"We'll continue that if it's on one block or if it's in somebody's garage," Renee Nelson told the Arvada Press this summer. Nelson is vice president of the Arvada Junior Chamber Foundation, better known as the Jaycees, the group that runs the Arvada Harvest Festival. She meant it literally. The 101st festival was planned for Sept. 11 to 13 at Arvada Jaycees Hall, 5640 Yukon Street. It was built around a food drive, chicken events, and a traditional harvest fair. In place of the parade there would be a "community cruise-by," where kids and adults decorate bikes, trikes, and scooters and ride past the hall for prizes.
A year after thousands of people turned out for the festival's centennial, Arvada's biggest fall tradition was planned at the scale of a single building. The rest of the season has moved outward. A community garden on West 57th Avenue, a trail underpass near Long Lake Regional Park, a ramen counter on Sheridan Boulevard, and a 50-year-old arts center on Wadsworth now carry the calendar. Each one runs on its own budget, and that budget question is where the shift started.
What the city's letter actually asked for
On March 4, 2026, Arvada City Manager Don Wick wrote to the Harvest Festival organizers that the city would not approve 2026 permits or provide its usual in-kind event services. He also said Olde Town could not accommodate the festival in its current structure. The letter called the "$40,000 in-kind costs" the city had been covering a "disproportionate and unsustainable" level of sponsorship.
The conditions for future years are specific. At a minimum, the city wants:
- a qualified professional event organizer
- full financial responsibility on the organizers' side
- a finalized permit at least eight weeks before the event
- mandatory planning meetings and one accountable event lead
- compliance with safety and access requirements
- consideration of a location other than Olde Town
- a decision on whether to drop the parade or permit it separately
The city said it would consider a restructured, self-funded, professionally managed festival for 2027 and later. It did not promise approval.
The Jaycees say they hope to find a new venue for 2027 with room for the full carnival, the animals, and a multiday layout. No venue has been announced. The two sides also describe the talks differently. Nelson told the Arvada Press that the city and the Olde Town Business Improvement District had offered to take the festival over, and that the Jaycees kept ownership to protect its continuity. City communications director Rachael Kuroiwa told Denver7 in August that a city takeover had not been part of the discussions.
The Olde Town BID also held its own date that weekend. The free Olde Town Shindig was scheduled for Sept. 12, noon to 8 p.m., with music, artisan vendors, food trucks, and family activities. The Arvada Press described it as a separate BID event, not a replacement for the Harvest Festival.
The same weekend, 303 Ramen reopened on Sheridan
The Harvest Festival weekend also brought back one of the year's most-missed Yukon Street businesses. 303 Ramen had been at 5725 Yukon Street since 2017, until a fire on March 3 damaged the building. Firefighters found asbestos during remediation, and the property owner listed the building for sale. On Sept. 11, owner Natenapa Bunkrong opened a new location at 8025 Sheridan Boulevard in northeast Arvada, less than five miles from the old one.
Bunkrong told the Arvada Press that the menu will change somewhat, but that many longtime favorites will stay, and the focus will remain on ramen and Japanese food. The dishes regulars mention most often are the panang curry ramen, shio ramen, duck cheese wontons, and Thai iced tea. The restaurant is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with updated hours posted on its Facebook page.
October, date by date
With no Harvest Festival anchoring the season in Olde Town, Arvada's October is a series of smaller dates across the city:
- Oct. 8: Murder at the Moulin Rouge at the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd.
- Oct. 9: A free Movies Around Town screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas at Clear Creek Valley Park, 3700 W. 58th Place. Live music starts at 6:15 p.m. and the film at about 7:30.
- Oct. 10: The Arvada Gardeners' 4th Annual Pumpkin Festival, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Arvada Community Garden, 9195 W. 57th Avenue. The Arvada Center hosts a Rigsby Revisited Walk + Talk the same day.
- Oct. 17: The Three Tenors: Trane, Rollins, and Getz at the Arvada Center.
- Oct. 22: An evening with Sora Vigorito at the Arvada Center.
- Oct. 24: Unsettling Tales of Edgar Allan Poe at the Arvada Center.
