.jpg)
970 Grand County
970 Grand County
The Inspiring Story of Troublesome Fest
Could a festival born from tragedy offer hope and unity to an entire community? This episode sheds light on the incredible story of the Troublesome Fest, founded in response to the devastating East Troublesome Fire. Join us as we chat with dedicated board members Stephanie, Morgan, and Crystal about how they turned loss into a mission to support wildfire mitigation, education, and recovery efforts. With nearly $60,000 raised for local causes, including student scholarships and essential fire department equipment, their impact is both inspiring and heartwarming. Get ready for an in-depth look at the festival's origins, its ongoing contributions, and the passionate people behind it.
Anticipation is building for the upcoming Troublesome Fest on September 7th in Grand Lake, and this year's event promises to be bigger and better than ever. Expect a vibrant, family-friendly atmosphere featuring a variety of vendors, mouth-watering food trucks, a unique mocktail bar, and live music. Can't make it in person? No worries—KFFR will be live-streaming the festivities.
Good morning. Today I have Stephanie, morgan and Crystal all with me to discuss the Troublesome Fest that is happening here in Grand Lake September 7th. We discuss the bands that they have playing the general venue and all the fun things that are going on that day. So sit back and enjoy. Good afternoon, stephanie Hi.
Speaker 3:Gaylee oh, I'm great. Thank you so much for having us on here.
Speaker 1:You bet, and I know we have two additional guests that are your board members for the Troublesome Fest. We have Crystal Hi, crystal Hi, and then we have Morgan.
Speaker 4:How we doing everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, the Troublesome Fest is coming around. It's less than three weeks away, or is it two weeks?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's less than three. I know that.
Speaker 1:September 7th is coming up. What year is this? This is our fourth year. Fourth year, you guys go? Well, tell me a little bit about the history of the Troublesome Fest.
Speaker 3:Well, as we just said, it's the fourth year, and it's also the fourth year since the East Troublesome Fest. Well, as we just said, it's the fourth year, and that's it's also the fourth year since the East Troublesome Fire, and that's why we created this event. I lost my house in that fire and I got together with some other passionate locals that were also very affected by it, as was our whole community, and we wanted to do something to give back, especially to the people that had given us so much during our loss. So we decided to do it through music and we developed a nonprofit organization together called Fire on the Mountain Incorporated, and we have been raising money ever since through our music festival, troublesome Fest, for wildfire mitigation money, ever since through our music festival, troublesome Fest, for wildfire mitigation education and recovery for our community, and here we still are doing it, and it's a great thing because you guys also donate part of your proceeds to some of these fire mitigation and other organizations throughout the county that have been really helpful.
Speaker 1:Tell me a little bit about that program.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we've given a total that's almost $60,000 back to our community over the last four years and that has gone to a number of different areas of wildfire prevention, mitigation, education and recovery. Kind of our biggest spots that we've donated to are student scholarships for students in the Grand County area that are going into fields related to being a first responder or wildfire education. We've given $25,000 to that as of this year. And other areas that we have supported include fire departments for wildfire equipment We've given to Grand Fire for some short-term rental education pieces, hot Sulfur Fire and Grand Lake Fire for wildfire equipment, and then also some HOAs and some scientific research projects to help with their either mitigating the wildfire areas or in researching the effects of wildfire on our environment.
Speaker 1:Well, that's impressive. Wow, you guys should be very proud of what you're doing. Thank you, we are proud. Let's get into this year's festival, which is September 7th. Tell me about the day, okay.
Speaker 3:Oh man, we have so much fun stuff going on. We have a lot of vendors, or some local vendors, and a couple of people from out of town that were there from last year too, so we've got some great food, and actually I'm going to let Morgan talk about what she's doing. The Rural Healthcare Network and TAME, which are both mental health care facilitators in our community will be hosting a mocktail and safe space, sober space.
Speaker 4:I've been doing it at the Rendezvous Center all summer long and at Granby Ranch for the free concerts.
