Rubber ducky fishing at Chamberfest 2013. Courtesy/LACC

CHAMBER News:

The community is invited to come downtown 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today to enjoy music, dance, shop, dig in a giant sand pile, look at 4×4 vehicles, and explore other family-friendly entertainment.

Chamberfest is expected to draw more than 2,000 residents to the downtown area. Businesses and nonprofits utilize this opportunity to provide giveaways and games for attendees as well as sell merchandise and distribute information.

Chamberfest is the annual Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce event featuring Chamber Members. At this event, businesses and nonprofits alike showcase their products and services for the public. There are more than 350 Los Alamos businesses and nonprofits that are Chamber Members and many of them will have booths at Chamberfest. Twenty-Four of the booths will be represented on the Chamberfest BINGO card, a game which gives booth visitors a chance to win a prize if they get three lines completed – one horizontal, one vertical, and also a diagonal.

This year Chamberfest booths will be concentrated in and around Central Park Square, Main Street and Central Avenue between 15th and 20th streets. The earliest part of Chamberfest kicks off at the Tuff Riders Gear Swap, which begins at 8 a.m. at 170 Central Park Square. Right across the parking lot from the Gear Swap, Rose Chocolatier will be selling coffee, tea and lattes along with her specialty pastries to get everyone’s morning started off right. Starting at 10 a.m. the LANB sand pile will be prominently featured in the middle of Central Avenue with plenty of buckets, shovels and toys for the kids and young at heart.

Musical entertainment will be provided by the popular local band DK and the Affordables. The 4×4 show will feature private vehicles and new 2017 models from Lithia Dodge Ram Jeep as well as Santa Fe Jeep Tours and mini-jeeps from Zia ATV. In the Central Park Square Park parents and pet owners can let their dogs splash around in the dog pool area sponsored by LA Doghouse while the kids splash around in the very popular Bubble Pit sponsored by Gateway Mortgage.

In a new location this year, the food booths will be found on Central Avenue near 15th Street. Vendors include Sirphey, Shure Bread, The Food Depot, the Co+op Market and Frogurt. About noon, Bathtub Row Brewing and UnQuarked will be opening their doors for adult beverages.

Chamberfest is a family-oriented activity that serves several purposes:

• To provide families with fun and entertainment while familiarizing them with Chamber Members.
• To bring people into the downtown for positive community-oriented experiences. The event acquaints potential customers with businesses and nonprofits they might not normally visit.
• To contribute to the overall feeling of well-being in the community.

Chamberfest runs between 15th and 20th streets along Central Avenue, and along Main Street, as well as in the Central Park Square Park and the Chamber of Commerce parking lot.

There will be road blocks on Central at 15th and 20th streets, so plan to arrive at nearby parking lots by using Trinity Drive, Rose Street and Nectar Street to get to the lots on 15th, 20th, and Deacon streets. To learn more about Chamberfest and see photos from past years, visit the Chamberfest 2017 FaceBook page.

The Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce is a program of Los Alamos Commerce & Development Corporation; a private, not-for-profit economic and community development organization serving the Los Alamos area since 1983. LACDC serves as the umbrella organization for the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce, Los Alamos MainStreet, the Los Alamos Meeting & Visitors Bureau, Los Alamos Small Business Center, projectY cowork Los Alamos, Launch Los Alamos and the Los Alamos Research Park.