- Oct. 31: Halloween Drag Queen Storytime at the Arvada Center. It is also the deadline for a new mural on the Ralston Creek Trail, covered below.
The Pumpkin Festival shows what the new model looks like up close. The day includes garden tours, kids' games and crafts, hot cider, a giant pumpkin and flower raffle, and about 15 local artists and vendors selling bread, jewelry, pottery, coffee, and more. The Giant Pumpkin and Giant Squash contests start at 2:30 p.m. Festival co-chair Bill Orchard told the Arvada Press that the festival is the Arvada Gardeners' only fundraiser. Outside of plot fees, it is the group's only income. "It was a rough year at the garden with the hot temperatures, ditch water rationing and both water pumps had to be replaced," Orchard said. "We are hoping to at least be able to cover the pump expenses."
That is the funding arrangement the city's letter asks of the Harvest Festival, carried out at the scale of a garden. Organizers cover their own costs, and the pumpkin patch decides whether the pumps get paid for.
The Arvada Center marks 50 years on its own calendar
The biggest fall anniversary in Arvada right now is on Wadsworth Boulevard. Two exhibitions, pARTy: Celebrating 50 Years and Rigsby Revisited: 50 Years Later, run Sept. 10 through Nov. 8 at the Arvada Center. In the theater, Barefoot in the Park runs through Nov. 1. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat follows from Nov. 20 through Jan. 3, 2027, which covers the holiday stretch.
That is two months of steady programming from one institution at one address. Few other fall offerings in town have that kind of stability.
A mural on the Ralston Creek Trail, finished by Halloween
Much of the city's own fall spending is going to smaller, scattered projects. At the 66th Avenue underpass of the Ralston Creek Trail, near Long Lake Regional Park, Broomfield-based artist Adden Joule is painting "Veins of Gold." The mural will cover the north and south walls and the interior of the underpass. The Arvada Arts and Culture Commission chose him from four finalists in late August. He has been working from sunrise to midday every day to meet an Oct. 31 deadline.
The design follows the tunnel's location. A mountain scene with a blooming flower covers the west wall. A prairie sunrise and a prickly pear bloom cover the east. Joule sized every element large so cyclists can take it in while riding through, since he notes that bikes make up most of the traffic in the tunnel. Adelle Burton, the city's Special Events and Public Arts Manager, put the project in terms of a citywide goal: "bringing art within a 10-minute walk of every Arvada resident."
A 10-minute-walk standard is the opposite of the one-big-weekend model. It spreads the city's investment across neighborhoods rather than concentrating it on Olde Town for three days.
Gold Strike Park begins a two-year rebuild
The longest-running project on the fall calendar started on Sept. 24. Leaders of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes led a Ground Blessing Ceremony at Gold Strike Park to mark the start of construction on a large-scale redesign, expected to be finished in fall 2028. The park, at 5500 W. 56th Ave., is known as the site of the first documented discovery of gold in Colorado, made by Lewis Ralston in 1850.
The tribes were included in the redesign process, which builds on a relationship the city began with the naming of Little Raven Park in 2023. Arvada Parks and Urban Design Manager Darin DeLay described the approach as moving past "purely aesthetic or functional approaches, and toward practices that honor layered histories rooted within the land." For people who use the park, expect construction there through two more fall seasons.
Into November
November stays spread out. Apex Park and Recreation District holds its Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Community Recreation Center, 6842 Wadsworth Blvd. The city's Leaf Recycling Drop-off Event follows on Nov. 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Stenger Sports Complex, 11200 W. 58th Avenue. The Arvada Center hosts the Rockley Instrument Sale Nov. 12 to 14 and Animal Farm, a music program for kids, on Nov. 14. In Olde Town, Silver Vines Winery at 7509 Grandview Avenue has been reported as staying open through December before closing at the end of 2026.
The festival's organizers point people to arvadaharvestfestival.org for event details. Under the city's terms, any future permit would need to be finalized at least eight weeks before the event.
Shelley Welliver follows Arvada closely, from Gold Strike Park to Sheridan Boulevard, including the corners that don't make the festival brochures. If you have questions about how the town is changing, or what these changes mean for your own plans here, schedule a free consultation and we'll talk it through together.
