Denver's PalletFest to feature creative reuses of wooden pallets

Pallet aficionados will be in their glory Oct. 11-12 in Denver. That's when the city's Sculpture Park will host the first-ever PalletFest. The two-day program will focus on creative reuse of the ubiquitous wooden platforms, which typically end up in landfills.

The festival will include large art structures made with upcycled materials ("upcycling" refers to reusing materials that would otherwise be treated as waste), a pallet maze, a pallet amphitheater with live musical performances, sustainable living demonstrations, an upcycled fashion show, and more. There'll even be a "build-off" competition in which teams will create functional or artistic structures out of wooden pallets.

PalletFest founder Kenny Fischer got the idea for a pallet-themed program after his family moved to a farm in search of a more self-sufficient life. There, he discovered the versatility of wooden pallets. "We got some land, we got some chickens and a goat, and I just started building things I needed—a fence, a bench, a tool rack—out of pallets," he said in an article on the festival's website.