The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Says no to holding festival during Bike Week or weekend before July 4
By Aimee Eaton
After coming out in verbal support of a proposed Crested Butte Comedy Festival two weeks ago, the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council took a breath at its August 1 meeting to really consider what the festival might mean in terms of summer tourism, national exposure, and the upper valley’s carrying capacity.
The shift was brought about by the reading of a draft letter of support to the festival organizers, and a clarification of the dates on which the organizers hoped to hold the festival.
At the first discussion of the festival—which seeks to bring top comedians to the valley for a long four-day weekend and would include the filming of several television specials for network broadcast—the council understood the event would run Father’s Day weekend, June 14-17. That weekend is usually pretty quiet.
However, upon further conversations it became clear that the organizers’ preferred dates were either June 21-24, which overlaps with Crested Butte Bike Week, or June 28 to July 1, a weekend that butts up against the Fourth of July and is increasingly seeing large crowds throughout Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte.
Mt. Crested Butte mayor Todd Barnes kicked off discussion for the letter of support.
“I’m willing to sign it,” he said. “Let’s see if these guys can pull it off. If you’re looking at any type of outdoor usage you’re looking at the end of June.”
“The first set of dates interferes with Bike Week, and then we’re into the holiday,” countered councilman Ken Lodovico, who noted that members of the community had approached him with concerns about the number of visitors Crested Butte already attracts during the peak summer months.
“I don’t really support any of those dates,” said councilman Bill Thompson. “We don’t need more summer exposure. We’re already chasing people around the backcountry to clean up their furniture and poop. The festival sounds like fun. I’d probably like to go to some of the events, but it is not something I can support.”
Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce executive director Ashley UpChurch was in the audience and spoke about the need to preserve space for cherished town events.
“If they’re using the Center for the Arts for their comedy festival, where am I going to have Bike Week?” she asked the council. “Where are we going to have Bridges of the Butte? I don’t see bringing an additional 2,000 people into town on the weekend when our kids are riding their bikes through the streets all day and night as a great decision.”
The council then asked Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick why the festival organizers were requesting these specific dates, when the earlier dates were better for the towns’ schedules.
According to Fitzpatrick, the organizers suggested that coming earlier would make it harder to bring in the big-name comedians and could cause difficulty for scheduling.
“These are the dates that [organizers] proposed recently,” said Fitzpatrick, noting the dates cited in the letter of support. “They’re a little different from the dates they proposed originally. There’s no problem going back and saying we support [the festival], but we want different dates.”
Barnes then agreed that having the festival compete with Bike Week would not be optimal, but he was not ready to give up on the festival entirely.
“Do we want to tell them a different weekend?” he asked.
“I would propose we rewrite the letter to say that we are in support of this event as long as it occurs prior to June 17,” said councilperson Janet Farmer.
Those dates would keep the festival out of the heart of summer, but could still result in an increase in the exposure of Crested Butte on a national level.
“It’s not going to be the event users who are out trashing the backcountry,” said Thompson. “It’s going to be the people who come from the exposure.”
Councilman Nicholas Kempin suggested that maybe the festival was just one thing too many for an already saturated market.
“I’m getting the impression from people that we’re just maxed out in the summertime, and it’s kind of across the board from the police to fire to members of the community,” he said. “Is there anything we can do to not market so much in the summer, and maybe do more in the winter? People are asking how many more people we can have here in July.”
One of the council’s original draws to the comedy festival had been the potential for it to bolster business during a slower time of year. With that in mind, Barnes, who owns a business in Mt. Crested Butte, suggested offering the festival organizers the weekend after Labor Day. Those dates coincide with the chamber’s Chili and Beer Festival, but not much else.
“I’m down to share the chili and beer weekend,” said UpChurch in response to the suggestion.
The council then voted 6-1 in favor of editing its letter of support to state that it would be in support of the event to be held on or prior to the weekend of June 14-17, or after Labor Day. Bill Thompson cast the dissenting vote.
