VAIL - Counting Crows play a concert at Ford Park Dec. 9, as part of the new early-season event Vail Snow Daze, happening Dec. 4-17, produced by Highline Sports and Entertainment.

The event features two weeks of music, parties and on-hill antics. Highlights include après and nightly bar parties, Snowman King of the Hill challenge at Mid Vail, a free concert by Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys and the Dummy Gelunde World Championships Dec. 16 at Golden Peak.

The "sport" of Dummy Gelunde involves contestants creating snowriding dummies, which they will send careening down an on-snow course off a giant kicker in hopes of victory.

The dummies will be judged on speed, best crash and burn, dummy décor, biggest air and overall dummy agility.

"Dummy Gelunde is similar to the World Pond Skimming Champs except we're swapping one dummy for another," Highline's Amy Hornyak said. "Instead of sending contestants down a hill to launch off a kicker, they will instead create and decorate a dummy, affix it to a pair of skis, and give it the old heave ho."

Counting Crows tickets are available locally at Crossroads Market in Vail, Bottle and Cork in Edwards and La Scala restaurant in Eagle for $35 in advance.

Ticket prices jump to $50 after Nov. 30. Visit www.vailsnowdaze.com for more information.