Collaboration Fest, Denver's Best Craft Beer Festival

Collaboration Fest comes to Denver for the sixth time in March 2019 photo by Jerome Shaw 

Are you looking for one of the best beer festivals in the country?  Look in Denver on March 16th from 3-6pm at the downtown Hyatt Regency. Collaboration Fest will be back for its sixth year pouring 100 beers brewed from collaborations between 200 breweries.

Cheers to Collaboration Fest - the can't miss beer festival of the year   photo by Jerome Shaw 

Collaboration Fest is an intimate craft beer experience much more approachable than larger beer festivals like the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) or even Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival (BBBBF.) But just like BBBBF there are some incredible big chewy beers for you to sample.  If you love Imperial Stouts, Double IPAs and beers that run over 10%ABV you’ll love Collaboration Fest.  The tickets https://www.collaborationfest.com/2019-ticketing are priced at $65 for the Collaborator Ticket and $85 for the Connoisseur Ticket (early access at 2 PM)

Collaboration Fest at the Downtown Denver Hyatt Regency  photo by Jerome Shaw

This festival is a chance to expanse your style-education and pushes the boundaries of what you regularly drink.  You’ll find beers that defy classification and beers that expand the definition of beer.  There are also beers that bring together two breweries and two beer styles along with what seem to be familiar beers but they often have a bit of a twist.

The brewers from CO-Brew are just one of 200 brewers to participate in Collaboration Fest    photo by Jerome Shaw 

If you make only one beer festival this year make it the Collaboration Fest!

Collaboration Fest is a chance to try new beers - this is a Grapefruit Gose   photo by Jerome Shaw 

Here are a few of the collaborations and beers that will be presented:

Something Brewery & Colorado Plus Brew Pub   Avocado Beer

Little Machine Beer & Joyride Brewing Company  Peanut Butter Jelly (Blend) Concept

4 Hands Brewery & Left Hand Brewing Company  Barrel-Aged Imperial Milk Stout with Boysenberry

Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery & 105 West Brewing Company  Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Ice Cream Old Ale

14er Brewing Company & Eddyline Brewery  Hazy IPA

Odell Brewing - RiNo Brewhouse & Brewability Lab  Mango Coconut Gose

Vail Brewing Company & Lone Pine Brewery  Brut IPA

Liquid Mechanics Brewing & Bottle Logic   BA Barleywine

Tivoli Brewing Company & Grist Brewing Company & Root Shoot Malting  Juicy, Hazy, Milkshake Double IPA with Guava

Crystal Springs Brewing Company & White Labs Brewing Company  Kumquat Rye Sour

Dead Hippie Brewing & Twisted Vine Brewery  Barrel-Aged Honey Ale

300 Suns Brewing & Gemini Beer Company  Imperial Brown Ale

Strange Craft Beer Company & Freetail Brewing Company  Ancho Chili, Bitter Orange, and Lemongrass IPA

Funkwerks & Reuben's Brews  Barrel-Aged Brett Saison with Cherries

Jameson & Revolution Brewing  Nitro Vanilla Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout

El Rancho Brewing Company & Barrier Brewing   Pina Colada Milkshake IPA

Dueces Wild Brewery & Brass Brewing Company & Cerberus Brewing Company  Imperial IPL

A full list of beers here.

Collaboration Fest PhotoBlog

Good food, good beer, and good friends at the Denver Collaboration Fest   photo by Jerome Shaw 

TICKET INFORMATION

COLLABORATOR TICKET - EARLY BIRD $55.00  +$6.00
LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE
- UNLIMITED BEER TASTINGS
- COMMEMORATIVE GLASS
- NEW: COMMEMORATIVE PIN

COLLABORATOR TICKET $65.00  +$7.00
- UNLIMITED BEER TASTINGS
- COMMEMORATIVE GLASS
- NEW: COMMEMORATIVE PIN

CONNOISSEUR TICKET (2PM ACCESS) - EARLY BIRD $80.00  +$8.00
LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE
- 1-HOUR EARLY ACCESS (2 PM)
- UNLIMITED BEER TASTINGS
- COMMEMORATIVE GLASS
- NEW: COMMEMORATIVE PIN
- NEW: BEANIE
- MEAL TICKET VOUCHER

CONNOISSEUR TICKET (2PM ACCESS) $85.00  +$8.00
- 1-HOUR EARLY ACCESS (2 PM)
- UNLIMITED BEER TASTINGS
- COMMEMORATIVE GLASS
- NEW: COMMEMORATIVE PIN
- NEW: BEANIE
- MEAL TICKET VOUCHER

Collaboration Fest at the Denver Hyatt Regency Hotel March 16, 2019   photo by Jerome Shaw 

Calf Fry, the 2016 Testicle Festival rides again April 28-30

Tumbleweed Dancehall and Concert Arena hosts Calf Fry aka TheTesticle Festival each spring for the last 25 years

Calf Fry, the 2016 Testicle Festival rides again April 28-30

Do you have the balls to attend this music festival?

