The official blog for Vail Valley Foundation free concerts including Bud Light Street Beat, Bud Light Hot Summer Nights, Mountains of Music and ShowDown Town.
Congratulations to Kathryn Benysh, the 2008 Ernie Bender Vail Valley Foundation Volunteer of the Year!
We would like to thank Kathryn for her 23 years of dedicated volunteer service to the Vail Valley Foundation. We are a better organization because of her commitment to the VVF mission.
She will be honored next Friday, December 5th at the annual Black Diamond Ball.
Next Friday, December 5, the New York Stock Exchange will celebrate the Birds of Prey World Cup Race Week with a live, remove bell-ringing from Beaver Creek Resort to open the Exchange market for trading. The festivities start at 7:30am MT/ 9:30am ET.
NYSE-listed Colorado Company Chairmen, CEO's and other Executives from Vail Resorts, Bill Barrett Corporation, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Forest Oil Corporation, IHS Inc., Intrepid Potash, Inc., Molson Coors Brewing Company, Newmont Mining Corporation, Qwest Communications, UDR, Inc., and Whiting Petroleum Corporation will join the bell ringing.
This is a big deal and something we are really excited to have associated with the Birds of Prey. Look for a post next week from the Bell Ringing.
Have you always wondered just how many net towers or miles of A&B net the Birds of Prey demands? Check out the Birds of Prey, "by the numbers" below...
Birds of Prey By The Numbers November 29-December 2, 2007 .5 Miles of climbing on A-Net towers to rig all the A-nets each year 1.5 Miles of A-Net, with slipskirt 5.7 Miles of B-Net 5.8 Miles of A-Net Braid Rope 6 Winch Cats 12 Free Groomer Cats 70 Net Towers 1,000 Flex gates and Rigid gates used for BOP World Cup events in 2006 1,900 Length in feet of the longest A-Net in the world: Net #1, “The Big Kahuna Net” (and it could get 500’ longer some day…) 2,500 Crowd Control Fence poles for 4 miles of fence 16,000 Feet of Coaxial Cable 18,000 Feet of Fiber Optic Cable 25,000 Feet of A-Net Rigging Cable 25,000 Annual course maintenance/construction hours by volunteers and professional staff 101,000 Feet of on hill Triax Television Cable 32 Mil. Gallons average of water used annually for snowmaking on the racecourse
The Birds of Prey course build-out is coming right along and all is looking well for the races next week.
Check out some photos from the Chief of Course Greg Johnson. All these photos were taken this weekend. Three Winch cats lower themselves in to the Picks 4, 5 and 6 area above the Pumphouse. In order to reach this area safely they must each hook to each other in order to get lowered into the area past Nets 2 and 3. Teams soak the course with straight water near Nets 2 and 3 on Saturday, November 22nd. This process results in a much better surface than the more commonly used injector bars, which we only use a a last resort. Watering has now been completed all the way to The Pumphouse. Two members of the Beaver Creek Race Department use snowmaking guns to water the course. Each gun can pump over 150 gallons of water per minute onto the hill
The Vail Valley Foundation's largest annual fundraiser, the Black Diamond Ball is December 5th at the Vail Ritz Carlton Hotel, Bachelor Gulch. Recognized as the unofficial kick-off to the winter social season in the Valley, the Ball’s proceeds benefit a cross section of the Foundation’s initiatives in athletics, the arts, and education that enhance and sustain the quality of life in the Vail Valley.
If you are interested in attending, tickets are still available and can be purchased HERE.
As is generally the case with a fundraiser of this magnitude... there will be a variety of auctions. Live, silent and online auctions are all a part of this event. We will be posting more information about the auctions in the coming days so check back often if you want to bid on some amazing items.
In the meantime, CLICK HERE to view a list of Live Auction lots.
2008 Live Auction lots include: Arrabelle Club Social Membership What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas The Ultimate Chicago Sports Package Dancing with Damian President's Cup VIP Experience Ultimate Powder Adventure for Two
If you can not make the event... have no fear. You can place a bid before the event by calling Molly McBride at 970-949-1999.
Tonight we move right into "Common Thread." In an effort to share the “Common Thread” of music, lifestyle and philanthropy, country sensations Sugarland, Emily Saliers of the renowned group Indigo Girls and acclaimed singer/songwriter Amos Lee will share the VPAC stage to launch a brand new non-profit organization. More information for that show and tickets are available HERE, show starts at 8pm.
We snapped a handful of photos during the Sugarland load-in today to get you excited. But... before you scroll down and check out the photos, we recommend you listen to some of the music from the three amazing performers playing the VPAC tonight for "Common Thread."
