Four things things we cherish here in Colorado are music, winter activities, a good cause, and what was the fourth…oh yeah, beer! Last year a festival made its inaugural run that encompasses all of these things we hold so dear. UllrGrass, named for the Norse god of winter, is the brainchild of Chris and Susannah Thompson of Golden, Colorado. Longtime Golden residents and musicians, Chris and Susannah created the festival as a way to showcase local talent while at the same time enriching the vibrant community they call home. Recently, Listen Up Denver! had a chance to chat with Chris and Susannah about the three-day festival taking place this weekend in Golden.
Chris and Susannah are not only longtime residents of Golden but also active musicians in the community. Chris is the bandleader of a group called Coral Creek, which boasts an impressive lineup including one of the best piano players in the country in Bill McKay and one of the A-list fiddle players from Nashville in Luke Bulla. Coral Creek is fresh on the heels of their newest album release, Coral Creek. Susannah is a singer-songwriter and artist who has a few albums to her credit including her most recent Watch Me Fly. Naturally, they became involved in the local music scene, helping to put on such Colorado festivals as RapidGrass and YarmonyGrass. Susannah explained how, through their involvement in the aforementioned festivals and their passion for improving their community, they got into putting on their own event.
“Chris and Coral Creek Music got involved in RapidGrass and YarmonyGrass first as an artist and then as a festival producer. Over the summer of 2014, Chris and Mark Morris were talking about doing a winter bluegrass festival in Golden. Because, you know, every time you turn around in the summer you can’t throw a rock without hitting some kind of festival. But in the winter time, there’s not just opportunities for getting festivalgoers excited about bringing music to the Front Range but also for businesses and longtime residents of Golden. This is kind of a passion project for us to bring great music, great craft beer, and to bring the community together to celebrate what’s amazing about Golden.”
Another genius aspect of the festival that Susannah pointed out is that although winter isn’t a down time for most Coloradans, it is more of downtime for musicians in a relative sense. This means that musicians may be more available to play for crowds who, to the contrary, aren’t holed up for the winter, but are ready for some action. The festival’s name reflects Coloradans passion for winter activities and gave Susannah a chance to showcase one of her passions. “Mark [Morris, who is also a musician, festival producer, and instructor at Swallow Hill Music] is a professional skier and he’s often in Summit County thinking about the Norse god of winter and the patron saint of skiing, Ullr. So Mark was the one who suggested UllrGrass and that really inspired me. I like to paint and I said, I’ll paint the poster. I thought that was all I was going to be doing but suddenly I was co-producing the festival! [laughs].”
As an executive at Coors heading up multi-national projects with hundreds of people, Susannah was more that qualified for the task. But the experience was still an eye opener. “It’s humbling not only from the perspective of how challenging it is but also in watching your community come together to make it happen. It’s quite an honor. We had Sam Bush at RapidGrass and I was driving him from the airport and talking about UllrGrass and he said ‘Well, you know. There’s only one rule about throwing a festival: never throw a festival!’ [laughs].” Susannah continued. “I think the point is when you look at any organization, any entrepreneurial venture, or projects like this, or festivals, you assume there’s some sort of big machine behind it when at the end of the day it’s just a bunch of people who are super passionate and you get the right group of folks together and you can make some pretty incredible things happen.” And did they ever get the right group of people together. From beer vendors to hikers and climbers to over 100 volunteers, some from the local Colorado School of Mines, the community has really embraced the festival. Which was a good thing as last year UllrGrass ran into a bit of red tape.
Okay reader, I’ll try not to get to technical here. The problem that the festival ran into was that Denver had recently slapped a moratorium on all new events within Denver city limits in turn causing people who wanted to throw events in Denver to look to outlying communities. The Denver moratorium caused applications for Golden events to skyrocket. Therefore, the city of Golden also implemented a moratorium and a review process of their own event application process, which meant that all applications for Golden events would have to be reviewed throughout 2015. Being a January event this didn’t bode well for UllrGrass because the organizers couldn’t wait until the end of 2015 to apply for a special event permit. So, Chris and Susannah came up with a solution, as Chris explains.
