After weeks of deliberation, Chaffee County on Tuesday approved a special-events permit for a 20,000-person music festival near Buena Vista.
Madison House Presents’ festival is planned for Aug. 4-7 on Jed Selby’s 274-acre ranch, which sits outside the west edge of Buena Vista.
After hearing from residents who live near the festival grounds, the Chaffee County commissioners shaved an hour off the planned closing times, asking organizers to wrap up the event at 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday and at midnight Thursday and Sunday.
Event planners, Selby said, “wanted it to be open late enough so people didn’t bail at the last minute for the bar and totally destroy downtown.”
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Selby’s family bought the ranch out of foreclosure in 2014, with the idea of developing a music festival on the property’s open meadows. Last summer, he began talking with AEG Live and Boulder-based Madison House Presents about creating an annual event.
The Gentlemen of the Road tour, spearheaded by Mumford & Sons, served as a test case for Madison House Presents’ ability to throw a large-scale music event in Chaffee County.
They’ll have to do well again this summer to keep Selby’s plan alive.
“The board specifically said if we want to do this again, we need to do it right,” Selby said. “That was their warning to us: You guys better do a great job if you want to do this again.”
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While no bands have been announced for the August event, a festival spokeswoman said an initial lineup of more than 30 artists could be ready within two weeks.
Headliners for this year’s events are hard to figure, but a look at the Red Rocks schedule points to the jam, folk and electronic acts that do well in outdoor settings in Colorado. Down the lineup, fans could expect bands similar to those who played Madison House Presents’ Gentlemen of the Road shows, including Dawes, Alabama Shakes and Jenny Lewis.
Chaffee County administrator Robert Christiansen, who oversaw the permitting processes, said genres such as bluegrass and classic blues had been mentioned in a briefing. He said the festival was looking at bands that would attract a wide variety of interests and ages.
“We aim for this festival to be a mighty source of Colorado pride,” Madison House Presents president Jeremy Stein said in a release.
Denver Post staff writer Jason Blevins contributed to this report.
