DISPATCH #10 · TUE, AUGUST 18, 2026 · NoCo · TUE HIGH 90°
Postcard from NoCo
Hi NoCo families. By Wednesday morning, every school district in NoCo is back in session. The calendar clearly got the memo, because this weekend reads like summer's grand finale: a 130 year old corn festival with a Saturday parade, the tenth and final Monster Day in Greeley, a community cake fight in Loveland, and the coffee tour finally landing in Wellington. We're home from Montana, the backpacks are packed, and we made you a list. Oh, the places you'll actually go.
JP & Alexis
Where To This Week
THIS WEEK
Carnival games and food trucks Tuesday, first bells Wednesday, and then a weekend that goes corn parade, monsters, cake in the air, and Rams in the square.
Family Fun Tuesdays goes out with a carnival — FREE
Tue 8/18 · 3pm to 9pm · The Exchange, 200 N College Ave, Fort Collins
The season finale is Carnival Night, with milk can toss games taking over the courtyard. It's the last Family Fun Tuesday of the year, so if your crew never made it down, this is the door closing politely. Details →
Food trucks are still the Tuesday plan — FREE entry
Tue 8/18 · 5:30pm to dusk · City Park, Fort Collins
The Food Truck Rally keeps rolling into September: trucks by Sheldon Lake, free live music (this week: Chris Murray), and lawn to burn off dinner. For PSD 6th and 9th graders, whose transition day is Tuesday, this is a decent first-day-debrief venue. Details →
The Animeros on the plaza — FREE
Wed 8/19 · plaza opens 6pm, music 6:30 to 8:30pm · The Foundry Plaza, downtown Loveland
One Sweet Summer is down to its second-to-last Wednesday, and this one belongs to The Animeros. The FNBO kids zone runs crafts and games the whole evening, food vendors line the plaza, and the finale (Clay Street Unit, 8/26) is already in sight. First day of school ending at a concert is a strong opening move. Details →
Magic night at The Exchange — FREE
Thu 8/20 · 7:30pm to 9:30pm · The Exchange, 200 N College Ave, Fort Collins
Tricky Thursdays rolls on: Dan Jasperson works the courtyard with close-up sleight of hand, family-friendly and free, Thursdays through September 3. Details →
Tiny Trekkers: Oh Deer! — FREE, registration required
Thu 8/20 · 10am to 11am · location shared at registration
Larimer County's toddler nature hour does deer this month. The Thursday session still has open spots; Saturday's is already waitlist-only, so grab Thursday while it lasts. Ages 2 to 5 with an adult. Details →
The little libraries wake back up — FREE
Thu 8/20 · 6pm to 7pm Back-to-School Bingo, Johnstown · plus tie dye Sat 12:30pm, Milliken
Johnstown and Milliken's libraries came back from summer break this week with a full slate: ABC Animal Storytime Tuesday morning in Milliken, watercolor apples Wednesday in Johnstown, Back-to-School Bingo with prizes Thursday evening, and a family tie dye session Saturday afternoon. Story time crews, reassemble. Details →
THIS WEEKEND
Friday splits three ways: monsters in Greeley, corn in Loveland, and a late shop night in Wellington. Saturday is the parade, the cake fight, and the backpack raffle. Sunday is for the Rams.
The Corn Roast Festival turns 130 — FREE entry
Fri 8/21 · 5pm to 10pm + Sat 8/22 · parade 9:30am downtown, festival 11am to 8pm · Fairgrounds Park, 700 S Railroad Ave, Loveland
Loveland's oldest party, and it earns the number: roasted corn by the ear, food trucks, an inflatable kids zone both days, the corn shucking contest Friday at 5:30, and a Styx tribute band closing Friday night. Saturday starts with the parade rolling from Fairgrounds Park up Railroad and back down Cleveland at 9:30, then it's cornhole at noon, live music all afternoon, and the Rotary duck race at 4. Details →
The last Monster Day ever — FREE
Fri 8/21 · kickoff concert 6pm to 10pm, 9th St Plaza + Sat 8/22 · 12pm to 5pm, 8th and 9th St Plazas, downtown Greeley
Ten years of monsters, and Greeley is calling it: this is the final Monster Day, from the town that builds the world's haunted house creatures at Distortions Unlimited. Expect the creatures out on the plazas, 80+ themed vendors, costume contests, and live mask-making, all raising money for the Don't Be A Monster anti-bullying campaign. Costumes encouraged, cameras mandatory. If your kids have never seen it, there is no next year. Details →
Wellington’s late night stroll — FREE
Fri 8/21 · 4pm to 8pm · Cleveland Ave, downtown Wellington
Mingle on Main is Wellington's third-Friday stroll: shops open late with specials, activities scattered down Cleveland Ave, and the town out on the sidewalk. Pairs suspiciously well with this week's coffee stop below. Details →
El Loco Fandango on the lawn — FREE
Fri 8/21 · 6pm to 8pm · East Lawn at Foothills, Fort Collins
