The 35th annual A Taste of Colorado, which sold its last turkey leg and fried its last funnel cake on Monday, introduced a new format this year that favored live music over food.
That was a major change for people who had gotten used to an event first launched as a marketing tool for Denver and, to a lesser extent, its food scene.
But in recent years, A Taste of Colorado has had to contend with the rise of niche food-and-beverage fests, increasing national attention on Denver chefs, and competition from upstart local events — music, food or otherwise.
“Thirty years ago, downtown Denver looked much different, and when we first started the festival we did it to highlight the 16th Street Mall and to drive people downtown,” said Sharon Alton, vice president of downtown experience at the Downtown Denver Partnership, which owns and produces A Taste of Colorado.
That was years before shows like “Top Chef,” or even the Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food,” had ever visited the Mile High City.
“We don’t have that problem now since Denver is a very popular and vibrant place,” said Alton, who also runs other large, free public events in downtown Denver, such as the Parade of Lights and New Year’s Eve fireworks. “But (the festival) was stagnating and felt sort of stale. So over the past five-to-seven years, we’ve been looking at evolving it to make it more of a modern-day music event, and to make it more relatable to a diverse group of people in the region — not just the same ones who have been coming year after year.”
Put simply, A Taste of Colorado is in the middle of the biggest rebranding in its history, and the work isn’t finished yet.
In addition to hiring Chicago-based event group Mile Zero to sell sponsorships for the festival — ranging anywhere from $5,000 to $200,000 — organizers also brought on The Event Group, a Denver-based company that produced the most recent Broncos victory parades, to book and run the live music stages.
Feedback from this year’s festival, including suggestions and complaints collected via social media and email, will be weighed before launching the 2019 version, said Alton, who first worked on A Taste of Colorado in the mid-2000s.
Most concerning in recent years was the fact that attendance at the free event had been slipping. From a consistent high of 500,000 total attendees earlier this decade, the four-day Labor Day weekend fest drew only about 450,000 in 2017.
That’s still impressive — and up from 350,000 total attendees in 1998. But losing roughly 50,000 people last year couldn’t help but grab the city’s attention. So Alton, who has been directly in charge of the festival since 2015, and her team cut it from four days to three, citing research that showed similar events in other large- to mid-sized cities had found success with the more compact format.
While the 2018 budget didn’t change much from 2017 — staying at $3 million to $4 million (depending on whether or not corporate sponsorships and other factors are included) — the amount allocated for music went up significantly, while elements such as carnival rides disappeared entirely for 2018. Food vendors also numbered 42 this year, down from 52 last year.
“They changed their budgeting and gave us funding to be able to get bigger-name acts to get bigger crowds,” said Lael Fray, co-owner of The Event Group. “And the crowds were definitely there this weekend.”
Thanks to free performances Sept. 1-3 from REO Speedwagon, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, LeAnn Rimes, Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray, Everclear and Soul Asylum, A Taste of Colorado shot back up to its 500,000 total-weekend attendance, according to Alton’s estimate (final numbers won’t be in for about six months).
“This was our first time there, (and) we mostly went because of the bands that were playing,” said Connie Jo Atwood, 53, who made the four-hour, 240-mile trip from Grand Junction to Denver with her husband for the event. “We didn’t have any food but we had some beers. We will probably be back next year. … We had a blast!”
The Downtown Denver Partnership considers couples like Atwood and her husband a victory for Denver marketing, since they stayed in a downtown hotel and spent the entire weekend (and presumably their Labor Day vacation budget) in that area.
“We did see a lot of people up near the stage and in the VIP area coming from out of state because it was a free concert,” Alton said, citing anecdotal evidence from conversations she had over the weekend.
People traveling from as close as Littleton also stayed in downtown Denver hotels.
“We made a weekend of it by booking a room at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center Saturday and Sunday,” said Amber Walter, 41, who went to A Taste of Colorado with her husband, 11- and 13-year-old children, and family friends. Walter complimented the children’s area — which this year had to shoulder the loss of the traditional carnival rides — as well as the craft beer and shopping selections.
However, she was puzzled by the newly limited performance stages (two this year, instead of four) and the lack of blues, jazz or traditional music. She also complained that major festival sponsor Barefoot Wine was the only wine brand she could find.
“Where were the wine tastes of Colorado?” she said. “The food choices were overpriced and there were not enough vendors offering tastes for fewer tickets.”
That’s not a new complaint about an event that has been accused of inexplicably favoring national brands over local ones. But Alton said it’s often either too expensive or impractical for many mom-and-pop restaurants to participate.
“We’ve gotten feedback from local restaurant owners who say they can’t keep their brick-and-mortar stores open while feeding 500,000 people over a long holiday weekend,” Alton said. “So there’s always a public perception issue about how much we’re (supporting) local restaurants, and the change from three days to four was also meant to address that.”
Alton added that the feedback her office has been tracking from this year’s event has been overwhelmingly positive, including a huge uptick in positive social media mentions. And the complaints — including traffic flow, entrances and exits, and other logistics — can be easily fixed for next year, she said.
“(I was) here to attend and celebrate the wedding of a dear family friend (and we) stumbled upon the festival while street hiking your beautiful city,” said Ben Vasquez, 66, who was visiting Denver over Labor Day weekend from the West Coast, via email. “Coming from Southern California as we do, we are used to street festivals of this type. I must say, though, enthusiastically, how much we loved this one. Such a great vibe, such great diversity, something so sorely needed lately.”
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