Although this year’s official last day of summer isn’t until Sept. 23, it sure feels like summer is over once we enter the ninth month of the year.

But the arrival of fall doesn’t mean that the party has to end. It just means the party might move indoors.

Before we kiss summer goodbye, here’s a list of some interesting lineup of events happening this week in Denver: a food and wine festival, live music in Sunnyside, a ladies’ night R&B festival, a chile fest in Westwood, and a celebration of Indigenous communities at the Denver Art Museum.

2023 Denver Food + Wine Festival

Date: Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 6-9
Location: Tivoli Quad, Auraria Campus, 1000 Larimer St.

Presented by the Colorado Restaurant Association and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits the festival will be a multi-day event of food, wine and spirits showcasing the Mile High restaurant community.

Two Riedel Wine Glass Seminars will be held on Sept. 6 and 7 starting at 6 p.m. where attendees can get a firsthand experience on how the shape of a wine glass affects unique varietals.

On Thursday, Sept. 7 from 7 to 10 p.m., the Shake + Brake Showdown is a lively cocktail and food truck competition during which either local food trucks and 12 pro bartenders will compete for the title of “Best Food Truck” and “Best Cocktail.”

On Saturday, Sept. 9 from noon to 4 p.m., the Grand Tasting will showcase local award-winning chefs, mixologists and wine professionals who will share food endless bites and more than 700 wines and spirits.

Click here for tickets and the full restaurant lineup.

R&B Jam Fest, Ladies Night Edition

Date: Thursday, Sept. 7, 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Location: Your Mom’s House, 608 E. 13th Ave.

If you miss the golden era of 90s R&B, this could be the event for you. Coming back for the fifth volume in a series of R&B music festivals presented by Picasso Gang and Boogie Groove Entertainment, the showcase is keen on highlighting Denver’s R&B talent.

This ladies’ night edition will feature seven local R&B acts including Danae Simone, Cleopatra, Cameron Cade, Xandra Day, DSCRND, Home, Renee and music provided by Guyanese-American DJ MnM.

Click here for a playlist of R&B Jam Fest past and future performers and click here for tickets.

Sunnyside Music Festival

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, noon to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Chaffee Park, 1901 W. 43rd Ave.

This free, family-friendly event is focused on Colorado musicians, craft beer, cocktails, artisan vendors and the Sunnyside community. The volunteer-run nonprofit is going into its 21st year hosting the festival.

This year the festival will be headlined by Extra Gold, Mono Verde, Lazy Summer Home, Buffalo Commons, and a Colorado Blue Revue featuring The Delta Sonics, Lionel Young, Erica Brown, Jack Hadley and Ken Saydak.

Click here for more information on road closures and safe routes to the festival.

Westwood Chile Fest

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, noon to 7 p.m.
Location: 3738 Morrison Road

This year’s festival returns to celebrate “business and culture” on Morrison Road, the heart of the Westwood community. What originally began as a small community potluck has evolved into a full-fledged street festival with vendors, food trucks, community organizations, live art installations and live music celebrating Hispanic culture and cuisine.

The event is free and open to the public. It will include entertainment for all ages including a new Salsa de Westwood Competition in partnership with Hecho en Westwood, the longstanding tradition of a Chile Pepper-Eating contest and more than 60 artists and vendors.

Click here for more information and the schedule of live performances.

34th Annual Friendship Powwow at the Denver Art Museum

Date: Saturday, Sept. 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Location: 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy.

As one of the Denver Art Museum’s long-running events, the Friendship Powwow will feature Native American dance competitions, hands-on activities for the whole family, artist, food and vendor booths all in celebration of Indigenous communities across Denver and the Front Range.

There will also be beadwork artmaking activities with local Native artists Katherine Flecking and Chelsea Kaiah, one of the DAM’s former Artists in Residence.

This Saturday is a Free Day at the DAM meaning general admission is free of charge for all visitors.

Click here for more information on the event.

The Illinois State University Horticulture Center is going back to “native roots” for this year’s Autumnal Festival, literally.

The center on Raab Road in Normal is honoring the connection to indigenous plants as part of the annual fundraiser for the center, Saturday and Sunday.

