"Essentially, we had to cancel [SnowMont Music Festival] due to lack of interest," offers Chip Herter, Public Relations Manager for the SnowBall and SnowGlobe Music Festivals, "and no festival likes to see that. Ultimately, we reached the conclusion that, based on where we stood, and how close we were to the event, it couldn't happen.
"Most of our festivals keep the same format," he goes on to explain. "It's sort of the boutique size. If we have an aggregate total around 30,000 for the weekend, we've met our goal."
Both the SnowBall and Lake Tahoe's SnowGlobe Music Festivals met the organizer's expectations, according to Herter. With single day ticket sales piggy-backing on the three-day passes, it's hard to get a definitive number of just how many actually were in attendance. "We would love to expand," says Herter, "but because we are a boutique festival and we work in resort towns like Avon, we wouldn't want to have more than that influx in the host town. Lodging, in general, can become a concern."
The total numbers haven't been finalized, but as it stands now, SnowBall brought in somewhere in the neighborhood of six million dollars in revenue for the destination ski town, says Herter. This sort of boost gives local eateries, retailers and other businesses opportunities to capitalize on the three-day rush of bodies. While the success of SnowBall -- which suggests that perhaps dubstep and electronic music is a bigger draw in Colorado -- clearly gave everyone involved a notable boost, organizers are just as dismayed at the notion of having to cancel SnowMont.
"We understand that people had flight reservations, lodging plans in place, and we are aware that this is a massive inconvenience, but we hope that people will learn to trust our programming in the future." Herter concludes. "As the visionaries, we want the fans to know that we are music fans just like they are, and it is just as disheartening to us for this to be the conclusion, as I am sure it is to them."
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