“We basically had to shake them out of their plan for reevaluating everything. The way we did that was to stand on top of a chair and scream bloody murder [laughs] and rally the rabble to communicate to the city that they need to take special consideration given the date. So it was just a little civic temper tantrum [laughs] we had to throw to get the city’s attention. But once we had their attention it was just a matter of working through the process with them to get our application addressed outside of their moratorium,” Chris said. Guess you can fight City Hall. But, as Susannah explains, it really wasn’t a fight. “At the end of the day what Chris was describing were several different city organizations and there was a little bureaucratic blockage that we had to shake loose. But, after that, the response was amazing. The head of special events planning, her name is Diane Tiberi, she’s been great. She bought her ticket, she’s been an awesome supporter. Steve Glick has really helped us too, he’s in the city government. I was at the chamber meeting this week and they’ve been really supportive. Businesses that aren’t even involved have been putting up posters. So generally the city has been really supportive,” Susannah said. “We also had a lot of popular support,” Chris added. It’s good to have the people on your side, but considering what UllrGrass has done for the community of Golden and on a larger philanthropic scale in just two years, the support comes as no surprise.
On of the main beneficiaries of UllrGrass, besides the community of Golden, is a charity that Chris and Susannah have been involved with for 25 years called Plan International. Chris Thompson’s philanthropic work began when he asked if he could support a child through The Christian Children’s Fund as a Christmas present when he was in high school. Later, when he was a grad student and seeking a more secular outlet, Chris came across Plan International. The organization gave Chris the opportunity to support children in developing countries in a way that wasn’t necessarily affiliated with any religious organization. After Chris started his own consulting firm, Navigation International, the firm began a program where for every new client NI would support a child through Plan International. PI helps with things like clean water initiatives, sanitation programs, education, and improving the place of women and girls in developing countries. Now, a portion of the proceeds from UllrGrass will be donated to Plan International. Chris explained a little bit more about how Plan International is involved with UllrGrass.
“The next step was to try and pull Plan International into the music festival. I think there’s a great opportunity on the festival circuit to pair non-profits with bands and get some more philanthropic activities into the live music scene. It takes a bit more administration but I think that it’s something that most bands are happy to do. And everybody feels a whole lot better spending money on things that benefit a good cause. That is sort of the segue way into the Coral Creek Music Project I set up this year. It’s basically going to involve some of the various philanthropic things we plan to do with, hopefully, the positive cash flow we get from the festivals and concert series.” Positive cash flow shouldn’t be a problem considering the stellar lineup and events planned for UllrGrass 2016.
The festival boasts a “who’s who” lineup of national acts that make their home locally here in Colorado, as well as regional acts who are set to break onto the national touring circuit. Headlining the festival will be Vince Hermann of Leftover Salmon with his “UllrGrass Allstars,” Head For The Hills, and Kyle Hollingsworth Band. The Thompson’s have also brought in some killer musicians from Nashville in Luke Bulla and Sam Grisman (son of legendary mandolin player David “Dawg” Grisman). Bulla (fiddle) and Grisman (bass) play in Lee Ann Womack’s band and are two very sought after musicians in the Nashville scene. Bulla also play’s in Chris’s band Coral Creek (who of course will be performing at UllrGrass) along with piano player extraordinaire Bill McKay, who will be making a reunion with his former bandmate Vince Hermann in the UllrGrass Allstars. For Chris, selecting artists is simple. “These are artists we know and artists we love.”
But there’s something I’m forgetting…oh yeah, beer! The bottomless beer tasting will take place Saturday, January 30th from 1:00-4:00 p.m. in Parfet Park with samplings from over 20 notable craft breweries, more than double from last year’s event. Sampling also comes with a commemorative cup. What a great scene!
For a list of the full lineup, ticketing, and information on the beer festival check out ullrgrass.com and be sure to get out this weekend and support local live music and a great cause!
+ There are no comments
Add yours