Fort Collins seems addicted to downtown parties

Most cities the size of Fort Collins have one, maybe two, massive annual events that draw out the entire populace to celebrate either a holiday, a harvest festival or staple that the town is known for—fireworks, a school parade or perhaps a larger attraction like Cheyenne’s Frontier Days.

But Fort Collins’ festival cravings are far more insatiable. Why stop at two blowouts when you can have three, four, or heck, how about five? But even five citywide events is child’s play to Fort Collins, a city with a hopeless addiction to live music and outdoors fun.

As of this point in summer 2008, Old Town has been blanketed with a plethora of weekend-long festivals filled with live music, food and other activities.

May had Cinco de Mayo.

June had Bike Week, which filled Old Town with hundreds of avid bicyclists, and the 19th Annual Colorado Brewers’ Festival drew an even larger crowd of craft-beer loving residents, the Taste of Fort Collins and the Old Town Car Show.

July saw another Independence Day fireworks celebration followed two weeks later by the inaugural Fort Collins Jazz Experience, a weekend that turned Old Town into a giant stage for area and national jazz acts.

After all that, residents have been given a mere three weeks to catch their breath before the first Fort Collins Irish Festival begins, followed by Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest and Oktoberfest. Come New Year’s, there’s the First Night celebration.

Does the nonstop festival train have locals begging “uncle!”?

Peggy Lyle, director of the Downtown Business Assocation, doesn’t think so.

“It’s the perfect place to have a party,” she said. “Everyone knows to come downtown and expects it to be a great time.”

As the chief organizer of most of the festivals that take place in Old Town, Lyle isn’t necessarily an objective observer, but it would be hard to argue her point.

“I think that downtown has a very unique setting. We’re in a historic area but also have a wealth of entertainment and dining options right here in downtown. It’s the natural center for entertainment and I think festivals are just the newest wave of that,” Lyle said. “People will travel hundreds of miles, and I think for the local community it makes total sense that people are interested in live music and having that community feel on the weekend.”

But if all the festivals seem like overkill, turnout to the event has shown that the public thinks otherwise.

The large crowds are due in part to each new event being meticulously marketed to a different interest group than the last: jazz aficionados, bicyclists, beers lovers, the Irish, Latinos, Greeks and so on.

“It covers all different audiences with different varying tastes,” Lyle said.

As long as Fort Collins is willing to throw as many parties as there are subcultures, keep your eye out for yet more festivals on the horizon.

“I’m excited for each one of them,” Lyle said. “They have been stacked back to back and certainly keep downtown on their toes and vibrant.”