Sixty-six-year-old Gary May leans back in a leather chair after working on his farm and reminisces about the day he spent watching the Bears game with hip-hop group Public Enemy. That was in 2013, during the first and only time that his May Farms hosted the Riot Fest Music Festival in the small, eastern Colorado town of Byers.
He has fond memories of the event, the people and the exposure it gave his town and its local businesses. But not everyone in Byers has the same feelings toward Riot Fest.
It’s just one of several festivals to have been forced to look for a new home in the past five years in a state that seems increasingly inhospitable to such big events.
“It’s hard to do festivals in Denver because you can’t use public space, and it gets harder when you get out of city limits,” said Riot Fest founder Mike Petryshyn.
In 2014, a vocal group in the community convinced Arapahoe County to deny Riot Fest the temporary-use permit it would have needed for a second event at May Farms. Nearly a year later, residents still talk about the 17,000-person event in hushed voices.
Although Wil Chase, president of Byers General Store, thought Riot Fest was managed well, the division it caused the town is still a sore subject. And many in Byers are still searching for a way to host another such event without riling up the community again.
“I think people worry about the noise and they worry about their kids and they think they’ve come here to escape drugs, but by golly you can buy them here on any corner just as you can anywhere else.”
Chased away
Residents in areas adjacent to Sonic Bloom and South Park music festivals reported issues with emergency services, transportation, noise and trespassing, said Park County commissioner Mike Brazell. Despite businesses reporting record sales during the festivals, the county voted to tighten its outdoor event regulations in response to residents’ complaints.
“When we looked at regulations and talked to other surrounding counties, they were finding the same thing,” Brazell said.
“The biggest stink was made by the residents in that area, because they had to deal with the noise and the crowds,” said South Park Pottery & Back Room Beads owner Pat Pocius. ” We’re missing out on the income they could be getting, but people have moved up here because they like the quiet. They like to be left alone.”
In June, Sonic Bloom will celebrate its 10-year anniversary elsewhere, in Spanish Peaks Country. In August, Riot Fest will take place at the National Western Complex, its third location in as many years. The Apogaea festival also pulled out of Park County this year, citing the new regulations, and does not have a home for 2015. The SnowBall music festival also is taking the year off after struggling to secure a permanent location in the mountains and in Denver.
Narrowed choices
Soon after its own Mile High Music Festival ended at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in 2010, AEG Live Rocky Mountain — the largest concert promoter in the region — began looking for a new large outdoor event site in scenic, sun-drenched Colorado.
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Denver has largely taken itself off the table. For 2015, Denver tightened its year-old moratorium on all new special events on public property. That came in part from City Park neighbors’ complaints against the privately organized, inaugural music event Chive Fest in 2014.
Between April 15 and Sept. 1 of this year, the city’s major parks — City Park, Cheesman Park, Civic Center, Washington Park, Central Park and Sloan’s Lake — are off-limits to new events.
Read the whole article here:
http://www.denverpost.com/music/ci_28299539/some-colorado-communities-have-become-inhospitable-music-festivals?source=most_viewed
By Matt Miller | The Denver Post
Matt Miller: 303-954-1785, mrmiller@denverpost.com