Until a couple months ago, Wally Wallace didn’t even know Trindad had a train line.
“Then I realized it was the halfway station connecting Chicago and Los Angeles on the Southwest Chief,” said Wallace, a digital media producer who visited Trinidad while touring the state for a public-TV project with Denver’s Sexpot Comedy. “And that’s when I started thinking it would be a cool place to do comedy, since it’s halfway between two of the biggest comedy cities in the country: Chicago and L.A. Plus, it’s just below Denver and just above Santa Fe.”
A former Colorado mining town 200 miles south of Denver (and, for a time, the “sex-change capital of the world”), Trinidad sits in Las Animas County on the border with New Mexico. Until a few years ago, civic boosters mostly grappled with shuttered buildings, a lack of jobs and a newly legal marijuana industry that threatened to transform Trinidad into a glorified rest stop for stoned tourists.
But the people and money that cannabis brought paralleled a cultural revival in the town, thanks in part to state-level investment — including the ambitious, $17 million Space to Create live/work arts project — and sundry creatives flocking there for the quiet, affordable, historic environment. The current crush of construction, investments and growing buzz about Trinidad’s arts scene continues to snare new residents, including Wallace.
“I immediately fell in love with it, and actually just bought a house there,” Wallace said. “Which came along with this whole idea for the Southwest Chief festival.”
Scheduled May 2 through May 5, the Southwest Chief Bicycle and Comedy Festival seems like one of those peak-Colorado concepts that combines a love of the outdoors, bicycle fetishism and the obligatory live entertainment-and-partying. But as a key former producer with Sexpot Comedy, a digital media producer for Denver’s Birdy Magazine, and a veteran music and events promoter in the region, Wallace comes by his novel idea honestly.
“I used to work with the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and I see the same kind of potential in Trinidad,” he said. “There’s no skiing in Trinidad, obviously, but it reminds me of different mountain and Western Slope towns in Colorado, geographically and culturally.”
Named after the historic, 2,265-mile passenger line that begins and ends in both L.A. and Chicago (currently operated by Amtrak), the Southwest Chief festival invites attendees along the Chief’s national stops to hop on and spend a weekend watching stand-up comedy and relaxing at Trinidad venues such as Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre, Brix Sports Bar, Las Animas Grill, Moose’s Martini Bar & Social Club, Jujo’s Dancehall and Hot Yoga on Main.
The festival’s relatively modest launch goals — 600 attendees per day, a $100,000 operating budget and about 100 comics — have been supported by sponsors such as former Denver comic Jim Hickox’s L.A.-based Bigtop Studios, Birdy, Giddyup Bikeshare and Backshop Bicycle Travel Supply. If Wallace can fill a couple of train cars — one from L.A. and one from Chicago, both headed to Trinidad — he’ll be happy.
For the rest of the attendees, he’s hoping to draw from the Front Range and north-central New Mexico, given the increasing artistic give-and-take between those regions that has produced organizations like Santa Fe’s lauded art-freak company Meow Wolf, which is preparing to break ground on a 90,000-square-foot Denver location.
Trains will depart Los Angeles and Chicago on May 2 and arrive in Trinidad on May 3. Once there, Wallace said, all festival-bound passengers can meet up with the dozens of comedians and other attendees. Having been in touch with Trinidad Mayor Phil Rico and various civic boosters, Wallace convinced the town’s Carnegie Public Library to hold free, family-friendly comedy and activities there on the Saturday of the festival.
Bicyclists are encouraged to bring their own bikes, and those who don’t (or can’t) are invited to get one from Giddyup — the town’s first-ever bikeshare program with 12 locations — or hit fellow sponsor Backshop for a guided gravel-bike tour. Rubberside Down Cyclery will also provide festival-specific pedicabs throughout the event.
“A number of years ago, I got my car taken by the city of Denver because I’d gotten so many parking tickets,” Wallace said. “So I’ve become a big bicyclist. And even though you don’t see many bicycles in Trinidad right now, they’re doing more and more things to become bike-friendly.”
On Thursday, Sen. Michael Bennet also announced more than $9 million in federal money for improving the safety of the Southwest Chief line between Dodge City, Kan., and Las Animas, signaling continued support for the one the festival’s thematic pillars.
Headliners are still being confirmed as Wallace pushes a $100,000 Indiegogo campaign for the remainder of his budget. That hasn’t stopped him from announcing nearly two dozen comics on southwestchieffest.com, including Kyle Pogue, ShaNae Ross, Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald and Carly Ballerini. He hopes to add more soon, including Denver expats Jordan Doll and Chris Charpentier, Second City performers from Chicago, and Colorado favorites David Gborie and Sam Tallent.
“Being realistic, I think we need at least $50,000 to turn into the type of festival we’d like to be,” Wallace said. “But in the long run, what I’d really like to do is come up with a big enough budget to film and record it, then pitch it as a docu-comedy series to a network like Netflix, which just announced their first Albuquerque production studio.”
Pre-sales for the festival are currently underway, with single-day passes running between $50 and $75, and VIP train-and-festival passes starting at $200, with tickets set to go up to full price on Jan. 15. Visit southwestchieffest.com/tickets for more information.
And if you like innovative cultural experiments, keep your fingers crossed for Wallace.
“Honestly, we have enough right now for it to be a cool, low-key mountain town fest,” he said. “But I want it to grow as the town grows, so we’re trying to get established there while the economy is still undergoing a lot of (changes). Maybe we can even help Trinidad out a little bit.”
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