WinterWonderGrass Festival makes the move to Steamboat Springs and is bringing more bands, more breweries, a ranch-inspired mountaintop dinner, a new cof- fee depot, warming hut, and slope-side jams. With Steamboat Resort as the canvas, Winter- WonderGrass will paint the most beautiful picture of a sustainable, community-focused, life- style-driven bluegrass and craft brew experience in the country. WinterWonderGrass, which has established itself as the premiere winter music and brew festival in the country, will fea- ture 25 bands performing on four stages over three days. Headlining artists include Railroad Earth, Leftover Salmon and The Sam Bush Band, as well as Colorado favorites, Elephant Revival. The Infamous Stringdusters round out the top line to close the weekend festivities on the main stage under the snowy, star-filled mountain night sky.
Additional main stage artists include Steep Canyon Rangers, Fruition, The California Honeydrops, Brothers Comatose and Cabinet. The three large heated tents, Jamboree, Pickin’ Perch and The SoapBox will flank the main outdoor stage, with bluegrass artists; The Lil’ Smokies, Head for the Hills , Dead Horses, Billy Strings, Grant Farm and Gipsy Moon.
WinterWonderGrass Festival is the perfect storm of world-class bluegrass, roots and acoustic artists, craft beer and libations under the star filled Rocky Mountain nights encapsulating all things Colorado. The WinterWonderGrass vision is grounded in the commitment to deliver the best and most authentic grassroots bluegrass and Colorado winter beer festival imaginable.
Paramount to that vision is establishing roots in a setting that incorporates on mountain activities and offers an assortment of affordable lodging within walking distance to the event and ski mountain. Throughout the weekend, WinterWonderGrass will host “pop-up” bluegrass jams on the Champagne Powder® snow covered mountains.
"Announce day brings all the hard work of the past year into one moment, and it’s a humbling opportunity to curate the best artists in the world of bluegrass and roots music. We give careful thought about how each note of every artist fits into the tapestry of WinterWonderGrass. It is so fun to think about the musical flow, the different bands performing on four stages over three days curated to build something greater than all of us” says founder Scotty Stoughton.
The move to Steamboat will bring with it many new and exciting elements, starting with a free welcome party, Thursday, February 23rd, 2pm-5pm at Gondola Square at the base of Steamboat Mountain featuring WinterWonderGrass artists Gipsy Moon and Head for the Hills.
New to WinterWonderGrass Steamboat is the Ranch-to-Table Dinner at Thunderhead Lodge, 9,131 feet above Steamboat Springs. Guests can enjoy an intimate, unplugged set with Colorado darlings, Leftover Salmon and breathtaking views. A family style dinner with locally sourced foods will be served with beer, wine and whiskey tastings by festival partners Great Divide Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewery, Long Meadow Ranch Winery and Breckenridge Distillery. There is very limited capacity for this event and tickets will sell quickly. The Ranch-to-Table ticket is a separate ticket and prices start at $149.
Partnering with WinterWonderGrass Steamboat as the 2017 Presenting Brew Sponsors are Great Divide Brewing and Oskar Blues Brewery. In addition, 21 Colorado breweries including Big B’s Hard Cider will participate in the beer tastings each day 2pm-5pm. The festival is al- ways working to improve sustainability efforts and will have tasting cups for sale to complete- ly eliminate single use plastic on site. With an 89 percent waste diversion rate in 2016, the festival will again have composting and recycling stations to offset the environmental impact of the event. A Klean Kanteen stainless steel commemorative festival mug is included with each three-day festival ticket dramatically reducing single use plastics.
WinterWonderGrass has donated more than $50,000 to various charitable organizations over the past 5 years, focusing on music education, environmental protection and disaster relief. This year the festival has aligned with E•ƒ(ec), Educational Foundation of Eagle County and Routt County United Way and Yampatika.
WinterWonderGrass is a community and family friendly event with a colorful kids zone including face painting, hula hooping and crafts while parents can sip libations as the sun sets over the Colorado Mountains and the music plays into the night. Children under the age of 12 are free and seniors over the age of 75 are also free.
Three-day GA festival ticket prices start at $139 and VIP three-day tickets start at $279 for a limited time . All three-day festival tickets include a commemorative festival beer mug, three hours of beer tastings and live music from 2-10pm. All tickets are on-sale at www.winterwondergrass.com.