Music on the Lawn keeps its Friday streak with El Loco Fandango, the vendor market, and the kids zone hosted by the Toy, Game and Puzzle Library. One more after this: Dreamboat Annie closes the season on the 28th. Details →
Top Gun under the stars in Severance — FREE
Fri 8/21 · 8pm to 10pm · Severance Library lawn, 5 Timber Ridge Pkwy, Severance
The Clearview library crew rolls the 1986 original out on the patio and green space: blankets, lawn chairs, snacks, and light refreshments provided. The library pitches it to grown-ups, so kids under 18 need their adult along; it's rated PG and the flyovers hold up. Registration optional but capacity is limited. Details →
A backpack raffle and haircut deals in Wellington — FREE
Sat 8/22 · 10am to 2pm · Wellington Manor, 3922 Cleveland Ave, Wellington
The Back to School Family Bash fills the Manor with the whole pre-first-bell checklist: deals on kids' haircuts, a backpack raffle, a back-to-school photo shoot, face painting, games, and a vendor market. Wellington and Weld RE-4 kids are already back; consider it a victory lap for them and a warm-up for everyone else. Details →
Fútbol at Hero Fest — FREE
Sat 8/22 · 10am to 2pm · Front Range Village, 2720 Council Tree Ave, Fort Collins
Canvas Credit Union's first responder festival: climb-through emergency vehicles, a bounce house and inflatables, a mobile petting zoo, food trucks, and a live DJ. The Showdown part is real: local first responders play a soccer match from 11 to 1 with help from the Colorado Rapids and Aggies FC, benefiting frontline mental health nonprofit Revital. Details →
A community cake fight at Kroh Park — FREE
Sat 8/22 · registration 12pm, cake flies at 1pm · Kroh Park, 5200 N Garfield Ave, Loveland
The Cake War is exactly what it sounds like: neighbors gather, cakes are thrown, everyone leaves frosted. Bring a cake you're willing to sacrifice, clothes you're willing to bury, and water. Free for throwers and spectators; minors need a parent signature on the waiver. This is the event your kids will describe to their grandchildren. Details →
Workwear time travel in Greeley — FREE
Sat 8/22 + Sun 8/23 · 9am to 3pm · Centennial Village Museum, Greeley
Another free 50th-anniversary weekend at the living history museum, themed Faded Fashions: Saturday tours the historic buildings through what people actually wore to work, and Sunday kids make a mountain-man-style possibles bag to carry their own essentials. Two weekends left in the free series. Details →
Ram Fan Fest takes Old Town Square — FREE
Sun 8/23 · 1pm to 3pm · Old Town Square, Fort Collins
CSU football kicks off its first Pac-12 season, and the team comes downtown first: meet the players and coaches, collect autographs, family activities on the square, and game tickets and gear if you're in deep. Green and gold optional but appreciated. Details →
NoCo Regulars
Markets and story times you can count on: Larimer County Farmers' Market (Sat, Old Town Fort Collins) · Greeley Farmers' Market (Sat, 7th St) · The Berthoud Market (Sat, Town Park) · Windsor Farmers Market (Sat, Boardwalk Park) · Loveland Farmers' Market (Sun) · Fort Collins Farmers' Market (Sun & Wed) · and library story times in every town, with Johnstown, Milliken, and Loveland's crews all back from summer break this week.
Local Business Spotlight: Owl Canyon Coffee
Owl Canyon Coffee, 3745 Cleveland Ave, Wellington
Owl Canyon holds down a 1903 building on Cleveland Ave in old downtown Wellington. The house roasts are Barn Owl medium and Screech Owl dark, the signature lattes run from the Eagle Owl (dark chocolate, caramel, coconut) on down, and they scoop Morning Fresh Dairy ice cream. We ordered what we always order: vanilla lattes. They open at 6am most days and close at 3, so it's a morning stop. Mingle on Main strolls their block Friday evening, and Saturday's Back to School Bash is two blocks up. Get the coffee first.
Community Corner
We're home. Montana was wonderful, the laundry is not, and by Wednesday every NoCo district is officially back in session. Which brings us to this week's question: what's your family's first-week-of-school ritual? A special breakfast, an after-school ice cream debrief, a photo on the same porch step every year? Hit reply and tell us; the good ones might make a future dispatch.
Got a family event on your radar? Add it at theplacesno.co/submit-event and it might land in an upcoming dispatch.
That's the week, NoCo. Whether you're watching the duck race at 4, standing next to something Distortions built after dark, or scraping frosting out of someone's ear at Kroh Park, we hope it's a great one. Know a family whose kids would gladly take a cake to the face? Forward this on.
Be the parent who somehow always knows.
JP & Alexis
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