Click Here for 2010 Schedule
Crestone hosts the 21st Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair Sept. 4-5
The San Luis Valley is one of Colorado's leading communities in renewable energy and local food production. We are home to commercial-scale solar farms, abundant off-grid residences and businesses, an emerging biomass project, vibrant local food systems, leading-edge solar design, and solar hot water installations. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado is fifth in the nation in its solar resource and the San Luis Valley actually is number one in Colorado.
On Labor Day weekend, September 4th and 5th, 2010, Crestone will be hosting the 21st Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair as we emPower Our Community Using Local Resources Come on down to the Little Pearl Park, between Silver & Galena Streets, and the Artisans Park for a fun-filled and educational weekend!
Saturday will provide educational resources through demonstrations and presentations covering subjects such as: Straw Bail Home Construction, Earthen Plaster & Pigments, Total Solar Home Design, Earth Bag Construction, Geo Thermal Energy in the San Luis Valley, and Building a Solar Oven.
We welcome Shumei Institute and their principles of Natural Agriculture, along with other groups and individuals sharing their sustainable solutions for living in the San Luis Valley. The Crestone Saturday Market, which has been rapidly growing in the past few years, will join the Energy Fair by sharing the fruits (no pun intended) of their food growing skills, and a plethora of amazing creations, from Organic Skin Care products and soaps, to creative arts and crafts.
A variety of adventures will occur in the Children's Area including: Solar car building and demonstrations, non-toxic face painting, didjeridoos constructed out of recycled materials, Dances of Universal Peace, and wonderful children? performances led by Sacred Breathe Lodgewith Chris and Andrea Long, doing Native American chanting and drumming.
The Laughing Buddha Lounge will host the weekends evening entertainment starting on Friday night with music by The Human Revolutionat 8:30pm with politically, socially, and ecologically inspired lyrics. Saturday evening, Planet O who rocked the Crestone Music Festival last year, will bring out their assortment of instrumentation and entertainment at 8pm. On Sunday evening our own Weeks in Fijiat 8:30pm will rock you to culminate a weekend of education, amusement and community gathering.
A diversity of music will enliven and sustain an enjoyable weekend experience during the daytime with some of our favorite local musicians such as Barry Monroe, Tedd Brumm, Tony & friends, CB Jazz, Adam del Amour and Marilyn Marzella. And on the dance stage, we will have BellySattva and Kalimera including several local teens in Tribal Style Bellydance, and Crestone Love Tribe featuring African Drum and Dance, and also Crestone Kajekenbo will be sharing their matial arts skills.
Sunday afternoon, the Energy Fair hosts the nationally-acclaimed Home Tour of the Northern Valley/Crestone area where residents and organizations open their alternatively built homes and structures to interested tourists. Three very different and exciting tours will be available, led by Paul Koppana, Paul Shippee, and Adam del Amour. These Home Tours will feature many beautiful dwellings throughout the Baca Grande subdivision, the Town of Crestone, and the Northern SLV. Some of the houses on the tour are still in various phases of construction, while others have had many years for the home-owners to perfect any challenges. While on the Home Tour, you will be guided by an instructor who is a builder and is knowledgeable in the elements of the alternative building process. Also, the home-owners will be present to help share their perspectives on how the building process went, as well as proudly emphasizing what worked for them. Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased at the Information Booth on Saturday at the Energy Fair. Enjoy a fun, inspiring, learning atmosphere to prepare yourselves for the joys of building your own sustainable home in harmony with nature. Come and partake in this wonderful opportunity with the 2010 Home Tour!
We look forward to seeing you at the 2010 San Luis Valley Energy Fair on Saturday and Sunday, September 4-5, from 9am 5pm. There is no admission charge, although donations will be gratefully accepted. For further information, please see our ad on this page, check out our website at: www.slvenergyfair.com or call 719-256-4591.
For Immediate Release - 3/17/10
RE: Request for volunteers for this years SLV Energy Fair.
