The 9th Annual Cheesman Park Art Festival

My sister Susan and I, along with her dog Blackberry, went to Denver's Cheesman Park for the 9th annual Cheesman Park Art Festival this past Saturday afternoon. I remember attending the first festival held there back in 2014, the year I started working at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, and it was a very modest affair. This year, however, 150 artists from across the country are participating, and it takes up the entire south end of the park. And, combined with the pretty setting, it makes for a very enjoyable festival indeed.

I was happy to see that there were a lot of photographers exhibiting their work this year, and a lot of it was very good, especially the horse photographs by Dona Bollard (thespottedponyphotography.com). Cheesman Park, as I have mentioned several times on this blog, along with the neighboring Denver Botanic Gardens, was once a cemetery, which the city decided to make into a park in 1907. The contractor hired to move the bodies to Riverside Cemetery was paid per coffin, and was to supply new coffins for each body. However, to make more money, he used coffins meant for children, hacked each body apart, and used as many as three coffins for each person. When word got out, the contract was canceled, but body parts wound up being scattered all over the place, and due to the work stoppage, many bodies remain there to this day. Which is why the place is rumored to be haunted. Try not to visit after sunset would be my advise.

The festival was very dog friendly, and it seemed like every other person had a pooch in tow. Susan's dog Blackberry is more of a people dog, and pretends not to see any dog that is bigger than her.  Probably wise, since not too long ago a German Shepherd walked out of the elevator in my building, growled, and then lifted Blackberry up in the air with its two front legs. Self-preservation is always a good trait to have for either people or dogs. Of course, the dog in the photograph on the right seemed quite friendly.

The festival attendees brought their dogs into the booths with them in order to let their pets enjoy the artwork, too. However, the one in the photograph on the left seemed more interested in visiting with Blackberry instead. All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon, although pretty damned hot. And I would advise anyone heading to Cheesman Park to keep their dogs on a leash while there. It might decide to dig up or bone or two, and what it brings back might very well be of human origin. Of course, at the Denver Botanical Gardens next door, where they do a lot of digging, no one even bats an eye anymore when they uncover human remains. And being an avid fan of mystery novels, it makes me think that if someone did commit a murder, and needed a place to bury the body, what better spot than the Denver Botanical Gardens, where even if it was discovered, no one would care. Hypothetically speaking, of course.