Events and music in Vail

Events and music have been used to draw visitors to Vail and Summit County during non-skiing months.

Summit Daily News -- High Country Business Review, 6/11/07 High Country summer keeps sizzlin’- "In Vail, the Ford Amphitheatre acted as a marketing tool as well, when it opened in 1987 with 12 shows. This year, it hosts 74. The BRAVO! music festival also began in 1987, and the Vail International Dance Festival followed a year later.

'Those three things have been an unbelievable influx of changing how the summer guest looks at Vail,' said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation. 'It really just became a concentrated effort in the late ‘80s and reached a high point (of focus) between 1988 and 1993.'

In 1999, voters passed a 1.4 percent lodging tax to market Vail between May and October. Since then, revenue has increased at a steady pace, to $1.9 million, said Kelli McDonald, economic development manager for the town of Vail.

'We’ve seen more businesses remaining open in between seasons. There’s more business coming in May. Prior to marketing, we didn’t see it,' McDonald said, adding that the effort focuses not only on drawing individuals, but also groups.

The town has a separate budget of $750,000 for event seed money, from the Teva Mountain Games to the Fourth of July parade and Oktoberfest."