This year, the Golden Music Festival will be played out in three-three time: Three days of music, and three bands a day.
“We tripled it because we had such a successful event last year, and wanted to spread it out a bit,” said event organizer Doug Skiba.
The festival is the primary fundraiser for the Golden History Museums, and is held at the Clear Creek History Park. This year will mark the 17th iteration of the event, which began as a summer solstice celebration at the Golden City Brewery.
The festival was moved to earlier on the calendar, in part because Skiba said the old date created a conflict for the bluegrass and Americana musicians that perform for the Golden Music Festival, along with the fans of their music: Go to the Golden festival, or to the much more established Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
The date change seemed to work for the Golden Music Festival, leading to this year’s three-day expansion. The food trucks that first made an appearance at last year’s festival will also return. A beer truck will improve the variety, and availability of libation for the festival. Skiba said a variety of vendor booths, offering goods, services and information, will also be on-site.
Even without those additions, Skiba said the festival already had a lot going for it.
“It’s a beautiful creek side venue and people like to come out and enjoy these same local bands, growing over years,” Skiba said.
Along with old favorites, such as The Mile Markers, and The Adam Kinghorn Quartet, Skiba said there were a few new (though still familiar) additions to this year’s roster.
Notably among them will be Chris Thompson and the Coral Creek String Band. The music, if not the name should be familiar to many in Golden.
Thompson and his band are regular members of the Clear Creek Concert Series, performing on the Golden Hotel patio every Thursday evening through the summer months.
This Saturday, the Coral Creek String Band will just be playing a bit upstream of that, in their first Golden Music Festival appearance.
“Folks are unlikely to find a better combination of scenery and musical talent,” said Thompson, describing the festival. “I’m trying to think of a nicer place to play music and I can’t think of one, to be honest.”
