Pueblo Chile: The Fault in Farm to Festival
The Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival was created to help Pueblo Chile growers, so why are growers like Vigil Farms purposefully excluded from the festival?
By Kara Mason
This year the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce reported nearly 130,000 people flocked to the Chile & Frijoles Festival in downtown Pueblo that celebrates the county’s specialty crop, Mira Sol Chile. But less than half of Pueblo’s chile growers are allowed to roast at the festival, leaving mixed reviews of the event among the farmers.
“Everybody asks why we’re not in the chile festival,” Stephanie Vigil daughter-in-law of Vigil Farms owner Praxie Vigil, located on the St. Charles Mesa in Pueblo, said in an interview shortly after the three-day festival in September.
The chamber, which hosts the annual event, only allows six Pueblo Chile roasters into the event, but not all of the roasters are growers, though they might have been at one time.
“The six were grandfathered into the festival,” Rod Slyhoff, Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce President said.
The first Chile & Frijoles Festival featured one roaster, and when Slyhoff approached Pueblo chile growers in 1995 for the second year of the festival he made a deal with six farms that if they made a commitment to roast at the second event, they could return each year until they decided they didn’t want to anymore.
Now the festival rules and regulations reflect that deal to some degree, saying the chamber of commerce has the“right to limit the number of vendors selling specific products or services based on the date the application is received,” but Vigil said the regulations, which don’t specifically point out chile roasters, seem unfair.
Two of the farms no longer grow Pueblo Chile — though they do buy wholesale from other Pueblo Chile growers. All of the chile roasted at the festival is certified Pueblo Chile, Slyhoff said.
The chamber’s guidelines go on to say, “exclusive products are available with sponsorship,” and “the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce reserves the right to deny exclusivity.”
Although the chile grower exclusivity isn’t new, Vigil said she went to Slyhoff and the chamber — which isn’t an agency of the city but does receive some city funding — this year with questions of the regulations after the Pueblo Fire Department questioned whether Vigil Farms was violating city ordinance by not having a proper permit for operating their chile roaster at the El Pueblo Museum’s Saturday farmers market, which happened to coincide with the chile festival, but wasn’t technically part of the official event despite being within the boundaries of the chile festival.
The Monday following the festival Vigil said she met with Slyhoff and the conversation quickly turned to the number of chile growers allowed in the festival. Vigil said she was told because of how the city’s drainage system can only handle six roasters — though that wasn’t a given reason for the permit incident, and Vigil Farms was able to continue roasting in the museum’s parking lot.
Slyhoff confirmed to PULP that even if he hadn’t made a deal with the six roasters in the festival’s early days, in the last decade the City of Pueblo has become more vigilant about enforcing city stormwater regulations.
“We don’t have any other place that meets regulation,” Slyhoff said.
Vigil’s objection of the festival regulations isn’t isolated. Slyhoff told PULP the chamber has been threatened with lawsuits “and even worse, which I won’t mention here” in the past.
But the chamber also works to promote the entire Pueblo Chile industry, Slyhoff said.
“We’re pretty dedicated to growing the chile brand,” he said.
During the festival, Slyhoff said the chamber suggests people travel out to the farm stands along Highway 50 to get roasted peppers and other produce. At this year’s festival Slyhoff said there were televisions in tents highlighting the markets.
But Vigil Farms doesn’t have a farmstand on Highway 50, but rather 15 different stands between Raton and Denver.
Even without being in the festival, some growers say the event drives a lot of traffic to their farms.
Dominic DiSanti, of DiSanti Farms, said the chile festival weekend was undoubtedly the busiest weekend for the farm.
“We’re a great example of being successful and not being in (the chile festival)”, DiSanti said.
The majority of Pueblo Chile farmers aren’t a part of the chile festival. The recently-established Pueblo Chile Growers Association, which DiSanti is a part of as a grower, represents around 20 growers and a couple of other non-grower members. The chamber is a non-grower member of the association.
DiSanti said the association as a whole doesn’t hear a lot of pushback about the chile festival exclusivity.
“Everybody seems pretty happy with it,” he said.
But Vigil, whose family grows 250 acres of chile, said she would at least like to see chile growers, who still grow chile, be allowed to participate in the festival.
“I want Pueblo to know why (they) are supporting just those six (farms). It’s not because we don’t want to be in the chile fest. We literally can’t,” Vigil said. “It’s not about the money. If it was, I’d be willing to write the check. But we weren’t even given the opportunity.”
Praxie Vigil, who has been farming the land for over 50 years, said he has asked about being in the festival previously, but was never offered the chance, though at one point it was communicated to him that Vigil Farms was next in line if a farm dropped out of the festival.
Vigil Farms is also a member of the Pueblo Chile Growers Association, which has taken on a chamber of commerce employee as its executive director.
Donielle Gonzales, director of tourism at the chamber, acts as the executive director of the association. The role is “one of the many hats” Gonzales wears, Slyhoff said.
In a phone interview with PULP, Gonzales didn’t disclose she was the executive director for the association, but said she was just helping with some administration duties for the chile growers associations.
“It wasn’t a hard decision to take on the association and help them out,” Gonzales said.
Currently the association is finishing up the process to trademark Pueblo Chile, gathering signatures for a Pueblo Chile license plate and Gonzales added that she is helping manage other marketing tasks, such as billboard campaigns.
The chamber is now invested in both the success of the chile festival, a big money-maker for the organization, and has a hand in the success of the chile growers association. Slyhoff and Gonzales said being involved in each requires a certain amount of balance.
When asked how the chamber approaches taking on both, Slyhoff said “Being honest is all that I can do. I don’t have any other way of doing it.”
If the chile association ever decided it wanted more inclusiveness at the chile festival, Slyhoff said he’s not sure if he would be open to the change.
“Look, I have six of about 15 farmers, I’m sure filling the spots wouldn’t be a problem,” Slyhoff said.
“There’s 362 other days in the year,” he added, downplaying the three-day event’s impact on a grander scale.