Photo and story by Jerome Shaw

Sarah was my beertender during Calf Fry

Stillwater, Oklahoma is home to one of the more colorful music festivals in the country.  Though no longer officially called the Testicle Festival, that was the original, politically incorrect name and it is still widely known by this moniker. It is now simply called Calf Fry or more precisely Tumbleweed Calf Fry. Perhaps the festival, featuring the Red Dirt style music, which derives its name from the red colored soil of Oklahoma, simply out grew this more picturesque name. In 25 years Calf Fry has gone from modest little affair a few miles west of Stillwater to a major spring Music Festival destination with more than 30,000 in attendance for the 3-day event at the historic Tumbleweed Dance Hall and Concert Arena.

Calf Fry is more than just a music festival though.  It ramps up early at 5pm with several musicians filling the undercard. However, the opening acts have to compete with likes of goat roping, mechanical bull riding, trashcan basketball and of course fried calf balls and ice cold beer, Then there are the ever-present pretty young girls dressed in short bouncy skirts and cowboy boots or extremely short cutoff jeans and cowboy boots.

Calf fries may get top billing but Red Dirt 

Music is what draws the crowds

They've been frying calf testicles at the Calf Fry for 24 years. The calf testicle must be thinly filleted to create the correct thickness to cook properly after it is dipped in an egg batter and coated with flour admits that deep-fried calf testicles are not to every ones taste. They also serve hamburgers, hot dogs and are most well known for their BBQ brisket.

Growing up on a farm/ranch in Nebraska I was no stranger to such bucolic goings-on. I still recall my first cattle round up in Hayes Center, Nebraska. I was only about 5 years ofd but memory is burned as indelibly into memory as the Bar Lazy L brand into the calf's hindquarters. It was not castration that was so off-putting but rather the smell of burning cow hair and hide and the gory dehorning. But that is story for another time.

I tried the calf fries and found them palatable but not very flavorful. They have a pleasant texture, firm and not not too chewy. They taste mostly of batter and the oil they are cooked in. I prefer turkey fries in taste, texture and size. The places that I have turkey fries in seem to season them much more heartily than the beef fries at Calf Fry. I’d definitely recommend you give them a go when you get Stillwater and the Testicle Festival. Try them with some of the BBQ sauce and for your second course have a BBQ Brisket sandwich and wash it down with a margarita. 

The main stage during the 2015 Calf Fry Music Festival

While calf testicles have top billing in festival title I think most of locals and those that travel from the far reaches of the country to attend this festival it is the music that commands their attention.  The origins of the Red Dirt Style of music are here in Central Oklahoma, specifically a few miles west of Stillwater which is about 70 miles Northeast of Oklahoma City, which is smack in the middle of the main body of Oklahoma. The geographic center of the Red Dirt movement is “The Farm”  the former home of Bob Childers, the grandfather of the Red Dirt movement. I was fortunate enough to get a personal tour of “The Farm” courtesy of Monica Taylor herself a Red Dirt devotee. We took a windy road outside of Stillwater and then turned onto a narrow dirt road though not noticeably red. Red Dirt music grew into a genre from a specific place and this was that place. It was like visiting Haight Ashbury or Liverpool.  An old two-story, five-bedroom house became know as ”The Farm" and was where this music movement began and flourish for over two decades.

A good time was had by all at Calf Fry 

aka The Testicle Festival

The house burned down in 2003 but the old weathered garage that was known as the Gypsy Cafe still stands resolutely marking this this place in music history.  Monica gave us an impromptu acoustic concert of her recent songs and some from the old days too. She first came here in ???? as a 18 year old hoping to make her way on the music scene. “The Farm” was an inclusive crash pad for wannabe musicians and welcomed her.  She shared many personal stories about her memories of the musicians that passed through here. It was a unique time and place in annals of Stillwater and Red Dirt music history.