First things first... click play below:
Now check out some photos from the Sugarland load-in and lighting check:
Lastly, if you are up at the VPAC tonight for this show be sure to give a special thanks to the VPAC crew. Many of them were at the VPAC until well after 2am last night deconstructing the Floyd show and were back up there today at 8am to begin preparations for Common Thread. Thanks guys! Without your hard work and dedication we would not be able to offer two huge shows like this back to back...
The Australian Pink Floyd Show is probably the largest concert ever at the VPAC. Can you count the road cases? These shots were taken moments ago during the load-in for tonight's concert.
Don't miss the show tonight, as the Australian Pink Floyd Show takes the VPAC stage at 8pm to perform The Wall, cover to cover. More information and tickets are available HERE.
Anyone that purchases tickets to the Charlie Daniels Band on 12.14 tonight or tomorrow (at the box office) will have a chance to win a meet and greet with the legend himself at the performance!
Tonight we are looking forward to the "biggest rock show ever at the VPAC."
The Australian Pink Floyd Show will be performing the legendary album The Wall cover to cover tonight. Tickets for that show are $65 and can be purchased HERE... show starts at 8pm.
Check out the YouTube clip below for a glimpse of what what we are so excited about!
A 37-year career of administering to both residents and guests of the Vail Valley was recently rewarded as Dr. Jack Eck, one of the Vail Valley Medical Center’s pioneering physicians, was selected as the 2008 recipient of the Vail Valley Foundation’s Vail Valley Citizen of the Year Award.
The award will be presented to the 66-year-old Eck on December 5 at the Foundation’s annual Black Diamond Ball, held in conjunction with the Audi Birds of Prey Men’s World Cup Race Week in Beaver Creek.
For more information about the 2008 Citizen of the Year CLICK HERE.
For more information about the 2008 Black Diamond Ball, or, to purchase tickets CLICK HERE.
A nice storm rolled through the Vail Valley last week dropping additional needed snow on the Birds of Prey. Enjoy the photos below from the Birds of Prey's Chief of Course, Greg Johnson. A special thanks goes out to Greg and the rest of his team for all the hard work they put in making the only World Cup stop in the U.S. amongst the best downhill courses in the world.
ENJOY THE PHOTOS! Geoff Marriner begins dozing Pick 6 above the Pumphouse Saturday, November 15. Extra snow from this area will be dozed downhill towards the "Box Net" around the tree island in the center of the trail below The Pumphouse beginning Monday to extend coverage as far as possible. Dozing of Pick 6 was completed on Sunday, November 16th.
Winch cats work the Pick 4, 5 and 6 area above Golden Eagle Pumphouse Saturday, November 15th. Snowmaking is now complete above The Pumphouse.
Jeff Dow and Alex Uffelman doze Picks 4 and 5 below the Super G start Saturday, November 15th. Construction of these areas are among the most time consuming winch work on the Birds of Prey course.
Almost $2,000,000 in equipment at PHQ on the morning of Sunday, November 16th fuel up and get ready to go to work on the Birds of Prey. These 5 Prinoth BR 350 Sherpa winches share the bulk of the construction workload on our course.
“The biggest rock show ever at the Vilar Center” – Kris Sabel, Theatre Director
Ok, so it’s easy to be confused. For the last two years, the Vilar Center has hosted the Pink Floyd Laser Show. But on Wednesday night, a very different Pink Floyd tribute act will take the stage. The Australian Pink Floyd Show is MUCH more than a laser show.
This is the real deal – an authentic replicate of the Pink Floyd concert experience. There’s a 10 member band... a full-scale stage production... inflatable stage props... and, yes, lasers too. The Times, London raved that this is “the best Tribute Show in the World.” And the London Daily Mail says The Australian Pink Floyd band members “do Floyd better than Floyd do themselves.” Yeah... we think that’s a little creepy too... but you get the point.
Whether you’re a Floyd fanatic or just enjoy a good rock show, don’t miss Wednesday night at the VPAC. Tickets are still available and can be purchased HERE.
More winch cat fun today for our blog readers. In the photo below, Brad Munz winch dozes in the slot on Tuesday, November 11th. The initial preparation being done in this photo is among the most dangerous winch maneuvers in the industry, as the cat could easily loose control and slide off the 40-45 degree slope. Many people don't know that the winch only holds about 60% of the weight of the cat, so in soft conditions like this it's very easy to loose control. Only the very best operators work in these conditions.
Today we are very excited to welcome a new event to the Vail Valley Foundation family, the Teva Mountain Games. Our acquisition of the Mountain Games marks the culmination of discussions that have been ongoing for the past year with Untraditional Marketing. For those of you that know Joel and UM know that part of our agreement includes a consulting contract. This will ensure that we will be able to preserve the integrity, philosophy and feel of the event for competitors, spectators, media and sponsors.
