Whatever is going to happen in Crested Butte next weekend, it was officially decided Thursday night after a week of heated debate.
The Crested Butte Town Council unanimously approved a special-use permit Thursday evening that allowed Bud Light to take over Elk Avenue for a $500,000 payment (up from an orginal $250,000) to the town. Bud Light will paint it blue and throw and film a huge commercial-worthy bash based on the company’s latest marketing campaign, ” Up for Whatever.”
The campaign is centered on a secret town called Whatever. Bud Light chose Crested Butte as that town and spent the summer planning how to turn it into Whatever USA on Sept. 5-7.
The St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch beer conglomerate plans to fly in more than 1,000 beer drinkers for the event that was kept secret from Crested Butte residents until last week.
Bud Light is creating a fantasy town where there are concerts, oddball entertainment, free-flowing Bud Light products, celebrities, games like Twister played by contortionists and an al fresco, family-style dinner in the middle of the disguised Elk Avenue.
Before the council — under pressure from a divided electorate — made its decision Thursday night, residents reported that fences already are going up around town and supplies, including a semi truck full of golf carts, are being unloaded at different venues.
Former U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth was one of many anti-Whatever residents complaining that the original $250,000 offer was not enough.
