Who doesn’t love a festival? For guests, it’s a reason to head back to their favorite mountain and hang out for a day or a weekend. For resorts, it’s a way to keep things fresh, attract new visitors, renew the connection with current ones, and, yes, create a profit center at a time of year when one may not have existed.

More and more resorts are adding a late summer or fall festival of some kind. And in just about every case, it is proving to be a good idea. But what makes a festival work? A strong theme that potential guests connect with, good planning to make it all run smoothly, a variety of activities that speak to every generation, oh, and the beer. There is always the beer.


In Praise of Beer
Mount Snow’s Annual Brew Fest serves as a great model. Started 21 years ago as a simple affair, it’s evolved into a giant event that folks plan their fall season around.

“This started organically,” says Mount Snow spokesman Dave Meeker. “Back when the craft beer movement began, it had a lot of its roots here in Vermont. Back then, our downhill biking was big, so we threw a little craft beer event in around that.”

Today, the Brew Fest brings in 5,000 to 6,000 people each year. It features more than 40 craft brews, includes a bevy of activities around it, and fills the entire resort valley’s businesses with clients on what was once a quiet weekend.

“It’s good we started small,” says Meeker. “We did not do it that way on purpose, but it was the best way. Over time, we listened to what people wanted and adapted and grew with that bit by bit.”

In this fashion, the Brew Fest grew into an event that people love. “We discovered that our guests really like beer,” Meeker says, half seriously. In addition to the beer, Mount Snow also realized that since most of its guests were not day-trippers, the event and any overnights around it had to be affordable. So they worked on keeping costs down, driving participation up. Admission ($35 one day/$45 two days) includes a commemorative 10.5-oz glass and two beer tokens. Additional beer tokens are just $3 each.


Getting Started
Powderhorn, Colo., is at the other end of the process. Resort spokesperson Dusti Reimer says that while the resort has tried out some small festivals in the past, she hopes this summer’s “The Mud, The Bands & The Beers” will launch the area into a big festival experience for guests.

“We want to start with a ‘manageable small’ so we can learn and build,” Reimer says. “We believe if you can do something really well in a small way, you can build really well from there.”

In creating the festival, the resort studied its past successes—including a popular mud run and a “Bottles and Cans Festival” that drew some folks (but wound up competing with some other local events)—and has become careful to avoid scheduling conflicts with other events and local schools.

Since the surrounding Grand Junction area is a hotbed for music festivals, drawing in huge names and big events, Reimer says the goal at Powderhorn is not to compete, but to add to the scene. Last year, Powderhorn staff reached out and secured the popular bluegrass band Trout Steak Revival, realizing that while there are some big concerts in Grand Junction, bluegrass is not always included.

This summer, Powderhorn has scheduled its main event on July 25. “We have combined our two big events into one, The Mud, The Bands & The Beers Festival, due to lift construction and to help create a more diverse event,” says Reimer. “This event really will have something for everyone to enjoy.” The date is also a relatively open slot on the local calendar.

“It’s finding our niche,” says Reimer. That niche plays off of the resort’s setting (sweeping and amazing views of the Grand Mesa), its climate (a good 10 degrees cooler than Grand Junction), the uniqueness of the area, and a parking lot that Reimer says is designed like a natural amphitheatre.

And for Powderhorn, as with most resorts, it’s not just about getting folks out that day. It’s about getting them thinking about the mountain for more than skiing and riding. Powderhorn’s new chairlift will add not just to winter, but also to summer activities going forward. The area want folks to get up there and take notice.

“We want them to leave thinking: ‘Summer. Powderhorn. Summer...Powderhorn!’” Reimer says.


A Classic Oktoberfest
Attitash Mountain, N.H., has seen its annual Oktoberfest grow for nearly two decades. The event draws about 2,000 guests on Saturday and close to that on Sunday. Events manager Corey Madden says its success is a combination of classic, special, and knowing where to spend your money as a resort.