Matt Horton is the executive chef for ISU’s food service and dining program, which will be serving Native American cuisine. It’s not just “cuisine” — the word should be plural, Horton said, because there are many Native American groups and lifeways. Native Americans of the plains ate differently that did Woodland tribes, or west or east coast nations.

“It’d be a lot like saying, Mexican food, or Chinese food, or Indian food represents an entire continent. There’s a lot more to any kind of cuisine when you’re talking about thousands of different cultures over thousands of years,” said Horton.

Horton said they will start Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with foods common to tribes in the upper Midwest, including a wild rice pilaf.

“Most people think wild rice is the same thing you might find with Ben’s original box mix, but they’re actually quite quite different. Authentic wild rice is not a rice, it’s a grass. The habitat where it’s grown is small, parts of northern Minnesota and just a little bit in California. That’s about it,” said Horton.

It cooks a lot faster than a lot of other rice, about 15 minutes. Horton said he’s borrowing recipes from the “Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” by Sean Sherman. Chestnuts and several kinds of mushrooms will also be in the pilaf. Those were more available to Woodland tribes, though are hard to find after an invasive species of fungus killed most American Chestnut trees in the early 20th century.

Many Native American groups had diets that capitalized on foraged berries and other seasonal foods. In the Midwest that can be cherries, currants, blueberries, and chokeberries – also known as Aronia.

Horton said he has tried to make sure ISU educates students about different local products. There is even a 28-acre farm just outside Bloomington that grows nothing but Aronia berries.

There will also be bison to eat at the event, taken from Plains Indians diets.

“We’re going to do a seared bison strip steak with a Wojapi sauce. You can use different kinds of berries but we’re going to use the local Aronia berries. It’s an intense flavor. When you taste it on its own, it’s like eating a big bite of something really tart, like cranberries. When you have the sauce with that bison they really interact and the savory bison lessens the tartness,” said Horton.

A recurring theme in a lot of Native American cultures is the “three sisters” — corn, beans, and squash planted all together. They reinforce each other and self-fertilize each other. Horton said he is planning a three sisters mash this year as part of other programming in the campus dining service and education programs that emphasizes sustainability.

“Most indigenous cuisine had a relationship where one item proliferated from others. To go back to the wild rice example, the traditional harvesting method would be in a canoe. They would pull those reeds and smack them, and the wild rice would fall off into the boat. Some of that also fell back into the water. That was what naturally re-fertilized for the next growing season,” said Horton

Food has a power to sustain or erode the culture of a people.

“Destruction of habitat or people’s land was a very easy way to ‘talk people into relocating,’ so to speak. If you don’t have means to feed yourself to survive, then quickly, you’re dependent on others. Things that would be classified as colonial ingredients — wheat flour, milk, sugar, domesticated animals, like pork, and beef — all those things were not part of Native American food. Food sources affected things like diabetes and heart disease,” said Horton.

Food was a weapon in the Euro-American campaign to dislocate Native Americans in the late 1700s to the late 1800s.

“I think we’ve seen in history, no matter where you go in the world, that was always a tactic. If you want to win in battle, you certainly look at the logistics and if you take away clean drinking water or different ingredients, that shapes things very quickly,” said Horton.

Horton said he wants to go beyond the Autumnal Festival and some classroom-centered presentations to help teach students in interdisciplinary ways.

“How do you take the steps to make it a common part of our menu and the education is ongoing as students eat throughout the year. We’re getting ready to build a brand-new dining center. I think that’s scheduled to open in just a couple years. One of the things we want to include in that center would be an international cuisine station. And so that includes Native American cuisine. I look at every recipe we’re developing or showcasing right now, as work towards that,” said Horton.

Horton said he hopes to showcase ingredients such as pecans, maple sugar, pumpkins, honey, and whitefish, all common to the Midwest.

The Horticulture Center festival Saturday and Sunday will also include Native American artifact identification, presentations on rangeland management, and Native American artists and musicians.

The Horticulture Center is a part of the Agriculture Department at Illinois State University. It encompasses 10 acres and is located on Raab Road, north of the University Golf Course, and across the street from Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. The Horticulture Center is also linked to Constitution Trail.