Using Festivals To Create A Four Season Destination: Telluride Colorado
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009All town’s host festivals and celebrations. Dallas follows the trend, hosting many events. There areDallas corporate events, Dallas team building events, Dallas entertainment events and many more. Most towns can be host to a multitude of gatherings, some to inform, some to entertain and some to promote business. Some cities and towns build local business around events, others see a a way to enrich their town and want to keep it going. Some locations have seasonal economies and struggle to find ways to get through the rest of the year.
Telluride Colorado has a distinct advantage over summer destination towns. Telluride is an isolated ski town that boasts a great mountain and a quaint town. During the winter, the town is crowded with the many tourists. People travel there to enjoy the winter recreation and spend money throughout the town on meals, clothes, food, massages and entertainment. Skiing attracts a more affluent crowd so art galleries can also do well. But Telluride has a challenge; there is no skiing in the summer. Telluride’s advantage was that it’s busy season was the cold winter months. Unlike resort towns in the North East, the summer months in Telluride offers some of the best weather. This was a perfect opportunity to create a four season resort town.
Telluride located in the far reaches of Colorado which is not far from Durango in the southwest corner of the state. It is a small town in a box canyon far away from any major urban population center. It was once a mining town but now offered little industry outside of being a winter resort destination. The town planners began bringing in summer festivals including music festivals, a mushroom festival, a film festival and art events. There are many outdoor adventures and tours for visitors who come to Telluride. It constructed a city campsite that bordered the wilderness and was also close enough to walk into the town, and was included on the shuttle route. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival grew into a major festival. The film festival has developed a strong reputation and a dedicated clientele. The film venues were in charming old theaters. There was also an attempt to make the celebrity event more public friendly, with outdoor seminars and theater in the park in the shadows of the mountain.
The town was also hindered by real estate limitations. The town is located between three steep mountain ridges. No more land was left to develop and many of the structures couldn’t be torn down without destroying the charm and history of the town. Building the town to meet the demand would mean destroying the charm that helped draw the crowd. Here again Telluride had an additional advantage. The bulk of the ski area was on the slopes on the other side of the mountain. To travel by car it was nearly a 15 mile trip, but the Gondola was able to function as the umbilical chord between the two areas. One area could retain the old fashion charm, the other could offer all the modern amenities of resort living.
Telluride has created a four season destination by utilizing its natural resources, protecting its heritage, and creatively expanding both the town and the town’s attractions.