{"id":134102,"date":"2026-06-21T11:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-burrofest-draws-thousands-to-honor-the-beauty-of-donkeys\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:46:07","slug":"mancos-burrofest-draws-thousands-to-honor-the-beauty-of-donkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-burrofest-draws-thousands-to-honor-the-beauty-of-donkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos Burrofest draws thousands to honor the beauty of donkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hope
Hope during the seventh annual Mancos BurroFest parade on Saturday in Mancos. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cars lined the streets of Mancos on Saturday morning, leaving stragglers hunting between alleyways and along dirt roads for a spot to park. The annual Mancos Burrofest drew a crowd of around 2,500, its largest ever, event manager Leah Darr said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t only the crowd size that expanded in the festival\u2019s seventh year. Twenty donkeys roamed among the children and adults eager to photograph and pet them. The crew of hard working burros in extravagant costumes was four times that of last year, Darr said.<\/p>\n

\"SnoopDonk
SnoopDonk is donkey owner Jerome Hesse\u2019s fourth donkey. \u201cWe had three donkeys and four seemed like the perfect number,\u201d Hesse said. SnoopDonk was the start of screen printer Clint Reid\u2019s pop-art portraits for Mancos Burrofest 2026. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cSome of the most consistent feedback was that people wanted to see more burros,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s just more donkeys and more burros than you could ever dream for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darr and her team from the Mancos Creative District, which collected donations from the free event to support creative endeavors in the valley, also featured 12 artists this year. The artists worked for months prior, partnered with one of the event\u2019s stars of the show, a donkey, to create pieces celebrating them, displayed in booths during the festival.<\/p>\n

\"Artist
Artist Shawn Ahkeah, who partnered with burro Handsome Jack, is inspired by southwestern and Navajo culture in his works painted primarily in earth tones. Handsome Jack brought a unique challenge for him as the tallest burro of the bunch. \u201cThey seem like they all look the same but they\u2019re all different,\u201d Ahkeah said. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"At
At Mancos Burrofest 2026, some artists continued to honor their burros, drafting up portraits of the costumed creatures under the hot sun. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Southwest Colorado artist Miki Harder has participated in the festival every year since its inception, having loved the unique nature of the creatures since her youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re so stoic and smart, and I feel like if the burro likes you, you know you\u2019re all right,\u201d Harder said. \u201cThey\u2019re just amazing sentient beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cSince
\u201cSince I was a little girl I\u2019ve been painting burros but I\u2019ve been at Burrofest since its inception,\u201d featured artist Miki Harder said. She was paired with burro model Hope, spending hours photographing and petting her in order to capture her essence on paper. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This year she worked with Hope of the San Juan Beverage Burros to capture her youthful essence, selling prints of Hope\u2019s portraits to excited festival goers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best day of the year,\u201d Harder said. \u201cFive exclamation points.\u201d<\/p>\n

The playful energy of the event was on full display as the crowd gathered around an obstacle course to watch donkeys compete for the title of \u201cFirst Ass,\u201d \u201cBest Costume\u201d and, tragically, \u201cLast Ass.\u201d Burros dragged rafts, collected fake gold from makeshift mines and crossed a \u201criver\u201d spray painted into the ground. The theme of the course celebrated Colorado\u2019s history with the coming of the state\u2019s 150th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\"Jack
Jack Speedy Burro won \u201cFirst Ass\u201d in the Colorado history themed obstacle course for the second time in a row. He hustled, exercising a swift trot as the crowd cheered \u201cgo, Jack, go!\u201d (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Alice, a 7-year-old burro who\u2019s competed at Burrofest since she was 1, donned a party hat and a cardboard cake topped with No. 150, earning her \u201cBest Costume.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s her favorite day of the summer,\u201d said Gretchen Seashore Botha, Alice\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

\"Handler
Handler William Lee leads Jack Speedy Burro during the seventh annual Mancos BurroFest parade on Saturday in Mancos. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s actually her festival,\u201d she joked, adding, \u201cI seriously think she thinks this day is for her. The fans come out, the paparazzi is here. You know, they probably all think that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice, who garnered much attention, photos and pets from attendees, certainly basked in it.<\/p>\n

Sparkle Nellie, a 13-year-old donkey dazzling in tulle, won \u201cLast Ass\u201d for her tepid participation in the obstacle course, but Jack Speedy Burro, sporting a heavy fringe, took home the gold as \u201cFirst Ass\u201d for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

\"Jack
Jack Speedy Burro, with his thick bangs falling over his dark eyes, gathered a lot of attention after winning the obstacle course. The 28 year old burro has been featured in National Geographic. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Many donkey owners said they\u2019d learned a lot from their partners in crime, whose reputations as stubborn and rude were dispelled by their lovable personalities, which require a lot of patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot make them do anything. You have to wait,\u201d said Jerome Hesse, owner of SnoopDonk and four donkeys in all.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery donkey is unique, but they\u2019re all pretty inquisitive, cautious and very loving,\u201d Hesse said.<\/p>\n

Clint Reid, a Southwest Colorado-based educator and screen printer, partnered with SnoopDonk, debuting eccentric images harking to Andy Warhol portraits of the burro\u2019s face superimposed on cans of soup.<\/p>\n

\"Artist
Artist Clint Reid designed the poster for Burrofest, inspired by the delicate illustrations in \u201cThe Story of Ferdinand,\u201d a Spanish children\u2019s book about a peaceful bull. In his partnership with SnoopDonk the burro, he wanted to deviate from the typical oil paintings displayed at the festival, following in the steps of Andy Warhol. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe just wanted to mix it up,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

His time with the Donk, he said, was a unique and surprising experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very calming creatures, and I love hanging out with them more than I thought that I would,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joy emanated from patrons, donkeys and artists alike, the basis of why people return year after year, Darr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurn around and there\u2019s a donkey wearing a cake behind you,\u201d she said. \u201cHow do you not laugh and feel happy about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Alice,
Alice, a long-time competitor at Burrofest, enjoys the attention from photographers, fans and other donkey owners, according to her owner Gretchen Seashore Botha. She won \u201cBest Costume\u201d at Mancos Burrofest 2026 for her cardboard cake homage to Colorado\u2019s 150th anniversary. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists, spectators from all over the Four Corners region celebrated seventh edition of annual event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[382,510,28,83,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-134102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animal","tag-festive-event-including-carnival","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135058,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134102\/revisions\/135058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134102"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=134102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}