LOVELAND, CO - Loveland, about 46 miles north of downtown Denver, takes its name seriously! 

Every Valentine’s Day weekend, the city hosts a two-day Sweetheart Festival for lovers, families and romantics. The celebration of love features a group wedding, entertainment, food and other heart-themed decorations and art.

The unique event is only part of Loveland’s long history of embracing its reputation as a romantic city.

For more than 70 years, Loveland has been internationally known for its valentine remailing program, the largest of its kind.

Just taking a stroll or drive through the city around Valentine’s Day is enough to put even the most unsentimental person in a romantic mood.

Wooden hearts with personalized messages of love adorn light poles throughout town. A local rotary club sells the hearts, and local students help to paint the messages on them. That tradition has been going on for over 40 years.

A 10-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide, 24,000-pound sculpture spelling out the word "LOVE" was built at the Loveland Visitors Center in early 2019. Inspired by an ancient tradition, visitors can buy a lock, personalize it if they want, and then lock it to the sculpture to symbolize locking their love forever.

And it has a long history of agriculture and industrial production.

The birth and growth of Loveland

Loveland began like many of the other towns around our state: with the discovery of gold.

During Colorado’s Gold Rush in the 1850s, a group of explorers decided to establish a trapper’s camp in the Big Thompson Valley.

In 1877 the Colorado Central railroad was expanded from Longmont to Fort Collins and the settlements that existed relocated to be near the train tracks. This new settlement is what would become Loveland.

By 1878 downtown Loveland was starting to take shape and only three years later the town’s 51 residents voted to officially incorporate.

Loveland remained dependent on agriculture for the first half of the 20th century. Sugar beets and sour cherries provided the area’s primary crops and by the 1920s, the Spring Glade orchard in Loveland was the largest cherry orchard west of the Mississippi. They would produce in excess of $1 million worth of cherries every year until they closed. The Loveland Cherry Company, located on US 34, is still a favorite for visitors and locals to grab cherry pie, juice, jellies and other desserts.

In the 1970s, large shopping centers began moving into the area. They were built closer to the highways, away from the original downtown area. Local businesses struggled to compete with department stores that could offer more choices and cheaper prices. The 4th Street business district fell into a state of neglect.

Interest in downtown Loveland perked back up in the 1990s and many of the original buildings were updated and restored. Thanks in part to a redevelopment project led by the city, businesses began moving back into the area. Today, it remains a busy hub of popular dining and shopping.

Each February, the streets of downtown Loveland are taken over by hearts and valentines for the Loveland Sweetheart Festival.

Over the weekend, the festivities include a group wedding where couples can say “I do” or renew their vows. The ceremony features music and readings, candles, photos and cupcakes.

The festival lets children enjoy games and activities like face painting, a ring toss, a hockey shoot booth, and crafts, along with food and treats.

Every year, thousands of people send Valentine’s Day cards through the Loveland remailing program. Through its remailing program, volunteers stamp more than 120,000 cards with a special poem before they head out to their final destinations in all 50 states and 110 countries.

The city also creates an official Loveland Valentine card each year. Residents submit their designs for the card and the chamber of commerce combines a few of the best to create the card.

The program is run completely by volunteers who spend weeks stamping the cards. Prospective stampers can spend years on the waiting list.

For the two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, about 60 volunteer stampers spend hours in the Loveland Chamber of Commerce building hand-stamping each card. Local artists also often stop by to provide entertainment and add to the spirit.

• Put your valentine in an envelope with the recipient’s address and a stamp.
• Put that envelope in a larger envelope
• Mail to:
  • Postmaster - Attention Valentines
  • 446 E. 29th St., Loveland, CO 80538-9998
• Your valentine will be removed from the larger envelope, postmarked and mailed
• https://www.9news.com/article/life/style/colorado-guide/loveland-colorado/73-8f20b14d-20de-4d1e-9e7e-1f82bde77d8f