News & Updates about Sunshine Festival
From updates, to News Articles and beyond - you'll find more information here!
2026 Sunshine Festival Poster:
Call for Artists
The Sunshine Festival invites artists to submit original artwork for our 2026 poster!
Each year, our poster becomes the face of the festival: celebrating rural innovation, accessibility, creativity, outdoor experience, art, and technology. For 2026, we are commissioning a single winning design to feature on our 11x17 festival poster.
The winning artist will receive a $250 award, and their work will be featured across Sunshine Festival marketing and promotions. Click here to learn more.
Festival Review
We ran a full post-festival review that combined on-site observations with structured feedback from volunteers, workshop leaders, musicians, and attendees. Inputs included quick surveys, debrief calls, and written notes on operations (signage, parking, food flow), accessibility, safety, and programming balance (music vs. workshops/excursions). We synthesized the themes, prioritized fixes, and turned them into clear actions for 2026: improved wayfinding, expanded food options, better accessibility, refined scheduling, and limited on-site dry camping. Read the full findings and action plan in the Root Year Debrief report.
Special Thanks!
Special thanks to the Taos News for featuring an ad for the Sunshine Festival in the August 28 - September 3 Tempo. At least a dozen of our root year attendees were thanks to your ad!
Questa’s First-Ever Pitch Contest Fuels Local Economic Growth
"Local business owners in Questa received a major boost on Thursday, August 14, at the first-ever Questa Business Bridge (QBB) Pitch Contest. The event, created by the Questa Economic Development Fund (QEDF), was designed to support the local economy by providing capital for new ventures and existing businesses. Originally, the QEDF had allocated $20,000 in grant funding, but in a last-minute show of support for local entrepreneurs, the Questa Credit Union added an additional $2,500, bringing the total prize pool to $22,500.
Held at the Questa Public Library, the contest was reminiscent of the popular show “Shark Tank” where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors"... read more
Photo by E. Wilde Questa Business Bridge Pitch Contest Participants