Manitou Springs to celebrate 30 years of The Great Fruitcake Toss
Jan. 16, 2024
Photo provided by Visit Manitou Springs
Update: This event has been postponed due to weather and will now take place on Feb. 1.
On Jan. 25, The Great Fruitcake Toss will return to Memorial Park in Manitou Springs, offering attendees competitive and enjoyable ways to get rid of unwanted holiday leftovers for a 30th year.
This event, full of age-inclusive fruitcake-centric activities, will take place from noon to 3 p.m.
Ticket information
Attendees must purchase tickets to participate in the event’s competitions.
According to Jenna Gallas, the event manager for Visit Manitou Springs, those who bring their own fruitcakes to toss pay $1 per competition. Participants can also pay $5 to rent a fruitcake at the event and receive four tickets.
Additionally, Gallas said attendees can get tickets by donating nonperishable canned and shelf-stable goods, which go to the Manitou Springs Community Food Pantry.
“If you want to bring canned items of food instead of purchasing tickets, we do donate to the Manitou Springs Community Food Pantry based out of St. Andrew's Church here in Downtown Manitou. We've been doing that with them for years trying to stock their shelves in the wintertime,” Gallas said.
Gallas said that each nonperishable item equals one ticket; while there is no limit on the amount of goods someone can donate, families can receive a maximum of 10 tickets.
About the competitions
The Great Fruitcake Toss features five competitions that attendees can participate in. According to Gallas, winners will be determined within each age group; the two age groups are kids, who are competitors ages 12 and under, and adults. A Fruitcake King and Queen will also be crowned at the event.
The distance competition measures who can throw their fruitcake the farthest in each age group. Gallas said this is likely the most popular competition each year. According to the event’s webpage, only one cake can be thrown at a time, and each toss costs one ticket.
In the Basketcake, participants will toss their fruitcakes into wicker baskets lined up on a pallet, each varying in size and point value.
The event page notes that this event requires one ticket, which allows competitors to toss their fruitcakes three times. The points they acquire in their three tosses will be added up, and the person with the highest total in each age group will be the winner.
The accuracy competition involves tossing fruitcakes through consecutive hula hoops, which will decrease in size and be placed 10, 20 and 30 feet away from the participants. Children aged 10 and under will throw their fruitcakes starting from 5 feet away.
The winner will be the person farthest away from the hoops who tosses their cake through successfully.
The balance course, which requires one ticket, has participants race through an obstacle course while balancing a fruitcake on a spatula. The fastest time in each age group will win.
Gallas noted that all tossing is done by hand, and those who bring their own fruitcakes for the tosses must meet certain specifications and go through an inspection.
“It has to be 1 pound, has to be rectangular in shape [and] contain the glossy cherries, fruits and nuts as well as flour. So, it has to be edible," Gallas said.
Photos provided by Visit Manitou Springs
Attendees with baking experience can sign up for the Too Good to Toss Bake-off. According to the event page, all fruitcakes have to contain flour, nuts and fruits. The winner will get a prize package from Collin Street Bakery.
Anyone interested in competing must fill out this sign-up sheet to enter. Those entered must check in between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m.
More rules and information on these competitions can be viewed here.
Other activities and offerings
Gallas noted that Cool Science, a local organization, will be at the event to teach the young children in attendance how to make mini catapults. She said the catapults can be taken home and used to shoot marshmallows at a castle the organization will have set up.
Photo provided by Visit Manitou Springs
Pikes Peak Library District will also be at The Great Fruitcake Toss, and Gallas said they will provide the supplies necessary to paint rocks that look like fruitcakes.
Attendees will have the opportunity to sample fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery, whose staff hopes to change the way fruitcake is viewed. Gallas noted that they sponsor the event and provide some of the prizes attendees can expect to see.
“Our big title sponsor is Collin Street Bakery out of Corsicana, Texas, and they have been for several years, and it's kind of fun that they're involved with us. The quintessential kings of fruitcake baking. They have been doing this for probably closing on 200 years, and I know that they ship those fruitcakes to over 100 countries every year. So, if you want a really good fruitcake, and I'm a believer, it's a Collin Street Bakery fruitcake,” Gallas said.
Between the competitions and the samples, this event uses a lot of fruitcakes.
Gallas said that leftover fruitcakes can be taken home, but any leftovers that are not claimed will be fed to the animals at SunMountain Center; she explained that the center has a biodynamic farm that focuses on reusing certain materials in their everyday processes.
“They will feed the leftover fruitcakes to their animals at the farm and kind of put that back into the ecosystem, so we're really proud to have them every year to take those leftover cakes,” she said.
History of The Great Fruitcake Toss
According to an article and video from Rocky Mountain PBS, legend says that The Great Fruitcake Toss was created because of a group of annoyed Manitou locals. They gathered at the Ancient Mariner, a local bar, and after expressing their irritation at getting so many fruitcakes during the holidays, they decided to toss them in the park.
According to the Manitou Springs Heritage Center’s publication “Emma Crawford, her life and legacy,” the same group of people working for the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce, who also created the Emma Crawford Coffin Races, came up with The Great Fruitcake Toss, and it began in 1996.
Rocky Mountain PBS noted that at one point, the event’s participants used air cannons and large equipment to toss the cakes across a football field; when the Manitou Chamber of Commerce noticed the event wasn’t bringing people into Downtown Manitou Springs anymore, it was almost canceled permanently.
However, a group of supporters appealed against the cancelation, which made it so residents could continue hosting the event. It returned in 2016 and has since taken place annually.
Photos provided by Visit Manitou Springs
Gallas noted that The Great Fruitcake Toss has received international recognition in recent years.
She said that Marlo Anderson, the founder of the National Day Calendar, designated Manitou Springs as the official destination of National Fruitcake Toss Day last year. “He kind of kicked us off, and threw out the first cake,” Gallas said.
She also said that The Great Fruitcake Toss was featured on Itte-Q! in 2020, a highly rated TV show in Japan. “It was really fun, and unique and different to have that kind of acknowledgment, especially from way over on the other side of the world,” Gallas said.
Additional information
Gallas recommends that event attendees park in the Hiawatha Gardens parking lot, where three hours of parking will cost $5, according to the parking rates webpage.
More information and announcements can be found on Manitou Springs’ official website as well as on the Visit Manitou Springs Facebook and Instagram pages.
Those interested in helping out with this event can sign up to volunteer here.
Photo provided by Visit Manitou Springs
