Smell of roasted chiles will fill Pueblo’s streets

The smell of roasted chiles will fill the air in Pueblo beginning Friday afternoon.

Farmer Shane Milberger spent much of Thursday preparing for the annual Chile & Frijoles Festival, loading palette after palette of chiles onto a truck.

“What the festival is all about is getting Pueblo’s name out there,” Milberger said.

He began preparing for the festival in April, when the first chile seeds were planted. He’s proud to explain why Pueblo is the perfect place to grow the peppers.

“The hot summer days and the cool, summer nights pack this chile full of flavor, bodies it up and makes it thick,” said Milberger, who grows 50 acres of chile peppers — 20 percent of his crop will be sold at the festival.

“Everything is chile out there. You could find chile suckers, chile drinks, chile roasted. I mean any way you can imagine chile it’s gonna be there,” Milberger said.

The chile festival attracts so many people, the president of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce, Rod Slyhoff, urges Puebloans not to buy their chiles there.

“Go out on the [St. Charles] Mesa, where you normally go. Let the out-of-town people get their peppers here at the chile festival. Come to the festival, enjoy it. There’s plenty to do and see, but don’t come to buy your peppers if you’re from Pueblo,” Slyhoff said.

Milberger told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he’s used to seeing his usual out-of-town customers every year.

“They make this an annual event, somewhat of a vacation, a party time, whatever you want to phrase it,” he said.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the festival. It begins Friday at 3 p.m. on Union Avenue. Admission is $3. Children 12 and under get in for free.

For more information, visit: http://www.pueblochilefestivalinfo.com/