The Hustle & Bustle Before Tarantula FestThere’s something about September in La Junta. The weather starts to change, tarantulas start making their way across the prairie, and all around
The Hustle & Bustle Before Tarantula Fest
Dated: September 9 2026
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The Hustle & Bustle Before Tarantula Fest
There’s something about September in La Junta. The weather starts to change, tarantulas start making their way across the prairie, and all around town you can feel the excitement building.
Tarantula Fest is almost here.
What most people don't see is that this weekend has been in the works for months.
Our Tarantula Fest committee has been meeting every single month since the beginning of the year. There have been ideas, phone calls, planning, changes, more ideas, more meetings—and now that we're only a few weeks away, I'd describe it as equal parts exciting and chaotic.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
This year feels different.
Every year we learn a little more about what works, what people love and what we can do to make Tarantula Fest even better. This year, we've added so much more to do and see.
The festival takes over Downtown La Junta September 25 & 26, but this year the fun stretches well beyond just a few hours on Saturday.
Friday includes opportunities to hear from tarantula experts, catch Arachnophobia at the Fox Theatre, visit The ART Project, head out on a Tarantula Tour, and then end the night downtown at the Beer Garden with live music from The Martini Shot.
And then Saturday—we're going BIG.
The streets will fill with the Tarantula Parade, vendors, food trucks and the Classic Car Show. There will be an Education Pavilion, kids activities, The ART Project, a cornhole tournament, the Hairy Leg Contest, 8-Legged Races, Koshare Dancers and plenty more happening throughout the day.
And when you think the day is over... look up.
Saturday night will wrap up at Tiger Stadium with Stories in the Sky, a drone show with pre-festivities beginning at 8 p.m. and the drones taking flight at 9.
But Tarantula Fest is about more than tarantulas.
That's probably my favorite part.
People come here because seeing tarantulas roaming the Southeast Colorado prairie is something you simply don't experience everywhere. What is commonly called the “migration” is actually the annual mating ritual of male tarantulas traveling across the grasslands in search of females.
But once visitors get here, we get the opportunity to show them La Junta.
They walk our downtown. They eat in our restaurants. They shop with our vendors and local businesses. They visit our museums and attractions. They meet the people who call this place home.
For one weekend, we get to roll out the welcome mat and show people why we're proud to live here.
And THAT is what makes all of those meetings worth it.
The countdown is on.
Behind the scenes right now, there are a lot of people working incredibly hard to pull all of these pieces together. Plans are still being finalized, details are still changing and I'm pretty sure the hustle and bustle is only going to get crazier between now and September 25.
But when I see Downtown La Junta full of people, our businesses busy, families having fun and visitors experiencing our community—I'll know exactly why we did it.
I can't wait to see what this year's Tarantula Fest brings.
And if you see me running around somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, be sure to say hi. 🕷ï¸â¤ï¸
Angela Ayala
As a homegrown La Junta native, I have witnessed many transformations in the Arkansas Valley. I have spent most of my adult life helping to make them happen. My intimate knowledge of this region and m....
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