The San Luis Valley Energy Fair is in its 21st year as a platform for demonstrating, educating, and celebrating sustainable solutions. The fair is one of the longest running sustainability fairs in the country As always, we are bringing top-notch presenters and demonstrators to stimulate dialogue and inspire visions of how the future of energy and sustainability is developing.
Together with wholesome food, live music, kids activities, and vendors in renewable living trades, as well as arts and crafts, this family weekend will be one not to miss. The Energy Fair will also be hosting the nationally-acclaimed Home Tour of the Northern Valley/Crestone area, where residents open their high-performance and/or alternatively built homes to tour registrants.
This Year we have found ourselves rather short of staff, and in order for the fair to be a success we need for the community to be involved. So we are asking for volunteers. We’re looking for board members and organizers, who are willing to meet a few times a month to plan and take action to make this the best energy fair ever.
If you are interested in getting evolved with this long running community project, please contact Kevin Pesenecker (719) 256-4591,
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.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Kevin Pesenecker
Project Coordinator
History of the Energy Fair – 20 years of education and fun
by Talmath Lakai
Kenny Dessain was the pioneer of the energy fair twenty years ago. He began the fair with very little publicity and was inspired by the community-based kid’s camp held at his house, “Turtle Island”. Traditionally the fair was held Labor Day Weekend and was kicked off by a parade. Electric vehicles, costumed partiers, jugglers, crazy tents and floats would march through the town in the parade. A solar powered stage in the park held musical acts as well and presenters with their demonstrations of ingenuity. The fair had presenters with simple backyard projects, like solar water pumping systems, home-made wind generators, and alternatively fueled vehicles. For example, one year had a very rustic station wagon with 2 cylinders of hydrogen in the back. The vehicle ran on hydrogen and belched water vapor from its exhaust. It was crude but functional, and a great example of what led us to the volunteer-driven, non-profit fair that we have today.
When I was 12, the fair offered me my first taste of solar power. There was a kid’s crafts project; recycling solar cells and hooking them up to and racing remote controlled cars. When Dessain moved to Mexico, Jason Jepsen of Mountain Power Design then became the director in 1996, and he held the torch to keep the fair alive. He organized 3 years of the fair, focusing on integrating more of the current, professional technologies of PV and Solar. There were great, informative book sales on alternative-powered housing during this time. “The best part of the fair was the eclectic mixing of the people who came. Some folks bartered solar panels for an electric motorcycle,” says Jepsen.
In 1999 the non-profit Peak Community Housing took charge of the fair to help bring their mission to the valley of providing alternatively built homes for low-income families. There was a series of directors beginning with me, and then Phyllis Johnson, Linda Spade, Jennifer Roberts, and Christina Cabeza all directed the energy fair until 2008, when Nick Chambers called me. The fair was about to die. So, he, Erin Lakai and I led the event as the Crestone Energy and Sustainability Fair (CEASF). Last year’s effort was to bring a wider variety of presenters, advanced technology, new discoveries in biofuels such as algae, biogas, hydrogen, and gasification, plus advances in solar thermal and PV panels, along with current issues of local food production. Our goal was to offer education and exposure to the public while providing a platform for diverse technologies to just get a chance to brainstorm. It took massive amounts of networking, outreach, and generous sponsorships to bring all the presenters to our little park. Last year was a lot of fun, and surprisingly, pretty great weather. This brings us to the pivotal 20th year of the Crestone Energy Fair. For 2009, we changed the name to the San Luis Valley Energy Fair in order to incorporate our neighbors in the Valley to join in the bounties our alpine valley provides. Plus, it’s shorter and easier on the tongue than the CEASF.
This year the fair has been moved from the Labor Day weekend to the one previous, August 28-30. For too many years, we’ve heard too many complaints of conflicts with other events, so now you can attend them all. In keeping with tradition, we’ve kept the Friday night community BBQ intact, sponsored by Curt’s Olde Country Store. Please come, eat, and join in the fellowship, and check out what great things are in store during the weekend!