Catch all the details HERE via the official release.
You will start to see more about the Teva Mountain Games in the next few week as we learn more about this exciting event and take over the reins for 2009!
This weekend we attended the annual Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo with our friends at Vail Resorts (Specifically Beaver Creek) and SOS Outreach Society. This is always a really fun event and a chance for us to get out of the high country for a weekend of fun in the city.
Our plan was pretty straight forward. Promote the Birds of Prey by giving away a whole bunch of sweet stuff. When the dust settled we gave away 18 complete ski set-ups from SOS Outreach Society, hundreds of Birds of Prey posters and a ton of other random stuff like Nalgene bottles, whistles, schedules and trail maps.
We also ate more cookies than we would like to admit. In case you did not know, every day at Beaver Creek at 3pm is Cookie Time. Probably the most delicious 3pm anywhere considering they hand out hundreds of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to guests and skiers in the Village. They also have a Cookie Time at the Ski Expo, which, is total madness. Never before have we been accosted dressed like chefs with platters of cookies by hundreds of ski enthusiasts. Fun was had by all and we would like to extend a special thanks to our friends at SOS and Beaver Creek for letting us be a part of it!
So you might have heard about the Australian Pink Floyd Show at the Vilar Center on Wednesday, November 19. But what you might NOT know is that the tribute band will be playing the legendary album The Wall in its entirety, from cover to cover, at the show. That’s the way The Wall was meant to be listened to – in the context of its whole, as a story told through the songs and the antics of Pink Floyd. The album hasn’t been played live in its entirety in over 25 years, since Floyd toured it themselves. You all know the songs... “Comfortably Numb,” “Hey You,” “Another Brick In The Wall” and “Run Like Hell.” And if you’re more of a Dark Side of the Moon kinda Floyd fan – fear not. There will be a greatest hits encore.
So come check out the VPAC on November 19... you can purchase tickets for that show HERE.
In the meantime we present some music from the Wall for our blog readers!
The Vail Valley Foundation and Vail Daily have teamed up for a community contest that will select the band that plays the April 1, 2009 free concert. We've never opened the selection process to the general public and would love your help!
The bands in the running include: Particle Shakedown Street Panjea Bedouin Soundclash Great American Taxi Papa Mali Oakhurst Jamie McClean Band Homeslice Band Big daddy Lee Crown City Rockers Tishamingo
And... just to keep it interesting we are going to list a couple confirmed bands below... we will be announcing the entire 2009 schedule next month including the band you help us select!
Let's face it, anything with a winch is pretty cool.
Put a winch on a snowcat and combine it with snowmaking and 40 degree slope and you have a pretty amazing spectacle. Which, is exactly what is happening on the Birds of Prey as we speak. The dedicated Beaver Creek snowmaking crew is hard at work blowing snow and then moving it around via "winch cat" to carve out the Birds of Prey, one of the most difficult downhill courses in the world.
The entire process takes over a month and will be complete for the 2008 Birds of Prey Race Week, December 4-7, 2008. The Birds of Prey is the only men's World Cup stop in the United States and the only stop on the circuit that includes all four disciplines; Super G, Downhill, Giant Slalom and Super Combined. It's also completely free for spectators.
Now back to the winch cats. We have a dedicated operations crew here at the VVF that works closely with Beaver Creek to make the Birds of Prey happen. Being a group that likes things like power tools and 4-wheel drive, we decided it would be fun today to figure out how much these things weigh.
Our sources tell us that a stock snowcat without the tiller, a crew and attachments weighs about 13,000 pounds. We estimate that the cats shown below with all the bells and whistles tip the scale over 15,000 easy (if we are totally off the mark here please leave us a comment with your insight!). The process of "winch cat-ing" involves winching off of strategically placed pick points, which are basically steel poles encased in concrete burried in the ground. Obviously these "pick points" are pretty serious considering they need to be able to support around 24,000 pounds... up and down a 40+ degree slope. WOW.
Last night we set up a booth at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek for the annual HSMAI Vail Valley fall trade show. This event is a great local event and probably our best chance to get in front of the Valley's concierge and sales/marketing professionals before everyone gets busy for the winter season. There were 62 vendors and over 365 attendees presenting a great opportunity for us to tell everyone about our upcoming winter season including the Vilar Performing Arts Center, Birds of Prey World Cup, Bud Light Street Beat and 2009 Vail International Dance Festival.
We also use these trade shows as an opportunity to grow our email list. Last night we were giving away a BlackBerry Pearl as an incentive... if you have not joined our email list yet CLICK HERE and enter HSMAI into the comments field to be entered to win!