One solid investment, Madden says, is the band. Attitash brings in a premier Oktoberfest-style group, the King Ludwig Bavarian Band. The resort is able to entice the band with a “mini vacation” at its Grand Summit Hotel, but still pays a tidy sum for the well-known group to headline the fest.

“The band has a lot to do with [our success],” says Madden. “It’s maybe the most important investment in a festival. You have to pay to get the better bands, but they make it worth it.”

The band is not only popular, but its members are masters at crowd participation. Madden says they work hard to make sure people are happy.

For the classic touch, there is no messing with the annual Beer Stein Hoist contest and keg toss, which Madden says people look forward to. And, of course, again, there is the beer, including craft brews. Each year Attitash works to bring in the newest and most interesting, along with the classics.

Beer drinking aside, Madden says it is important to remember that Oktoberfest is a family event: “We cannot get people to come here to sample the beer unless we make it kid friendly.”

For that reason, Attitash adds new and different kid options each year. Giant blow up slides, bounce houses, and other things like that are great, because they tend not to have a long waiting line.

Attitash also did something creative this past year that will become part of its standard practice: brought in a local children’s museum to create a kids’ activity space. This meant new and fun things for kids to do with no added cost to the resort and—get this—a cut in the number of resort staff, since the museum staffed its activities itself.

“It was a big win for both of us,” Madden says. “They could promote their museum to families who probably are going to be up here again, and we could let them do some great kids’ stuff way better than we could.”

Madden also encourages resorts to think about specialty food for their festival. “People love that we serve authentic Bavarian,” he says. “It makes the entire experience even better.”


The Art of Art Fests
For Boston Mills/Brandywine, Ohio, owned by Peak Resorts, festival success comes from something that you can only gain over time: a following.

Now in its 44th year, the Boston Mills Artfest is both a crowd raiser and an impressive profit center for the resort. “The reason it is successful? The decades of continued success have embedded it in the art community,” says event manager Josh Boyd.

While the heritage of a long-standing event is something other resorts cannot emulate quickly, there are tactics and strategies that apply. For instance, with close to 15,000 folks—only a few of them skiers and riders—coming through the festival over its seven days, the resort makes sure to show guests what it’s all about. This year, the resort will run a chairlift during the event, giving folks a chance to get up on the hill, take in the view, and see that a ski resort exists right in their region.

The fact that it’s the only big event the ski area hosts all summer also lends to its success. “This is our only festival all summer,” Boyd says. “So we can really focus on it and make sure it is the success it needs to be.”

This approach seems to work for Boston Mills. The event features a preview night in which about 1,000 guests come in to see the juried artwork up close and enjoy free flowing drinks and appetizers. Guests will also have the option of chairlift rides during the evening this year.

“This brings us some great exposure,” says Boyd. “This is a big crowd, and while we are right in the middle of Cleveland, this group is not necessarily skiers and riders, so we are new to many of them. It’s great for them to get out for this and see who we are.”

It’s also a great source of revenue. With 300 top artists displaying their work, guests are compelled to open their wallets. That is good news for artists, who gross an average of $1.5 million each festival year. For the resort, that means average gross revenue of $250,000 to $300,000.


The Bigger Picture
At Mount Snow, Meeker says the success of a festival is that it lifts all boats, from the resort to the businesses around it. “We see tent sales that weekend, and we see hotels filling up,” says Meeker.

He says the resort has actually made some year-round additions based on lessons learned from the festival. Its most popular new après spot, The Tap Room, was inspired by it, and monthly beer dinners, put on by various chefs and specialty beer reps, sell out almost as soon as they are announced.

There’s even a Winter Brew Fest. “Mount Snow’s Brew Fest is so popular, seven years ago it spawned a smaller winter version that takes place at the resort on the first Saturday in April. This past season, it featured over 25 different breweries and over 40 different beers,” Meeker says.

Clearly, Mount Snow—and many resorts like it—is seeing gains from the business of well-planned festivals all year round.