It’s not often a new event comes out of the gate, and is stellar in the first year. Definitely the case with Farm to Bottle at the Gaylord Street shopping district in Denver in October.

From the staff help to booths to walkways and vendors, this event was extremely well organized and run, a sure ticket to a better event next year. The afternoon and evening festival featured live music all day long, as well as a myriad of local distilleries and breweries serving some special libations. And, as expected, the local merchants on the street rolled out the carpet for those who needed a shopping break from the food and drink.

Patrons had two choices of tickets, regular and VIP. That upgrade got you an exclusive area with snacks and fresh cocktails, plus a comfortable spot to sit during consumption timeouts. However, the street has ample benches so sitting a spell here and there is possible all along the street.

The biggest attraction of the festival was the sufficient amount of drinks, breweries and distillers present, all made in Colorado. Cowgirl Lemonade was a definite hit with the crowd as it combined lemon juice and maple syrup in a proprietary blend. The Marble Distilling Company, just outside of Aspen, had one of the big lines with the Midnight EXpresso, a potent combination of a little caffeine in the coffee liquor. If that wasn’t enough fun, they also poured their Gingercello, a Colorado combination of fresh ginger and lemon. Marble Distilling also has their own inn, so you can stay and sip and then sack out for the night after multiple samplings.

Just up the road in Lyons is Spirit Hound Distillers, and who can’t like a product with a dog as the icon? One of their standouts is the White Dog Moonshine, which won silver in that division of the American Craft Distillers Association competition.

Beer was a featured drink, with one of the most popular booths that of Prost Brewing, a Denver brewery which does German beer possibly better than the Germans themselves! Winners of numerous awards, with a standout of their Märzen Oktoberfest.

Food vendors rounded out the festival to ensure that there was a balance between liquid and solid consumption.        has a constant line-up of events and festivals. What really sets them apart is they are in the big city, but you feel like you are part of a small town celebration!