The 95th Annual Donkey Derby Days Festival is set to take place in Cripple Creek from June 26-28 this year.

According to a press release, the festival will include live music, family activities, western-themed festivities, and the donkeys that “define Cripple Creek’s character.”

There will be a parade on Saturday at 11 a.m. along Bennett Avenue. The parade will be followed by the main event, the Donkey Derby races, where teams of one donkey and two runners race up Bennett Avenue. All three members must cross the finish line together to win, and according to the press release the donkeys often provide “unpredictable excitement.”

Professional pack burro racing will also return to Cripple Creek for the first time in two decades on Sunday at noon. Festivities will also include food trucks, vendor booths, free children’s activities including the bouncy house Adventure Zone and Pirates Rebellion, beer gardens, gold panning, a silent auction, and the summer melodrama “Under the Colorado Moon” at the Butte Theater.

The proceeds from Donkey Derby Days help fund the care of Cripple Creek’s 16-member donkey herd, which resembles the original animals that were released from the local gold mines in the early 1900s. The Two Mile High Club was created in 1931 and cares for the donkeys.

Find more information about the festival here.

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