Celebrate Colorado wine and chiles, Brazilian dance and international movies

By Steve Graham

Get Out of Town is our weekly roundup of recommended events across Colorado, mostly focusing outside of Denver, to help everyone enjoy the entire state. For more happenings, check out our events calendar.

Colorado Mountain Winefest

Colorado Wine Week is happening now (click here for the event schedule), and culminates with the Colorado Mountain Winefest Saturday in Palisade. It is the largest wine festival in Colorado, and USA Today called it the best wine festival in the nation.

From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., attendees can enjoy unlimited sips from dozens of wineries, as well as live music, chef demonstrations, educational seminars and grape stomping.

Pueblo Chile Festival

Palisade peaches and Rocky Ford melons may be past their peak, but Pueblo chiles are still going strong. One of Pueblo’s biggest annual events is the Chile and Frijoles Festival, which celebrates chile farms and other local agriculture with a chili and salsa showdown, jalapeno eating contest, farmer’s market and chile roasting.

The festival also includes live music, parades, hot air balloons, magic shows, kids’ activities and more.

Breck Film Festival

Colorado’s movie festival season continues this weekend with the Breck Film Fest Thursday to Sunday. After an opening night film and party on Thursday, five venues around Breckenridge host movies, panel discussions and parties through the weekend. The lineup includes juried short films made by high schoolers around the country, several environmental documentaries and acclaimed films by and about indigenous Americans.

Southwest Fresh Fest

It is also still beer festival season (actually it’s always beer festival season in Colorado). This week, we picked a festival where you can see, taste and smell the fresh hops that make beer bitter and delicious.

The third annual Southwest Fresh Fest is on Saturday at Billy Goat Hop Farm in Montrose. Breweries all over Colorado bring their best fresh hop beers for sampling. The event also includes live music, food trucks, guided tours of the hop farm, games and more.

Colorado Brazil Fest

The largest Brazilian festival in Colorado comes to Boulder Thursday through Sunday. The event opens with Brazilian Jazz Night at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Roots Music Project (click here for our story about the Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra and more details on the concert).

The festival continues with a free samba show Friday evening on the Pearl Street Mall, and a Choro & Forró Dance Night at Full Cycle Cafe. Saturday brings a samba and carnival show to Wibby Brewing in Longmont. Finally, on Sunday afternoon, Lorin Hansen offers samba workshops.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar. And enjoy your Colorado craft libations responsibly.