{"id":44995,"date":"2021-08-26T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mac-and-cheese-festival-returns-to-farmington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:22:43","slug":"mac-and-cheese-festival-returns-to-farmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mac-and-cheese-festival-returns-to-farmington\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac and Cheese Festival returns to Farmington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dickey\u2019s
Dickey\u2019s Barbecue Pit entry to the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 After a year away, the Mac and Cheese Festival returned last week to Berg Park to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington.<\/p>\n

The Mac and Cheese Festival started in Durango in 2014. It was then moved to Aztec in 2016. Finally, the festival made its way to Farmington, where it has brought out hundreds of mac and cheese lovers.<\/p>\n

The event, sponsored and organized by American General Media, sold tickets for $25 before the day with a slight increase at the door. In addition to benefiting the Boys & Girls Club, it covered all the mac and cheese as well as beer, wine and cocktail samples.<\/p>\n

\"One
One of the special cocktails at the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

American General Media also sells booths for businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are ready to get out \u2013 and some are wearing masks and social distancing \u2013 and get back out to enjoy an event safely,\u201d said Tana McCalo, organizer of the mac and cheese festival.<\/p>\n

The event was put on a little last-minute compared with previous years, McCalo said. She said normally, she would start getting the sponsors and the event set up about six months earlier. This year, she had two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept watching to see if New Mexico was going to open, and so when I heard about it opening July 1, about mid-June \u2013 boom! Started planning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fewer restaurants were able to sign up because staffing has been low, McCalo said. So this year, only 10 restaurants signed up compared with 14 to 18 in previous years.<\/p>\n

McCalo said more restaurants wanted to participate, but because of COVID-19, they weren\u2019t able to staff enough workers to participate.<\/p>\n

Despite a lower-than-normal turnout, McCalo said this year about 2,000 people attended. Needless to say, the mac and cheese didn\u2019t last long. The event started at 1 p.m. and by 2 p.m., most of the restaurants had run out of their entry dish.<\/p>\n

\"Bartenders
Bartenders with Traegers pour specialty cocktails at the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When festival-goers checked in at the entry gate and were asked for identification (the event was for people 21 and older), they were given a heavy-duty plastic plate with a notch out of the corner to hold wine glasses, as tasters strolled Berg Park. After attendees sampled all of the dishes from each restaurant, they used a little wooden chip to drop in the box of the mac and cheese they thought was the best.<\/p>\n

One restaurant vying for the win was Red Lobster. It came up with a green chile macaroni, which culinary manager Benjamin Crabtree said is not on the normal menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold out,\u201d Crabtree said. \u201cThe last time we came was in 2019, and we took about half of the food home with us. This year, we\u2019ve spent the last hour food-less.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pizza
Pizza bites come out of the oven at the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One booth that kept pumping out munchies was Raindrops\u2019 outdoor kitchen and pizza oven set up. To display its product, the company made bagel pizza bites in the oven and served them to guests. In addition to the pizza bites, Raindrops also sponsored the designated driver tent and served sparkling cider.<\/p>\n

\"The
The designated driver tent provided sparkling cider at the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari was hanging out at the designated driver tent with Raindrops\u2019 Brad Duncan. Ferrari said he was at the festival for two reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first is to support the Boys & Girls Club of Farmington, and the second is because we have a booth here and I am here in support of my recruiters,\u201d Ferrari said. \u201cWe are currently looking for San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s deputies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brad
Brad Duncan, left, stands with San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari at the Raindrops\u2019 designated driver and pizza bite tent at the Mac and Cheese Festival at Berg Park. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said the department has 15 openings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all across the (country) we\u2019ve seen shortages of law enforcement officers, so it\u2019s causing us to be more proactive and go out into the community and hopefully find that right applicant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While away from the booth, Ferrari enjoyed the mac and cheese and pizza bites, but said he wasn\u2019t able to enjoy the \u201cadult libations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrari said the cause of the festival was the best part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose kids need that,\u201d Ferrari said. \u201cThose are the kids who don\u2019t have direction in life, they don\u2019t have a safe place to be after school and just what they get from the community and the sports \u2026 it\u2019s just something I support.\u201d<\/p>\n

mmitchell@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2,000 people attend event at Berg Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44995","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=44995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86305,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44995\/revisions\/86305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44995"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}