Crestone Energy Fair September 12, 2020

The Crestone Energy Fair continues to be a tradition in the San Luis Valley for thirty years, bringing innovative ideas in construction, lifestyle, and sustainability to the region. This event continues to be one of the longest running sustainability fairs in the nation, and in the past has included a weekend of educational presentations, community symposiums, hands on demonstrations, and guided home tours. This year, however, we find ourselves adapting to the current conditions and will be presenting the same content in a virtual forum, as well as a single day event that will be live streamed with online and live q&a integrated. This is new territory for the event, but we are confident that we will successfully implement this format. Run by committed volunteers, this free event is committed to improving the lives of all attendees by empowering them to learn and experience the necessary skills to use alternative building methodologies and materials in future projects. With a past attendance exceeding 500 people, we are excited to expand the Crestone Energy Fair to a broader online audience.

Crestone is uniquely situated as the county in which it resides, Saguache, has no building codes. As a result, permanent housing comprised of unique and visionary methods are allowed and encouraged, and the Fair has taken advantage of this unique situation. Through an interactive online forum of demonstrations, potential owner-builders can learn how to use elements like straw bales to insulate walls, hempcrete to affordably lay a foundation, and old tires pounded with earth to reinforce and berm walls. After learning how to build with these materials, we then offer virtual home tours of completed and under construction homes, so that future builders can see the results of people who have been in their shoes, and taken the leap to build themselves. We believe that everyone deserves a place to call home, and by providing the necessary knowledge and experience for those who have not yet endeavored to build their own, we have become a resource for those with the dream of owning a home who can’t afford a traditional builder.The financial support we receive from visionary individuals and businesses is what allows us to continue to provide this weekend of free education to anyone interested in a regenerative future. We believe that the sharing of information and resources will undoubtedly reap an abundant reward. Crestone is proactively asking, answering and, most importantly, acting on the next series of big questions that stimulate our cultures evolution towards a prosperous future.