January isn’t known as one of the biggest festival months — Colorado’s winter season makes sure of that. But Lafayette defies expectations with its annual Oatmeal Festival, a celebration of all things oat-breakfast based, courtesy of Quaker Oats.
“Who else has an oatmeal festival in the country?” said Pat Vero, director of events and marketing, for the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. “The event is so unique because you’ll come in and get your bowl, then you fill it up with oatmeal and then you get to go through the toppings line, where we have more than 100 toppings from which to choose.”
More than 200 gallons of oatmeal, 115 muffins and 4,000 pancakes are prepared for the buffet breakfast that the 2,000 guests can enjoy.
The festival begins with breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to noon, where attendees can create their own signature mix of oatmeal at the toppings bar, which includes everything from gummy bears to jalapenos.
“It’s just quirky enough, and it happens at the beginning of the year where everybody has a New Year’s resolution that they have to get fit. So having a heart-healthy breakfast of oatmeal and some good toppings and having 5K, you know, it just works,” said Vicki Trumbo, director of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.
In the midst of the meal, the 5K will begin across from Pioneer Elementary School, where the breakfast is held. Leashed dogs, strollers and walkers are welcome, as well as runners, of course, to take on the course before carb-loading.
There also will be a Vitalant (formerly Bonfils Blood Center) blood drive and a free shuttle to take visitors to and from the festivities. Additionally, when someone donates a pint of blood this month, they will be given a voucher for a complementary pint of beer or soda at Rock Bottom Brewery, Old Chicago, or Gordon Biersch.
“I also want to do a little shout out to our volunteers that we get,” Vero said, noting that more than 100 volunteers help with breakfast — from Peak to Peak honor society and various sports organizations — as well as more than 75 volunteers who to help organize the race. “We could not put on this event without these volunteers.”
The festival began in 1996 when the downtown merchants of Lafayette were feeling the absence of the holiday season in January, and looking for a creative way to bolster their profits. After a little research, they discovered that January is National Oatmeal Month, and were inspired to create a breakfast festival. The first year they were on their own, and the second they reached out to Quaker for a sponsorship.
“We had an oatmeal-baking contest, and we had oatmeal breakfast,” Trumbo said. “I think we served 200 people and after the first year, we went ‘OK, that was all right.’ So then the next year, same meeting, and one of the people in the downtown group said, ‘I wonder if Quaker might be interested in being a sponsor.’ So they actually called the 800 number on a canister of oatmeal, and kept calling until they got somebody at Quaker.”
Going forward, Lafayette helped with the brand’s Heart Smart branding, showing that participating members of its community had lowered cholesterol by including oatmeal in their diet, and today, Lafayette’s event is Quaker’s only officially-sanctioned oatmeal festival and remains one of the largest in the nation. In September 2018, the festival was almost lost after Quaker pulled funding, but negotiations returned its support by October of the same year, allowing it to continue to today.
“I love to watch and see when the patrons come out, and what kind of toppings they put on their oatmeal. It’s really fun to watch, get to do a little bit of people watching maybe discover something you wouldn’t normally do,” Vero said.
For Vero, she is excited each year to see the reactions of those who attend the festival, create their own unique recipe from the more than 100 toppings, and leave with their own canister of the signature oats. They can also enter to win several wellness packages, designed to continue the feeling of health Quaker strives to provide.
“We’ve always had an incredible turnout to the event,” Vero said. “I believe only one other oatmeal festival in the country, that I think is done in Texas, and we are the only one that is sponsored by Quaker.”
For those with a more creative bent, they can use the festival as a testing space to create a new recipe, which they can submit at cookwithquaker.com through March 31 for the chance to win $500 and a spot in the company’s new cookbook.
But no matter what visitors take from the festival, it aims to bring a fun day to Lafayette for the whole family to enjoy after the holiday season.
“I think Lafayette is the kind of community where we do some fun things and we do some cool community things, and this is the one that starts the year off, and it’s different than anything else anybody does,” Trumbo said.
If you go:
What: Lafayette’s 24th Annual Oatmeal Festival
Where: Breakfast and Blood Drive at Pioneer Elementary, Ninja Course at Bob L. Burger Recreation Center, 5K Walk/Run at Colorado Music Festival and Center for Musical Arts
When: 7:30 a.m. Saturday
Cost: Breakfast is $8 for adults, $6 for youth and seniors. The race (includes breakfast ticket) ticket prices range from $20-$35
More info: lafayettecolorado.com
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Pull up a spoon for Lafayette’s 24th Annual Oatmeal Festival - The Daily Camera
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