The festival, which has showcased Colorado culinary culture since 1983, was canceled in 2020 due to Covid, before relocating to downtown in 2021. Last summer, the festival was incorporated into !Viva¡ Streets. The merger meant Taste of Colorado was drastically scaled back and broken up across four weeks. With the new structure, only 40,000 attendees turned out. As Reddit user heady_murphy summed it up, “more like waste of Colorado.”
In past years, the festival drew crowds of 500,000 over Labor Day weekend, and Colorado residents could stroll through a block party that shut down parts of Denver with booths from local restaurants, dance performances, magic, comedy, crafts and music. The festival pulled artists like Sugar Ray, KC and the Sunshine Band, Smash Mouth, and Kool and the Gang.
¡Viva! Streets was also canceled in 2024 and hopes to return in 2025, according to The Denver Post.
