The Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience will bring major headliners to Snowmass Town Park this weekend.
The Lumineers take the main stage on Friday, Old Dominion on Saturday and Foo Fighters on Sunday. Other bands on the mainstage lineup include Grace Potter, Billy Idol, the Brothers Osborne, James Bay and Jade Jackson; up-and-comer groups from Colorado will perform on the JAS Village stage, located near food trucks and other vendors by the venue entrance.
All that, in turn, will bring big crowds into Snowmass Village for a nearly-sold-out experience. At full capacity, the venue can hold roughly 10,000 people, most of whom will arrive by bus rather than car, but people heading in and out of the village should still expect some traffic impacts.
Getting Around
Parking at and near the venue is limited to some VIP passholders, so festival attendees are encouraged to take free shuttles from downtown Aspen, the Brush Creek Park and Ride or Snowmass Village; people coming to the festival from downvalley communities will need to take a regular upvalley bus and transfer at Brush Creek.
People heading up Brush Creek Road to other destinations in Snowmass Village this weekend will encounter the same detour that’s been in place all summer due to construction further uphill.
At the roundabout near Town Park, drivers will be rerouted onto Highline Road, then Owl Creek Road, to head to the village core.
The JAS Labor Day Experience will create additional traffic impacts in the area, so the town has created a temporary, single-lane access road to get to neighborhoods like Melton Ranch, Horse Ranch, the Crossings, Rodeo Place and Coffey Place. That road is located near the Snowmass Village fire station; it won’t provide festival access, but will allow local traffic to access neighborhoods near Town Park.
People who want to use trails near the venue should plan on biking, hiking or taking the bus, since the festival takes up most of the nearby parking. And while the Snowmass Recreation Center in Town Park will be open during the day on Friday, it will be closed while the festival’s happening Friday night and through the weekend.
Getting In
By midday Friday, almost every ticket option was sold out, with only some Saturday single-day tickets still available from the virtual box office. Those who didn’t purchase their passes earlier can still try their luck on the resale market, where some tickets are priced at less than face value and others have a significant markup.
With tickets in hand, concertgoers can bring in a water bottle as well as blankets or low-back chairs, but not any personal food and beverage. (Several local restaurants will be onsite with food available, and people can leave and reenter the venue if they want.) People may want to pack some extra layers; the festival happens rain or shine, and shelter is extremely limited.
Festival gates open at 4 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, about two hours before the first mainstage concert of the day. That allows people access to the JAS Village, where there are vendors, food trucks and tents, and a side stage that features Colorado musicians like Honey Blazer, Claire Heywood and Kaitlyn Williams.
Access to the mainstage viewing area and VIP zones opens about an hour after festival gates — so people can secure their spot on the lawn starting at 5 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. There will be a standing-room-only designation at the front of the stage, as well as an area for chairs, blankets and more picnic-style seating.
Getting Groovy
Singer-songwriter Grace Potter and folk band The Lumineers will kick off the festival Friday night with an Americana-rock feel.
Saturday leads more toward the country crowd with performances by the Brothers Osborne and Old Dominion; the bluesy folk-pop artist James Bay will open the festival that day. And Sunday will close out with high-octane rock performances from Billy Idol and the Foo Fighters; country pop singer Jade Jackson is also on the bill.
But in between those mainstage sets, bands playing in the adjacent JAS Village will run a musical marathon of sorts, playing multiple sets per a day in a setting far larger than their usual gigs.
“I would say to play a festival with the Foo Fighters on the bill. — no, I've never played something like that,” said Kaitlyn Williams, a jazz-inspired pop singer performing three sets on Sunday. “So this is a huge deal for me.”
She compares the experience to an endurance sport that requires extra stamina and care.
Claire Heywood, an indie songwriter with two sets on Saturday, agrees — and says it’s worth every minute on the stage.
“We're just happy to be performing, … so [you] just have to take care of the voice and try to rest as much as you can throughout the day,” Heywood said. “And we just try to have as much fun as we can.”
The band Honey Blazer rounds out the JAS Village lineup, with two performances Friday evening. You can hear an audio postcard with band members Gann Matthews and Brad Grear here, with a transcript pasted below.
Gann Matthews: I'm Gann Matthews.
Brad Grear: And I'm Brad Grear.
Matthews: We've played some festivals. I don't think we played a 10,000 person festival. … We write songs that are inspired by what we call the ‘golden era’ of songwriting, the kind of late 60s into 70s, inspired by that, but with, you know, our own take on it.
Grear: I'd say we kind of stick to the mellower side of rock for the most of it. But we can get groovin’ pretty good if we want to as well.
Matthews: We're finishing up some new songs that’ll be premiered for our second record. The first record was written in the height of COVID lockdown. Like a meditative version of self growth, self exploration, whereas maybe the newer songs are more active.
Grear: It just kind of feels like a continuation of the same path. This is just like 2.0.
For up-to-date information about the JAS Labor Day Experience, concertgoers can check Jazz Aspen Snowmass social media accounts or download the Jazz Aspen Snowmass app. Aspen Public Radio will also be reporting on the festival, with coverage next week on aspenpublicradio.org, KAJX 91.5 in Aspen and KCJX 88.9 in Carbondale.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Brothers Osborne.