But now it was time to head for Calf Fry and get the party started with Casey Donahew Band, Aaron Watson, The Dirty River Boys, Chance Anderson, The Hideouts, and Lower 40. After a few fried testicles, a bit of BBQ, a few tallboy beers and a couple of pathetic attempts at goat roping the sun set and the music began. 

Jerome was a guest of the Stillwater Convention and Visitor’s Bureau during his culinary and music adventures in Oklahoma.

At sunset the party is just getting started at The Testicle Festival

If You Go Section:

Calf Fry 2016 is Thursday, April 28 through Saturday, April 30

Tickets can be purchased online at http://tumbleweedok.com/ 

The annual Tumbleweed Calf Fry, or "Testicle Festival," features a calf fry and live Red Dirt country music.  This unique outdoor music venue is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2016. 

Cutoff jeans & short flouncy skirts are most
common attire for young women at Calf Fry

Calf Fry is for adults 18 years of age and older.

The Tumbleweed Dance Hall is recognized by County Music Weekly as one of the Top 10 Most Historic Country Music Sites in the United States. The 2016 edition of Calf Fry will celebrate 25 years of turning bulls into steers. 

Last year, the event dished up a record 3,000-plus pounds of calf fries to more than 30,000 attendees, and the it was recently estival’s culinary aspect was even featured on the Travel Channel.

Taking in the music at Calf Fry

Get up close and personal with a VIP pass or party like a rockstar or rather a “countrymusicstar” and rent a 10 foot by 10 foot bullpen or party pen for yourself and your friends. You can stretch a day trip into a week-end getaway, by reserving an RV parking spot or bring camping equipment and stay in one of the 30 campsites available - reservations recommended.

Cowboy a Calf Fry aka The Testicle Festival

The King of the Incas. Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru

The King of the Incas is borne on his throne as part of Inti Raymi . the Festival of the Sun celebration at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru.  Photo by Jerome Shaw 

The King of the Incas. “Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru”

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru. 

 

The celebration of Inti Raymi (The Festival of the Sun) is a grand theatrical pageant set against the back drop of the ruins at Sacsayhuamán on a hill just outside of Cusco, Peru. The dramatic recreation of the original Incan festival that celebrates the return of the sun takes place on June 24th each year, a few days after the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice. Exactly why it takes place on the 24th rather than on the day of winter solstice is a matter of conjecture.  My opinion is that this was the date on which the ancient Incan “astronomers” could perceptibly detect the lengthening of the days thus could assure the populace that the sun had in fact consented return for another year.

In the photograph above the Ruler of the Incas is transported upon his throne by his subjects during the processional of Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuamán. People line the walls created by the incomprehensibly large stones. These walls were created by the workmen of the lower classes of Incan Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries. Each village or region was required to contribute manpower for the public works projects of the Inca Empire. This where the huge amount of manpower needed to move these massive stones, that were quarried at the river's edge and moved miles up hill to the stronghold of Sacsayhuamán, was derived. Since the empire of the Incas was comprised of several ethnic identities, each with a different language or dialect, the members of each region were organized into distinct work regimens that were assigned specific tasks. The entire project was overseen by a Incan architect with one region's work detail quarrying the stone, another providing the manpower to drag the stone up earthen ramps with huge ropes to the construction site and yet another gang of workers being entrusted with building the log structure that was used to lower the gargantuan stones into place on the wall. Yet another set of workers might well have been employed to do the final minute adjustment so that the stones fit together so perfectly that even centuries later and after dozens of earthquakes there is not room for a sheet of paper to fit in these precision stone seams.

The stone walls of Sacsayhuamán are the work of many ethic groups brought together under the auspices of the Incan Empire in the 14th & 15th centuries.  The massive sones that from these walls were hauled miles uphill from the river's edge where they were quarried and fitted perfectly into place with seams so tight they have withstood centuries.  Photo via Wikimedia

The Incan name for their empire was Tawantinsuyu, or ”four parts together." In Quechua, the word Tawantin indicates a group of four things. (tawa = four) The suffix -ntin indicates a group and Suyu means region or province.  Tawantinsuyu roughly translates as "The four lands together."  At the height of its power Tawantinsuyu stretched some 2500 miles from the Southwestern tip of present-day Columbia through Ecuador and Peru down the West Coast of South America encompassing Western Bolivia and the Northern reaches of present-day Argentina and Chile. The height of the Incan empire was relatively short-lived covering only about 100-150 years.  The consolidation of small regional governments likely began in the 12th century but since the Incas had no written language it is difficult to know with precision when the Incan Empire began. But thanks to the Spanish Conquistadors ruthlessness and well-kept records it is certain when the Incan empire came to an end. Túpac Amaru, the last Incan King, was executed in 1572.

