Fort Collins’ fluffiest festival is almost here

Henry Netherland

September 28, 2017

Corgi lovers rejoice.

A baby with a pacifier pets a corgi with a bandanna. — A baby plays with his corgi dogs on the annual Tour de Corgi parade in old town Fort Collins.

Fort Collins’ third-annual Tour de Corgi is coming soon. On Saturday Sept. 30, all of Fort Collins’ favorite furry friends, and humans, will gather at Civic Center Park at 10 a.m. to socialize, purchase products from various vendors and prepare for the yearly parade that will start at noon.

During the parade, the streets of Fort Collins will be flooded by “hundreds of short-legged, fluffy bummed, comedians in all kinds of cute and crazy costumes,” according to event founder Tracy Stewart in an email with the Collegian.

Participants will follow the same route as last year, which starts at Civic Center Park and goes directly through Old Town. After the parade, the festivities will continue until 3 p.m.

In order to participate in the parade, guests must first register on the official Tour de Corgi website. Registration by itself will cost $5 or $30–$32 if guests would also like to purchase an official T-shirt. Merchandise can also be bought separately. Proceeds from the event will go to non-profit organizations such as 4 Paws Pet Pantry, Wyoming Dachshund and Corgi Rescue.

The gathering will also host a corgi costume contest at 10:30 a.m. The categories include completely creative, prettiest pooch, baddest to the bone, funniest furry, greatest group, cutest couple and like human, like corgi. Registration costs for the contest are based on donations

Vendors at the event will be dog themed. Ivan’s All Natural Doggie Delights will sell dog food out of a food truck. Cosmic Corgi will sell corgi-themed merchandise. Participants can donate to Wyoming Dachshund and Corgi Rescue, Harley’s Dream and W.O.L.F. Sanctuary. Summit Dog Training, Wagz and Poudre Pet & Feed Supply will make appearances. Sherwood Pet Portraits offers custom-made paintings of dogs.

Parade staff has been planning for the event since April.

“We started in 2015 at Library Park as a meet up,” Stewart said. “I thought I’d be lucky if my own friends showed up. But, instead it went viral on Facebook, and we had hundreds of people the first year.”

Nearly 900 people say that they will attend this year’s event and almost 2,500 say that they are interested in attending according to the event’s Facebook page.

Tour de Corgi:

When: Saturday Sept. 30 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Civil Center Park

What: A parade of corgis in costume

Collegian reporter Henry Netherland at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @NetherlandHenry.

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