christofferson’s count. The 2008 account remembers maybe ten or so vendors, mostly arts and crafts. There were contests and games for all ages and T-shirts printed “Oktoberfest 1987 St. Pauli Girl Bier.” About 60 people won prizes donated by local merchants: rounds of golf at Grandote Golf and Country Club, meals at valley restaurants, and nights in local lodgings. Cheryl Kence won the grand prize, a season ski pass to Cuchara Valley Resort. The whole event netted about $1,000 toward the next one.

Candy Cocco died in a car accident before the second Oktoberfest, the previous May according to the 2016 column. The first had been such a pleasure, Christofferson wrote, that others carried it on. Patricia Arnold, Dave Repola, Coral Anderson, Pat McMahon, Ed Saad and Claudia Evers formed the new committee. The second festival was dedicated to her and moved to the first Saturday in October, where it has stayed. Its profits started the Candy Cocco Scholarship Fund, meant for a La Veta High School senior “who demonstrates unusual community service and spirit.” That 1988 festival invited 35 craft and food booths and brought back Captain Cooker. It served Miller in an improved beer garden. The oompah band Das Edelweiss played for the morning crowd and joined in the dances. The day began cold and gloomy, then warmed and turned sunny. An estimated 2,500 people came, a large share of them from Pueblo.

Frost on the pavement, snow in the Biergarten

The 1990 festival, held October 6, had at least 70 game and craft booths, with the Silver Eagle band for the street dance. The first snow of the season came two days later and lasted 48 hours. The next year the town set aside two blocks of Main Street instead of one. Sixty advertised booths grew to 70 by Saturday, fifteen of them selling food: bratwurst, burgers and German pastries. That morning began in the twenties with frost on the pavement and climbed into the sixties by the time the Rock Hounds played the dance.

Some 80 vendors came in 1992. Ski passes went back into the raffle because the ski area, closed since 1989, was to reopen that winter. Peggy Kemp and David Henry joined as a third musical act in 1993. In 1994 Steve Hohn’s Boss Blues Band played the street dance. The ninth festival, in 1995, followed La Veta’s first killing frost. It had 40 booths, Herb Hicks and Friends at midday and Rough House for the dance, and its ski passes now said Ski Cuchara.

For the tenth, in 1996, Christofferson gives an estimated 3,000 people. Laurie Erwin later recalled around 5,000. Dave Repola and Paul “Snappy” Smith were masters of ceremonies, and Coral Anderson, Heather Craft, and Laurie and Mark Erwin were among the organizers. The king that year was Mayor Doug Brgoch. The day opened with patriotic music and the introduction of county veterans, many in their old uniforms. Some out-of-towners complained about the heat.

Later years added an auction where high school students sell their services and a sweepstakes winner who takes every prize left unclaimed. The free ski pass ended after 1999. The beer garden grew, and law-enforcement officers took over the gate. The county classic car show arrived and spread from one block to two.

Erwin said the biggest money-making year was the one it snowed, remembered as OktoBURRfest. Heaters were brought into the Biergarten, people stayed because it was too cold to leave, and the tip jar filled. Christofferson tells it as the OktoBRRfest, with La Vetans drinking beer and wine in parkas and gloves.

The only cancellation came in 2020, because of COVID-19. On the traditional first Saturday, October 3, the Spanish Peaks Half Marathon ran without it. Of the festival’s draw, Christofferson wrote in 2017: “you don’t have to be German, you just have to be present.”