The everything-weekend: the Douglas County Fair runs its final and best stretch, Colorado turns 150 on Saturday and Castle Rock is throwing the party, and the Renaissance Festival takes its bow after seven weekends. Weather splits the difference: low 90s with afternoon storm chances Thursday and Friday, a clear 93 Saturday, and then Sunday hits 100, which reshapes the plan below. Six picks for the biggest weekend left in the summer.
1. The fair's big finish
This is the weekend the fair was built for. PRCA rodeo Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. (about $44, and remember the trick from our guide: rodeo tickets include grounds admission). Friday is Patriot Night with free tickets for military and veterans, and the Junior Livestock Sale at 6:30, where local businesses bid real money on 4-H steers. Saturday adds the Barn Dance at 9 p.m. in the Indoor Arena. Sunday closes it out: pancake breakfast 8 to 10, the Cowboys for Cops rodeo matinee at 1 ($33, free for first responders), and the barns close at 3. One heat note for Sunday: 100 degrees at a 1 p.m. outdoor rodeo is serious. Shade, water, and sunscreen are not suggestions.
2. Saturday: Colorado's 150th birthday, downtown Castle Rock
August 1 is Colorado Day, the state's sesquicentennial, and Castle Rock booked it properly: the Colorado Day Festival runs from 10 a.m. downtown, and then Fitz and The Tantrums play the amphitheater at 6, the biggest act of the summer series. If you have been rationing your one big Saturday of the summer, this is the one. Get to the lawn early; this will not be a quiet show.
Colorado Day Festival
Summer Concert Series Colorado Day show — Fitz and The Tantrums with special guests Sun Room
3. Saturday, 4 p.m.: Barks & Brews
Between festival and concert, Castle Rock runs a dog-and-beer hour at 4. It is exactly what it sounds like, it is the correct bridge between the day's two anchor events, and your dog has earned it. Water bowls provided; shade less guaranteed.
4. The Renaissance Festival's last weekend
Seven weekends, and this is the end: the festival closes Sunday, August 2, and does not come back until next June. Given the forecast, the answer is Saturday, at the 10 a.m. gate, in the shaded lanes. Sunday at 100 degrees in a leather doublet is how legends of poor judgment are born. Huzzah accordingly.
5. Sunday: the surrender plan
One hundred degrees is not a day, it is a warning. The correct Sunday: farmers market at 9 before the pavement melts, the fair's pancake breakfast if you are closing the season properly, and then air conditioning with conviction. Sandbox VR, The Escape Game, a matinee at the new Emagine in Parker, anything with a thermostat. The county will still be here Monday, at a very reasonable 90.
And one we still wouldn't do
Any trail after 10 a.m. Sunday, and it should go without saying by now, but Stage 2 fire restrictions remain in effect countywide: no fires, no fireworks, gas grills only. A 100-degree Sunday at the end of a dry July is exactly the day the restrictions were written for.
We'll see you out there. If we missed something that belongs in next week's drop, the address is on the About page.