What we know about summer 2021: Greeley Stampede, Blues Jam, Friday Fest, Arts Picnic and more
The Greeley Stampede is happening this year, though organizers still don’t know exactly what it’ll look like. Courtesy photo.
By Dan England
After a guest asked how he was doing, Justin Watada sighed through a tired laugh.
“I’ve had better years,” Watada said.
Watada’s been through 17 Greeley Stampedes, years ago as the head of media relations and now as its general manager, and this year’s been the toughest. Yes, this year, even with the good news that there will be a Stampede: That’s because he still doesn’t know exactly what the Stampede will be. The event’s changed more times than the restrictions surrounding COVID-19. That, as you probably now by now, is a lot.
“We are on version 10 of our budget this year,” Watada said. “We are 80-some days away, and there’s still so much unknown.”
So, yes, there will be a Stampede this year, and it will happen at the same time, even operating on the Fourth of July weekend, and it will be a multi-day event, with the goal of five evening concerts and some rodeos. There will also be a Greeley Arts Picnic at the end of July, a Neighborhood Nights series and even a Greeley Blues Jam on June 5. In many ways, these will look and feel like the same events you loved before the virus emerged last year and wiped out anything fun. Other big events look promising, such as High Plains Chautauqua, which promises on its website to be “better than ever” in 2021, and UNC’s Concert Under The Stars says the same thing.
Yay!
But exactly what they will look like, or, more importantly, sound like, remains to be seen. That’s the hard part for Watada and other organizers. In fact, it makes this year harder even after a year when they had to cancel everything. Last year was a bummer. This year feels more like chaos.
Greeley Blues Jam - June 5
Blues Jam is also on for 2021. Courtesy photo.
Remember, these are huge events, with thousands of people, national acts, attended by people from all over the world. They take a year to plan. And yet, the Blues Jam decided THIS WEEK that “it’s time to get back to the party,” as they put it in a news release.
That could make it the first festival that happens in all of Colorado, said Pam Bricker, who founded the festival with her husband, Al, and still has a major part in running it with him. Most festivals pushed themselves to late summer or early fall to play it safe.
“We have this wonderful opportunity,” she said. “All we need to do now is say it’s going to happen. We will abide by all the limitations on June 5. What happens by then, happens.”
That won’t affect the lineup, as it’s essentially the lineup that was supposed to play in 2020, said John DeWitt, the chairman of the Jam, as they retained everyone except for one act. Here’s a quick preview:
• Ronnie Baker Brooks, a Chicago blues guitarist and well-respected solo act, is the headliner.
• Southern Avenue, founded by Ori Naftaly, a guitarist from Israel who lives in Memphis and has a significant following here thanks to his numerous appearances at the Jam and at The Moxi in downtown Greeley.
• Jimmy Hall - Harmonica player known for his work with Wet Willie, which had the huge hit “Keep On Smilin’ in 1974.
• Johnny Sansone - Veteran and multi-instrumentalist from New Orleans.
• Erica Brown and the Cast Iron Queens - Brown, another Greeley favorite, brings her women group with Emily Nelson, an artist with Greeley ties.
• The rest are King Cake (formerly the Movers and Shakers), Kerry Pastine and The Crime Scene and the Grace Kuch Band.
There will be a second stage, although that will be smaller and may just feature some local acts, enough to “keep the music going,” DeWitt said, while the Main Stage prepares for the next act.
Other new stuff includes a Kansas City sanctioned barbecue contest, beer tasting and a whiskey and cigar event.
“For a couple of years now we’ve been trying to add value to the event,” DeWitt said. “We hope to attract a different crowd who doesn’t realize the Blues Jam is so cool. They maybe check out the barbecue event and then they hear the music and go, ‘What’s that?’ I’m excited about music again.”
The Blues Jam hopes to have a Friday night pub crawl downtown as well, although they don’t know if regulations will allow it by then.
The Island Grove Arena will still have sod covering the dirt floor, and there’s still more than enough room to distance everyone if that’s what is needed, Bricker said, or a portion of the audience who desires it. But sometimes there are advantages to having an older audience.
“They will all be vaccinated,” Bricker said. “I’m feeling very positive.”
Friday Fest
We might as well talk about Friday Fest since the Blues Jam pub crawl is contigent, at least somewhat, on the ability to host a Friday Fest. Alison Hamling, director of downtown experience for the Downtown Development Authority, is already sick of the question. Here’s her answer: Maybe later.
Friday Fest, unlike other events, doesn’t have a way to control the crowd, as it’s free and doesn’t offer one way to get in and out. As you remember, the weekly kick-off to the weekend offers a live band, a way to carry around a cup of alcohol downtown and lots of fun.
“Until we have the all-clear on outdoor crowd size we can not plan any Friday Fests,” Hamling said. But if we do get the go-ahead we will probably be able to be up and running within a week.”
Hamling said that with vaccinations, that could be as soon as the end of May, although that depends on the state, not her, so quit asking.
Greeley Stampede - July 25-July 4
The state’s new comparatively relaxed regulations, with the promise of more as long as cases drop, gives the Stampede hope for a fun time. Cases were actually on the rise nationwide this week, but more and more people are getting vaccinated.
“It’s looking better and better every day,” Watada said, who could use the good news.
Even if the state opens up by July 4, Watada still expects capacity limits. He wants a safe event.
“It doesn’t mean we will go from 0 to 60,” he said. “Right now, even if everything is wide open, we will have capacities and stuff like that. It’s a tricky situation. We know there’s some consumer confidence we have to get back.”
Even if Watada wants those limits, they leave the Stampede at a disadvantage, as some states such as Texas are 100 percent open. It’s hard to say what that means for concerts, although the Stampede still wants to present five night shows with national acts. He doesn’t know what the capacity will be for those shows, and that makes negotiating hard when some artists are taking big money to perform in places with no restrictions.
“We are reworking with some of the artists,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate mess, although I understand the artists’ position. They haven’t been working for the last year either.”
The goals are modest this year, Watada said, even as last year delivered a financial hit to the organization.
“Our board hopes to make $1 and cover all expenses,” he said. “That would be a success.”
Greeley Arts Picnic - July 24-25
Andrea Haring probably could have picked a better year to run the City of Greeley’s largest entertainment events for the first time. But the longtime special events coordinator, Rhonda Welch, retired last year.
Oof.
Haring, however, is excited about the fact that the city will have a Farmer’s Market as well as the arts picnic and a Neighborhood Nights series, which presents a free movie and a fun live act in a Greeley park. As of right now, that would mean a 500-person limit for all events in the park. That wouldn’t be a huge issue for Neighborhood Nights or the Farmer’s Market, but the arts picnic is much bigger.
“We are hoping that changes at the end of July,” she said. “But as of now we can only plan for what we have today.”
That would mean fencing in Lincoln Park and monitoring who goes in and out and offering contact tracing, huge expenses that she hopes are eased by the end of July.
The event should, however, look like the arts picnics of the past, with vendors and music acts similar to what they’ve had in the past, i.e. local and some regional music acts that offer some culture as well as good music. But the vendors could be spaced out, and there may not be chairs for music acts, as patrons should bring blankets to sit on. There may or may not be food vendors, and she doesn’t know if there will be a kickoff concert the Friday before the two-day event.
People are eager to get out, however, and she knows, because of that, the event should be a success no matter how it’s presented.
“We typically don’t go over 250 for Neighborhood Nights, but this summer, who knows? People are itching to get out,” Haring said. “We will do everything in our guidelines to make all of it safe, but we also want to offer a little joy.”