As the list of summer festivals for 2022 nears its end, officials and organizers are already looking forward to 2023. The Telluride Parks and Recreation Commission held a special meeting Tuesday afternoon at Rebecca Hall to consider the dates for three summer events that all initially requested the use of Main Street parks pocket on the same dates.
The Telluride Yoga Festival, Telluride Table, and Telluride Food and Wine Festival originally placed orders from June 23-25. Committee members and organizers suggested alternative dates for publicizing events at pocket parks, particularly Elks Park, during last week’s regular committee meeting.
Since then, Telluride Food and Wine Festival and Telluride Table have submitted updated orders with new proposed dates of June 1-4 and July 7-9, respectively. The original dates of the June 22-25 Telluride Yoga Festival remain unchanged, with organizers of the two other events expressing a desire to honor the Yoga Festival’s current event dates and suggest alternative dates for their own events, according to a staff memo. The committee unanimously approved the new dates on Tuesday.
The 2023 summer events calendar will increase use at Elks Park throughout the summer and require more maintenance, said Stephanie Jacquet, the theme parks manager.
“And in terms of analysis, they’re adding three new events to Elk Park that will have a lot of high-frequency use of Elks Park in early spring and summer,” she explained. “So with what we’ve already got on the calendar with Mountainfilm, Wild West Fest, Bluegrass Festival, Plein Air, Art + Architecture, Elks Park use will be pretty much weekly from late May through mid-July, June 7 to 13, which will be before the festival Bluegrass. So I think it’s something the staff can take in, but just realize that if we can’t run the irrigation and do the repairs and maintenance, the grass may suffer, but we’ve managed to get it back.”
She added that employees witnessed a similar event in August.
“The same thing happened this year, kind of more in August with rain and all, when we had a lot of use around the jazz festival and the mushroom festival. So that’s going to be the only new analytical part,” Jackett said.
Committee Chairman Teddy Eriko suggested that applications be reviewed after three years and added that the pocket gardens would eventually be renovated, although there is no set timetable for such work at this point.
“Sometime in the future, five or so years, more or less than five years, Elks Park and Spruce Street Park will be completely redesigned. And we won’t know what the effects will be on any event and whether it can happen, because we know That work is hard in the winter,” he said. “By throwing that in there you might have a few alternative things to do to make your event work.”
Committee member Tommy Thacher praised the settlement between the event’s organizers.
“I think there was a huge compromise. And frankly, it is a win-win for all parties involved.”
JJ Osola, Jesse Piccala and Ryan Higgins, panelists who attended Tuesday, agreed. Before the official vote, Eriko asked the meeting’s applicants if they were happy with the current changes to the date, which led to “likes across the room,” as he put it.
Jacquet reminded applicants that they will also have to work with the Committee for Community Assistance, Arts and Special Events (CCAASE).
Then there are future steps to this process. Two of the three events must be included in the CCAASE calendar. Then if street closures are requested it will be at CCAASE level as well. So it could happen as soon as next week for calendar dates,” she said.
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