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.

Stephanie Vigil says her family’s chile growing operation is excluded from the Pueblo Chile and Frijole Festival beause the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce which runs the festival won’t allow more growers to participate.

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.