Quartzsite Chamber links winter events to small business pitch program

The Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce has released its winter and ongoing community calendar, laying out the season’s signature gatherings and tying local festivals to regional economic development activity. The listing highlights January staples such as the Hi Jolly Parade and Camelpalooza, notes Tyson Wells and Big Tent overlap events, and includes monthly member meetings and the Chamber’s annual meeting.

Beyond event dates, the calendar serves as an operations hub for organizers and vendors. The Chamber provides entry and vendor forms for Camelpalooza and the Hi Jolly Parade, parade route and parking maps, and practical staging and safety guidance. For anyone planning to set up a booth, enter the parade, or manage traffic on event days, those materials centralize logistics that used to be spread across multiple channels.

Notably, the Chamber’s calendar also documents collaborative economic development activity. Quartzsite will co-host the Moonshot Arizona Pitch Competition in partnership with La Paz County Economic Development and the Town of Quartzsite. Moonshot is a rural entrepreneurship pitch tour and has appeared as a March regional tour stop in past years. Tying a pitch competition into the events calendar signals an effort to fold small business support and entrepreneurship programming directly into the town’s high-season visitor economy.

That matters for the local market. Quartzsite’s winter events form the backbone of the town’s high-season visitor economy, drawing seasonal traffic that supports vendors, restaurants, lodging and service businesses. By embedding entrepreneurship programming like Moonshot into that calendar, town leaders aim to connect visiting entrepreneurs, local startups and existing small businesses with mentoring, investor exposure and regional development networks during peak foot traffic.

For community stakeholders the immediate implications are pragmatic. Event organizers get consolidated planning tools and safety guidance that reduce friction in staging large gatherings. Vendors gain clarity on application and parking procedures that affect revenue planning. And local businesses have a new pathway to plug into regional development pipelines without leaving the town’s busiest season.

Quartzsite’s calendar also lists planned future events, including a February Chili Cook-Off and a spring Off-Road Extravaganza, preserving room for both traditional festivals and niche draw events that diversify visitor profiles.

The takeaway? Use the Chamber calendar as your operational playbook this season: register early, study the route and parking maps, and consider whether the Moonshot pitch stop is an opportunity to pitch, partner or hire. Our two cents? Treat winter events not just as festivals but as concentrated windows to grow customers, test products and connect with regional economic supports.