Each star represents the nine brave and courageous souls who have entered the Denver Catfish Festival VIP Raffle.
Greetings, Fellow Catfish Enthusiasts!
Like finely-ground cornmeal through a flour sifter, so are the days ‘til the Ninth Annual Denver Catfish Festival. Time is passing quickly now, Enthusiasts, and there is much to report!
- Your “Ask the Chairman” questions have been coming fast and furious over the past month; luckily, I’ve been able to respond to 50% of them this week. I will answer the remaining question as soon as humanly possible. Click here for the latest.
- The Denver Catfish Festival Steering Committee is back from last weekend’s three-day retreat at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Most notably, Sunday’s Practicum on Tailgating and Auditory Entertainment had the participants truly enthralled and proved to be the highlight of the weekend (with enormous apologies to certain committee members who only attended on Friday and Saturday.) Certainly, we were there to have fun, but we were also there to learn; and learn we did. And did. And did. Major thanks to that aged and wise band of minstrels from Athens, GA for their euphonious contribution!
- Catfish Festival Merchandise: Due to child labor-related problems with our suppliers in Southeast Asia this year, Ninth Annual Denver Catfish Festival merchandise will be exclusively available at the Festival itself! Please conduct yourselves in an orderly fashion at the Shwag Table; our Staff Pettifoggers representing Festival Security have spent a good portion the last year defending those pesky brutality charges after the koozie melee at the Eighth Annual Denver Catfish Festival. Thank goodness those things are foam and not metal…
- The Denver Catfish Festival VIP Experience Raffle: Entries have been pouring over us like a cascading waterfall over a sunbathing Giant Nile Catfish; if you want the opportunity to be one of the most important people at a given place/festival, this is your big chance! Email denvercatfishfestival (at) gmail (dot) com with “ENTER ME” in the subject line, then cross your fingers, pray to what or whomever you prefer to pray to, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be very important!
- We have received countless stunningly impressive Catfish-inspired Haikus to date! But, as Andrea True (avid catfish enthusiast, pop singer, and film star) would say, “More! More! More!” Please send us your entries as soon as you can! (You can still enter up until 3:00 PM on Festival Day, but you risk the Judging Committee being unable to make out your scribbling due to your, or possibly our, level of ‘festival happiness’ at that particular time.)
- Note: The Festival Management Staff is off to The Festival Fatherland, Shreveport, Louisiana, for the next several days on a research mission to locate the finest, most delicious catfish in the Ark-La-Tex and to arrange their safe passage back to the Festivalgrounds in Denver. We’ll also immerse ourselves in the local culture, which essentially involves excellent company, damn good food, cold, cold beer, drive-thru daiquiris, and military-grade firework munitions (our search for Catfish-shaped fireworks is ongoing.) Here’s to hoping for only minor burns this year!
Want a Free DCF9 beer coozie? Be the first to email me with the name of the modern poet I’m respectfully ripping off below!
The Festival comes
On little catfish fins.
It sits looking
Over propane fryers
On silent flippers
And then moves on.
(The answer is Carl Sandburg. Way to be lightning-fast, David L.!)
Sincerely,
Joe T., Chmn.
“We’ll see YOU at the Ninth Annual Denver Catfish Festival!”
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011
The Denver Catfishfestivalgrounds
3156 Geneva St., Denver, 80238
Gates: 12:30
First Filet-hits-oil at 1:12 PM MT
THE DENVER CATFISH FESTIVAL 
Re: VIP Experience
As one of the winners of the VIP Experience, I can’t tell you how happy I am that I entered. So many fantastic things happened that I truly felt like a VIP. The access to the cooking area alone was worth it. For all of these years, watching the chairman bread and fry each tender catfish nugget, wondering what that feeling might be like. And then to actually have the opportunity to bread and fry my own catfish….unbelievable. The VIP seating area and reserved alcohol was an exceptional touch. The VIP lanyards allowed me access to parts of the festival grounds that heretofore have been untouchable. Just an incredible day. I would tell anyone that they need to apply next year.
Thanks Chairman,
Cris Harden