The Chocolate Festival officially comes to Boulder County for the first time this year.
In 2007 Dana Cain, founder of the Chocolate Festival in Colorado, watched the Travel Channel when she saw chocolate festivals in California and Canada. This lit a fire in her, and inspired to start her own Chocolate Festival in Colorado.
The first Chocolate Festival was in 2008 at the Denver Merchandise Mart. However, Cain wanted to expand the festival into other cities.
“Then after that, they became so popular. I just started thinking maybe I should do them in different places. One thing led to another, and now I am all over the place,” Cain said.
Cain has longed to bring her Chocolate Festival to Boulder County, but she couldn’t find a venue with availability. This year, all the pieces came together when she found an opening at the Boulder County Fairgrounds.
Cain explained that while each Chocolate Festival tends to follow a similar format, she tries to give each festival its own special personality. The Chocolate Festival at the Boulder County Fairgrounds has a summer theme.
“We’ve got a whole mini carnival, we’ve got an ice cream social, we’ve got truffles and I have been ordering a bunch that have fruit stuff, I think it's gonna be good,” Cain said.
At the Boulder County Chocolate Festival, Cain is bringing back the Carnaval du Chocolat, which she has not had at any of her festivals since 2009.
The Carnaval du Chocolat includes bouncy houses, mechanical surfing and games, the prizes for winning said games will — of course — be chocolate.
“So the first time we did it, it didn’t work. There weren’t many kids there, and people would rather be tasting. Now that it is included in admission, and kids under 12 get in free, I have seen some people buying tickets,” Cain said.
Cain hopes that the Chocolate Festival will provide people with a fun carefree afternoon where they can leave the outside world for a couple of hours.
“I want everybody to have a good day, people need a fun day. Heaven forbid you should turn on the news, this will get them away from CNN,” Cain said.
Cain believes that chocolate is the great unifier and is a great way to bring the community together.
“I just want to give people a reason to come together and be happy. Also, to remind them that the world can be this wonderful, fun place where we can all congregate and agree that chocolate is awesome,” Cain said.