Speaker 4:Super proud and excited to have them back at ours again this year. Like I said, they will be having like a mocktail bar, so anyone who just wants to hang out doesn't want, you know, obviously an alcoholic beverage can go over there and just kind of feel surrounded by other people with like-minded thinking and activities. We'll also have a good area for kind of families and kids over there as well. Mountain Mary's Cookies will be over there, so we'll have lots of kind of just a nice area to enjoy and that will be under the pergola next to what the town restrooms where people know. So hopefully it'll be a great just kind of area for people to meet and mingle. And, as Stephanie also pointed out, we do have a lot of other vendors. So a lot of food truck vendors, the Wings on Wheels, the Colorado Corn Dog Company, just to name a few. But we'll have lots of food vendors there for people to go and get, you know, some munchies throughout the day.
Speaker 1:That's great, and you gotta love a good mocktail. Absolutely that's going to, and you gotta love a good mocktail, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's gonna be an awesome space. And then we also want to note that parents bring in snacks for their kids. Then we're not gonna take those at the gate. We are gonna do a bit of a bag check to make sure that nobody comes in with alcohol. But, yeah, kids can bring, or parents can bring, snacks. It's a very, very family friendly event. You can bring dogs, as long as they're on leashes, and have some poop bags with you, but they're come down at the town park also and then we always have some at the front gate. But just little fun side notes and, of course, great music. And KFFR will be there doing a live stream of the entire event. So if you can't make it to the show, then you can listen to it on the live stream on KFFRorg. So that'll be exciting.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3:So tell me about the bands you have coming, yeah we've got some awesome talent and today on KFFR they did a whole showcase of all of our music, kind of blended together. He did a whole set of two hours of just our show and it all is just such a nice incorporation. So we're starting out with our local band, hangtime, the Grand Lake Boys, on the big stage. They keep saying so. They were the winners of our local artist showcase and they're a Grand Lake band, so that's close to our hearts. We're really excited about that.
Speaker 3:And then Jay Silence band. They're out of Longmont, so they're Colorado local and have a lot of love in this community. They're pretty well connected up here and they're Colorado dirt country and they're going to throw down a ton of originals and I was like please play, your originals are incredible. I'm so excited that we can give them the stage for that. And then we have my Blue Sky. They're an Allman Brothers and company, a tribute band, so they have a few originals they might throw in there too.
Speaker 3:But mostly it's going to be the middle of the day. Everybody is going to get up and dance and sing along for that, because everybody knows the Allman Brothers. Yes, and we've got Emily Clark after that and she's a very Susan Tedeschi kind of Bonnie Raitt sound I always describe her in that way and she's going to be a ton of fun. And then Chris Lagerband is rounding out the day and they have super high energy. His whole mojo is just so energetic and it's going to be a great show all the way around. There's a little bit of something for everybody, but they're all going to really jam together nicely.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds so much fun. So what time do the gates open?
Speaker 3:11 am and the music starts at 12 and goes until 10 pm. Wow.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what are tickets this year?
Speaker 3:Tickets are $50. You can buy them on TroublesomeFestcom pre-sale or we will have gate sales as well. Okay, $50, flat rate, and then? Well, unless there is a service fee online, I think you have to pay.
Speaker 5:But no, we got that. So we used a free service called Zephy this year, which focuses on supporting nonprofits and credit card sales, and they're a company that will actually cover your credit card fees for you. So we get to keep 100% of our ticket sales instead of paying a different service to run our cards for us, where you lose five or even 10% of your sales to the service fees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow Well that's nice Shout out. Thanks for supporting nonprofits. That's right. And do you have a number of tickets that you can be sold? We can sell.
Speaker 3:I think up to 4,000, but we're not going to look at those numbers. In the past we've never seen anywhere near that.
Speaker 5:We would love to see 2,000 people there this year. Okay, so tell your friends, tell your family, yeah let's make that happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great goal.
Speaker 3:Thank you always for doing this, kayleen, because, man, just the community support that we receive and from the tourism board too, yeah, and having the backs of this community and having the support year after year and people really encouraging us to keep this going, so just even taking the time to reach out to us to do this, it means the world to us.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys are doing such a good job with Fire on the Mountain and your contribution back to the community is also noteworthy, so thank you for that. Thank you so much, and I got to meet your whole board.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're missing one member today?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, and then? So people can find out more information at TroublesomeFestcom.
Speaker 3:That is correct.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah Well, Crystal.
Speaker 3:Stephanie and.
Speaker 1:Morgan. Thank you guys so much for your time today. Thank you, we appreciate it and let's get those 2 people have a great day. Thank you.
