PALISADE, Colorado (KKCO) – The 56th annual Palisade Peach Festival was interrupted by a power outage shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 17.
The power outage affected more than 2,000 Palisade residents, including Talbott Farm, one of the city’s main producers.
The outage affected the farm’s electronics, personnel and refrigerators, which can be critical to food safety.
“If refrigeration is lost for an extended period of time, there is a risk that this will have serious economic consequences and we will lose marketable fruit,” said Charlie Talbott, partner at Talbott Farms.
The power outage also reached the festival grounds in Riverbend Park. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the organizers to get the problem under control.
“We’ve been planning for every possible scenario and that came in very handy today,” said Jessica Burford, president of the Palisade Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve been working very closely with the City of Palisade and Xcel Energy to get this back up and running as quickly as possible.”
The power was turned back on around 3:30 p.m.
The festival still attracted a tremendous number of visitors from Mesa County and beyond. Burford says more than 10,000 people visited the park during the festival, with over 300 volunteers bringing it all together.
“We’ve seen a lot of love for the Peach Festival over the last few years since COVID, so our numbers have continued to grow,” Burford said.
After another successful year, Burford and the rest of the Palisade Chamber of Commerce have already begun planning for next year’s festival with a big goal in mind.
“I hope we can continue to enjoy this global and national recognition and welcome visitors from across the country and the world to sample the best peaches in the world,” Burford said.
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