For the 96th year the community of Littleton welcomed current and former residents to Western Welcome Week. The Denver Municipal Band’s jazz ensemble kicked off the 10 day celebration on August 9 at Sterne Park and despite overcast weather drones lit up the evening sky to end the night. On Saturday the Grand Parade delighted crowds.
This gathering’s origins can be traced back to July 21, 1928, when Houstoun Waring, editor of the Littleton Independent, hosted a 40th anniversary celebration for the newspaper. The event was such a success that the community decided to hold a celebration the following year to commemorate the 100th birthday of Richard S. Little, the Littleton community’s founder, called “Homecoming Days,” which welcomed everyone who had ever lived in or visited the town.  A town tradition was born.
The celebration was renamed Western Welcome Week in 1962 and expanded into a multi-day event. This year included some returning events, such as the 27th Gold Panning on the South Platte River and the 46th Family Pancake Breakfast, a 5K race, quilt and car shows, as well as new events like the 3×3 lacrosse drop-in tournament. Over $50,000 was raised for the community and non-profit partners.Â
One of the largest fundraisers is the beloved Brad and Mary Bradford Memorial Duck Race. The race took place on August 18 at the War Memorial Rose Garden at Little’s Creek in Sterne Park. People bought a little rubber duck or a “six-quack” to participate.
Of course, all good things must come to an end, and the Littleton Symphony Orchestra served as the grand finale. The group collaborated with the Littleton Ballet Academy, which performed an excerpt from their upcoming production of “The Wizard of Oz” and the Colorado Jazz Ambassadors for a concert on Sunday, August 18, at Hudson Gardens & Events Center to cap off the week.
For the past four years, the Littleton Symphony has worked with Western Welcome Week to create an ensemble comprised entirely of volunteers who share a love of music and want to share it with their community. “Live music is unlike anything you can get in a theater or a movie,” said guest violinist Mindi Loewen. “I think it speaks to your soul.”
Charles Snyder, an orchestra volunteer, agrees with Loewen about the importance of live performance. “I think the arts are a part of our humanity; they are one of the good things about our humanity, and there’s so much diversity in the arts,” Snyder said. “One of the things we did last year was we had people painting during a performance, so the people who came were exposed to the other arts in Littleton.”
Cathleen Johnson, an orchestra volunteer for the evening performance, has noticed a significant increase in attendance when these types of events are held. “Our audience size has certainly grown quite a bit from all of the different ways we’ve been trying to promote like this,” Johnson said.
The Colorado Jazz Ambassadors opened the show with an assortment of upbeat classics that created a lively atmosphere while rain started to fall. Doug Tidaback founded and led the ensemble, which is comprised of students enrolled in music programs across the area.
Led by Dr. Catherine Sailer, the Littleton Symphony Orchestra then set up on stage and played a multitude of crowd favorites ranging from Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” to John Phillip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” with a sneak peek of their upcoming performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” in May 2025.
Sailer has been with the Littleton Symphony Orchestra for the past three years while also working as the Director of Choral Studies at the University of Denver and the associate conductor of the Colorado Ballet Orchestra. Though she has conducted choirs across the world and has won awards for her conducting prowess, Sailer found a certain charm in working with an orchestra such as the Littleton Symphony Orchestra.
“This is a community orchestra,” Sailer said. “Our members have day jobs, and they’re not making their living as full-time musicians, so it holds a different space in their lives. It holds a really special place in their lives, and because it’s amateur, it’s their heart, their love.“
The outdoor concert venue has helped shift the community’s perception away from the grandiose performance that one might expect from a classical performance, making it far more inviting.
“That’s what I love about outdoor concerts—they’re so accessible,” Sailer said. “People can come, they can wear what they want, they can eat a sandwich, the kids can roll down the hill, they can dance around; it’s an accessible situation, and it’s meant to be fun. We choose music specifically that we know people will be interested in and that is engaging. It’s about having an enjoyable night and letting people see [that] the orchestra is not scary or stuffy, but that it’s a really fun place.”.
The 96th Western Welcome Week reignited Littleton’s vibrant cultural community while also upholding the town’s long-standing tradition of fun and community. As the countdown to their 100th anniversary begins in a few years, the door is always open to new and returning friends of the Littleton community, with duck races, pancake breakfasts and the joyous spirit that has kept the tight-knit community together for years.