Summer heat
Bosque Chile Festival features ‘chicharrón challenge,’ music, art
Celebrate food, art and culture along the Rio Grande at the fourth annual Bosque Chile Festival. The festival on Saturday, Aug. 17, will feature plenty of activities, including a “chicharrón challenge,” presented in collaboration with Disc-It. Chicharrón is a dish generally made with fried pork belly or fried pork rinds.
“Disc-It is providing Disc-It grills to all of our competitors,” said Carrie Moritomo, marketing specialist for Bernalillo County’s Community Services Division. “We are also providing each competitor with 40 pounds of meat, so they all have the same cuts of meat from the same vendor so it’s a total equal playing field.”
Attendees are encouraged to get to the festival early if they are interested in voting for People’s Choice. Guests can pick up their voting tickets at the information and merchandise booth. There are only 200 voting tickets available. Participants will receive samples from up to 10 competitors.
Chef demonstrations will be held throughout the day. Chefs Sarah Hartford of Hartford Square, Shawn Weed of The Acre Restaurant, and Izz Rivera of The Shop Breakfast & Lunch will show how to cook with chile-infused products. Food based films will be shown, as well.
“The films are called ‘Cooking for Generations,’ and they’re going to be six short, food-based documentaries, and they’ll also have a panel afterwards to talk about the films,” Moritomo said. “And then we also have another presentation, ‘Chile Growing 101 – Tips and Tricks,’ and then Dr. Rick Hendricks, (New Mexico state records administrator) he’s a former state historian, he’ll be talking about ‘The Chile Kings: Fabián García and Roy Nakayama.’ ”
A temporary art exhibit will be presented on the pyramid steps at the NHCC. Artisans also will be on hand, including clients from the Mixing Bowl and South Valley Economic Development Center. They will be making chileinfused products, including beef jerky
and gluten free baked goods, and will be selling jewelry, art, and handcrafted textile items. Las Golondrinas Pie Co. will have green chile chicken pot pie, green chile apple piñon pie and red chile chocolate pie for purchase.
The live entertainment lineup includes performers Leah Leyba & The Band, Burque Sol, On Point Dance Studio, Dancing Stars Dance Studio, Mickey Cruz and Rebecca Arscott. Poets Michelle Otero, Manuel Gonzalez, Sierra Charlie and Hakim Bellamy will recite their poems based on the theme Pods versus Powder.
Runners of all ages can start the festivities early with a 5K or 10K fun run at 8 a.m. It will travel south down the bosque trail down to Rio Bravo. Walk-up registration and packet pickup will be held from 7:30 to 8 a.m. The run is $40 per person, payable by check or cash. Credit cards will not be accepted.