Map of the Incan Empire at its 

zenith before the Spanish Conquest 

in the 16th Century. Via Wikimedia

Francisco Pizarro first entered the region of the Inca in 1526 and in less than 50 years he and the Spanish Conquistadors that followed him had decimated government structure that built paved roads across the empire, some up to 24 feet wide. The Inca had unified regional municipalities that spoke dozens of languages and stretched along almost the entire length of the West Coast of South America. The Inca had created monumental architecture that would be difficult to recreate today, ever with modern technology,  The political structure of the Inca gave women equal if not preferential status in the political process but this same ruling class also sacrificed hundreds of children upon the death of an Incan ruler. For all the their many accomplishments the Inca could not withstand the onslaught of disease and the treachery of a small band of Spanish Conquistadores. Their defeat was relatively swift and the incredible gold and silver wealth of the Incan Empire was larcenously and systematically transferred to the Spanish Crown with “bits and pieces” of it falling into the pockets of the conquistadors themselves.

An Incan Princess holds an offering to sun god

Inti, Inti Raymi Celebration at  Sacsayhuamán

in Cusco, Peru. Photograph by Jerome Shaw 

Prior to the Spanish invasion, Inti Raymi was the most important of four ceremonies celebrated in Cusco. The celebrations took place in the Haukaypata or the main plaza in the city. Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun) was a religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honor of the god Inti, one of the most venerated gods in Inca religion. It was in fact the celebration of the Winter Solstice - the day with the least amount of daylight of any day of the year. The last Inti Raymi with the Inca Emperor present was carried out in 1535.


The modern day recreation of the Inti Raymi Festival has been held at Sacsayhuamán since 1944  This first recreation of Inti Raymi was directed by Faustino Espinoza Navarro with indigenous people portraying the Inca and was largely based on the chronicles of Spaniard Garcilaso de la Vega.

Sacsayhuamán is not the only place to experience Inti Raymi. The festival is still celebrated in indigenous cultures throughout the Andes. The celebrations involve music, colorful costumes, notably the woven aya huma mask, and the sharing of food.

More post on Peru here on Travel Boldly

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After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel. 

The King of the Incas. Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru

Peru: Machu Picchu, Iquitos and the Amazon River. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Peru: Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Inca Princess - Cusco, Peru  

Trekking Andes Mountains - Urubamba River Valley, Peru 

Me and My Llama - Peru 

Happy Guy - Wedding Guest in Urubamaba, Peru  

Trekking to Machu Picchu - Peru 

Inti Raymi Fireworks Celebration - Urabamba, Peru These images are copyrighted and may not be used, re-posted or reproduced without direct written permission. You may however, share these images on Pinterest and Twitter.  For usage information please contact Jerome on Twitter or Facebook and Google+

This post is part of the Travel Photo Discovery link share. Stop by and see my fellow bloggers posts.

Inca Princess - Cusco, Peru

"Inca Princess" Cusco, Peru

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru. 

The Inti Raymi Celebration at Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, Peru

As the Winter solstice comes to the southern hemisphere the people in Cusco recreate the grand Incan festival of Inti Raymi. The Incas worshipped the return of the sun and the beginning of the lengthening of daylight. This young woman is one of many that make a ceremonial offering to the gods to bring back the sun.

These images are copyrighted and may not be used, re-posted or reproduced without direct written permission. For usage information please contact me. @JeromeShaw on Twitter

Contact me at @JeromeShaw  or Facebook

More post on Peru here on Travel Boldly

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru

After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel. 

The King of the Incas. Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru

Peru: Machu Picchu, Iquitos and the Amazon River. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Peru: Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Inca Princess - Cusco, Peru  

Trekking Andes Mountains - Urubamba River Valley, Peru 

Me and My Llama - Peru 

Happy Guy - Wedding Guest in Urubamaba, Peru  

Trekking to Machu Picchu - Peru 

Inti Raymi Fireworks Celebration - Urabamba, Peru 

copyright Jerome Shaw 1984 / www.jeromeshaw.com


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