Don’t know whether it’ll remain as a recording afterwards but the county commissioners are currently conducting the hearing on the FoV permit.
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Update: sounds like they have unanswered safety questions and they’re going to gather more information/conduct more DD and then re-convene with a potential answer on November 18th.
Also, thankfully - somebody advocated strongly for them approving FoV and then worrying about the Pretty Lights fest later (apparently there are more unanswered questions about PL)
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I watched as well and had a similar takeaway as you did. Sounds like the County is concerned with the risks associated by focusing the large majority of their emergency services on a festival, which then reduces the service level that they can provide to everyone else in the county, especially if there were to be a major emergency (brush fires, flood, etc.). Certainly understandable concerns, for sure.
It did seem like the additional concerns with the concurrent PL/Labor Day permit application were related to the fact that weekend is already busy in the area, which calls into question the added economic benefit to doing a fest on a weekend where hotels are already at full capacity. That’s a legit concern – seems logical to a fest would boost the economy more on a non-holiday weekend than it would on a weekend that is already pretty busy.
I’ll also add that reading the “Staff Report” document that was part of the documents included in the info for the meeting today was quite informative. The staff recommendation was actually to approve the applications with the condition that a) Meadow Creek events cannot be held closer than 1 month apart and avoid holiday weekends, b) the increase in capacity from 10k to 12k be staggered over the course of the 5-year permit (i.e. an extra 500ppl each year), and c)establish some sound level limits, and d)limit amplified music to no later than 11pm on Fri/Sat and 10pm on Sun.
Definitely bummed that it seems the event organizers dropped the ball… hoping they can figure it out by next month. My guess is if they can’t get approval by EOY it is unlikely to happen in 2026.
The agenda is up for the upcoming continuation of the permit applications occuring Tue the 18th at 11am eastern/9am mountain.
It doesn’t appear that anything in the content of the agenda package has changed from the October meeting.
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Meeting is in progress…
Of note so far:
- The 5-yr application for Pretty Lights on labor day weekend has been amended to a 1-year application
- Public health & safety officials appeared to believe through mutual aid/etc from nearby towns they have no staffing concerns.
- There were some concerns about upping the total capacity to 12k, especially for a 5-year commitment.
- Officials noted that most of their staffing concerns are related to the proposed September concert and its proximity to the august dates. Seemed like concerns about staffing/over-extending people were related to the concerts being so close together. This was the case pretty much across the board between medical/police/fire.
- The concerns seemed to really reflect well on the event itself – nobody mentioned concerns with the event, everything was more “we just want to make sure we can cover everything else why we do this”
- There was some technical talk about sound levels. Someone from the festival side of things noted that the limits are already lower than other major outdoor CO venues (Red Rocks, Colorado Springs, Telluride Town Park, etc). Most of the discussion appeared to be relating to how far the low end/bass frequencies travel. Festival team noted they’re bringing in the same guy who worked with Forest Hills on their sound levels to consult.
- Festival team seemed to have offered to hire more private on site security to help lessen the load on local coverage on site, if I am heard that correctly.
- There was a pretty good debate on the economic impacts: how much the community earns beyond local sales tax on tix. There are plenty of folks who just drive to the site and never leave until the shows are over vs. others who stay off site and pump in cash.
- The board seemed to resist the idea of increasing capacity until some of the other stuff could be shown have improved year-over-year.
- The temp of the room seemed to be some more tweaks and changes to the sound mitigation and traffic were needed and 5-years was still a bit too much of an ask. 3 years at 10k, with the option to consider increases in future years. Both from a logistical standpoint but also from community revenue and budgeting uncertainty as well.
MOTION FOR KGLW “AUGUST CONCERT”: approve a 3-year permit at 10,000 max attendees, 11pm Fri/Sat curfew 10pm other nights, lowered dBc limits (117), and annual review. Seconded. APPROVED!
For pretty lights/September, medical folks indicated a lack of significant mutual aid from nearby towns, which all have their own Labor Day responsibilities. Other public safety agents expressed similar misgivings. Sherriff noted that he and staff did not appreciate the anti-police sentiment expressed from the stage at times and the anti-police slogans/shirts, especially at the KGLW show. He noted that its all part of their profession, to deal with that stuff, but he did make a point that from a mutual aid standpoint, other towns have the ability to say no, and if that kind of thing was too prevalent, they may choose not to. “Approving a Labor Day event would be a mistake”. Pretty lights application appeared to be a no-go for labor day. Permit application to be moved to later September and reconsidered at a later date.
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Got it tabbed up with my morning coffee. Fingers crossed.
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I will be very happy with a 1-year approval for FoV, but a 5-year would be awesome. Seemed like a kinda mixed response from the Sheriff.
I get that the capacity increase causes concern, and maybe this is the anarchist in me talking, but if the cops had a very uneventful festival with us, than I don’t see why they need to staff so heavy. Of course their logic could come down to the police presence is what kept it peaceful but idk, just seems like cops whining about being cops.
EDIT - that said I’ll take a 1 year as a compromise if it means getting to do this all over again in 2026
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I agree, seemed like too many police on site. They just said their thought is to have police 1-mile off site so close enough that they can come if there’s an issue at the event, or outside the festival if something unrelated comes up… that would be nice.
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Yeah, 1-year would mean another approval would be needed next year.
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Now THAT’S something I’d love to see
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The sound issues the commissioners are annoyed with (boom, boom, boom) is 100% related to PL not FoV… the promoters really fucked up putting these events together, just lazy work.
let’s goooooooooo Gizz permit!
The economic question is interesting, because yeah I was one of those people who didn’t leave the festival grounds all three days. Granted I was in mirage city slinging artwork but still, I think I can understand that
Interesting to note how the commissioners have heard from both sides of the economic benefit debate.
Sure, there are folks who stay on site 100% of the time and don’t put much into the local economy beyond a tank of gas as you noted @mrvoidself. On my end, we were a family of 3 who put more vacation budget into the town than we did on the cost of tickets. I’d be curious to understand how these benefits end up shaking out, too.
Also somewhat counterintuitive that the town wants to limit ingress/egress traffic for these events… but also wants people in town spending money. Seems like its hard to have the best of both worlds, ya know? Like… how would a visitor know what the town has to offer if all the traffic flow for the event forces them to avoid downtown altogether?
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It is, I’m on the the other side. I stayed off site and rented a place for the long weekend, I bought food at local restaurants, got coffee in town, etc. So I definitely spent a good amount off site.
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Yeah it is a cake and eat it too kind of thing
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And from the sounds of it all the hotels already booked up for the weekend