{"id":100890,"date":"2018-03-20T11:54:31","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T17:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/annual-mancos-melt-celebrates-valleys-creative-community\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T11:54:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T17:54:31","slug":"annual-mancos-melt-celebrates-valleys-creative-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/annual-mancos-melt-celebrates-valleys-creative-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Mancos Melt celebrates valley\u2019s creative community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:fa6d0e1e-4ffe-400e-8b19-054af9baa58b --><br>\n          <!-- gallery:56be03fe-c16b-4b36-b903-ee50463f10a2 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lrpi8zL8z0w\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This year\u2019s Mancos Melt festival ended in flames as residents bid a dramatic farewell to winter and the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>Organized by the Mancos Valley Creative District for the first time, the annual two-day festival included the traditional bed races down Grand Avenue, a children\u2019s parade, a putt-putt golf tournament and a Burning Man-themed costume contest, among other activities. The event raised almost $2,000 for the Creative District, which will be used to help create a new makerspace for artists and students. But the Melt\u2019s grand finale came at sunset on Saturday, when nearly 100 people gathered at Mancos Brewing Co. to watch a wooden sculpture of a man, created by local artists several weeks earlier, go up in smoke.<\/p>\n<p>While they waited for the bonfire, people in top hats, colorful wigs, steampunk jewelry and other costumes mingled over drinks from the brewery and live music from local AfroBeatniks band. Many attendees wrote notes or drew pictures on pieces of paper, provided by the Creative District, and pinned them onto the sculpture before event coordinator Rena Wilson lighted it.<\/p>\n<p>Creative District director Sarah Syverson said the notes were meant to represent things Mancos residents wanted to \u201clet go of,\u201d or welcome into the coming year.<\/p>\n<p>Tami Graham, a resident who has attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada several times, said she was excited about this year\u2019s Mancos Melt theme. She said that while the town might not be able to draw 80,000 people like the real festival, its small-scale event captured the same spirit of creativity and catharsis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Mancos can do the best part of Burning Man, which is the creativity,\u201d Graham said. \u201cThis is like a little micro-version of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Different Mancos residents were rewarded for their creativity throughout the event with contest prizes, donated by a long list of local businesses and nonprofits. During the Thursday night party that started the event, Holly Cruser, Linda Simmons and Tess Lynston all won prizes for their costumes. In Saturday\u2019s costume contest, Rob and Mary Wilson won a trip to Durango\u2019s General Palmer Hotel for their St. Patrick\u2019s Day-themed outfits, and Outlier Cellars Cidery won a Mancos Liquor prize for its putt-putt golf course design.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the day, Wilson said she felt the Creative District\u2019s first time organizing the Melt had been a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it was probably our best Mancos Melt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Graham said she hoped the \u201cburning of the Man\u201d could become a permanent part of the festival, and Wilson said she had heard that request from several other people as well.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the Mancos Fire Department stood by with a truck during the bonfire, but it stayed under control. Wilson said Saturday\u2019s warm temperatures and low winds worked in organizers\u2019 favor, continuing a long-running streak of good weather during the Melt.<\/p>\n<p>Kyle Bauman, a Cortez willow-weaving artist who oversaw the Man\u2019s construction, said the fire was a significant event for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever burned anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said he would be open to building a bigger sculpture next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>raises funds for Mancos Valley Creative District<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100890"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}