Labor Day Weekend in the Vail Valley is jam-packed with Oktoberfest, jazz music, and a chance to win $5,000
Close down summer with these fun events and activities for the whole family
Beaver Creek Oktoberfest
It’s that time of year, and I’m not talking about pumpkin spice lattes. It’s Oktoberfest season and Beaver Creek is kicking things off with its annual Labor Day festival.
On Friday, the keg will be tapped at 4 p.m. and the fun will go through Sunday. Besides the pretzels and Stiegl beer, look for specialty drinks made with Aperol. You can buy the commemorative authentic beer stein for 2024 if you want to look the part, too. Admission is free and you pay for food and drinks throughout the Beaver Creek Plaza area. You can buy punch cards for drinks and there is a VIP experience available.
Get ready to do the “Chicken Dance” because each day will start with traditional Bavarian music. Enjoy tunes from Beaver Creek fixture, Helmut Fricker, and his band, You’ll also hear tunes from Grown Men in Lederhosen, another beloved local group. Get ready to welcome the band that traveled the furthest to be a part of the festivities. Trachtenkapelle Lech is a band from Beaver Creek’s sister city in Lech, Austria, and they play every year.
After the oompah bands, get ready to rock out to bands that will close out each afternoon. On Friday, Spinphony takes the stage. The all-female string quartet will play anything from Mozart to Metallica. On Saturday, The Journeymen, an Eric Clapton tribute band, will play. On Sunday afternoon, Classic Stones Live will have you singing along to your favorite Rolling Stones hits.
Throughout the weekend there will be stein-holding contests, a brat eating contest and a competition for the best dressed, so wear lederhosen, dirndls or create some kind of Bavarian flair out of whatever you have in your closet. The kids will have a great time in the Fun Zone, which will be slopeside.
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For more information, band bios, beer stein info, the VIP Experience, and more, go to BeaverCreek.com and click on Signature Events.
Vail Jazz Party
This is the 30th Annual Vail Jazz Party and it is a celebration of musical excellence and education. It will also be a reunion of sorts since so many of the performers come back each year and patrons come back again and again, too. Friendships have been formed throughout the years.
This year is a bit bittersweet as it will be the last Vail Jazz Party. The Vail Jazz nonprofit closed its doors in late 2023, but through hard work, dedication and donations, the show will go on.
The weekend opens up with an evening session at the tent at Manor Vail Lodge, which is a new location for the Vail Jazz Party. The music will continue late at night with a Howard’s Hangout Jam Session in the Fitz Lounge. Howard’s Hangout is named after Vail Jazz founder, Howard Stone, who passed in 2022. The music continues on Saturday with more music in the afternoon and evening at Manor Vail. Sunday starts early with the Gospel Show with Niki Haris followed by a packed schedule of jazz’s biggest stars.
Some of the musicians appearing at this year’s grand finale include John Clayton, Terell Stafford, Ann Hampton Calloway and many more. The weekend will also feature the future of jazz with the Vail Jazz All-Stars, which brings in a dozen of the brightest high school and college freshmen for an intensive workshop held in conjunction with the Vail Jazz Party and taught by some of the best in the business. Over the past 29 years, the workshop has graduated nearly 350 students, many of whom have gone on to become Grammy award winners, news-making performers and lifelong music makers.
Various passes are available, from the All-Access Patron Pass to an individual pass for a single performance. To learn more, get musician bios and tickets, go to VailJazz.org.
Cardboard Derby and SUP Races in Avon
There’s one more movie night in Avon’s Harry A. Nottingham Park on Friday night. It’s all part of the Lakeside Cinema series that has been going on every Friday for most of the summer. Bring your lawn chair and a blanket since the nights are getting cooler. You can also bring a picnic or your favorite movie snacks. Speaking of movie snacks, popcorn will be given out to the first 50 people who arrive. This week’s movie is Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish,” and the movie will start around 8:15 p.m. or when it’s dark enough outside.
On Sunday, come out to Nottingham Park to either participate or watch Paddle Battles, a standup paddleboard race event as well as a regatta — for cardboard boats. There will be all sorts of fun things for families to do on Sunday on this day that is sponsored by the town of Avon and Standup Paddle Colorado.
The race action begins on the lake with individual SUP races starting around noon. Around 1:45 the team races will begin. The team races are held on large standup paddle boards called the SUP-Squatch. See who can stay up the longest for bragging rights. The Cardboard Derby is a ton of fun because of the creativity that goes into it. All boats need to be made with cardboard and it’s fun to watch to see which boat and its crew make it through the course. The Cardboard Regatta begins at approximately 3 p.m.
Sunday winds down with a free SunsetLIVE! concert and it will be the last one in the series. Head to The Terrace at the Avon Performance Pavilion (on the lake side of the structure) and grab a seat or a picnic table or watch the concert from the shore, dock or floating vessel of your choice. Three For All, a local band featuring Kathy Morrow on the keyboard, Brent Gordon on saxophone and Larry Dutmer on the drums, will kick things off at 6 p.m. For more information on all these events, go to Avon.org.
Vail Rotary Club Duck Race
Head to Gore Creek in Vail Village on Sunday for the Vail Duck Race. This fundraiser has been going on for over 25 years and benefits the Rotary Clubs of the Vail Valley. You can still adopt a duck for a chance to win $5,000 and other prizes. The Rotary Club folks will have tents with ducks up for adoption on Sunday and the race will start at 3 p.m. The Vail Duck Race will start at the Covered Bridge and end at the International Bridge.
To enter the Vail Duck race, you simply adopt a duck or several ducks if you want to increase your chances of winning. The ducks have numbers on the bottom and those numbers correspond with who purchased them. If your duck is the first one across the finish line, you win $5,000. Other prizes have been donated from area businesses, so there is still a chance to win something even if your duck doesn’t come in first.
For over 50 years the Rotary Clubs of Vail have been giving back and much of the money raised stays in Eagle County. They also work to help the Rotary International Youth Exchange send local high school juniors for a year overseas, help many other local nonprofits and help with other international needs.
The cost to purchase a duck is $10, or get three for $20, five for $30 and so on. Any number of ducks can be adopted. For more information, go to VailDuckRace.com.
BBQ at Bachelor Gulch
Labor Day Weekend is a big weekend for cooking out, but if you don’t feel like firing up the grill, let the professionals at Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch serve you some delicious barbecue. Sit slopeside and enjoy the mountain views, play some lawn and swimming pool games or take a hike or a bike ride to burn off some calories before indulging in a gourmet spread created by Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch Executive Chef Jasper Schneider. The Labor Day Barbeque will be hosted on Sunday from 12-6 p.m. The event is open to the public and the price is $72 for adults and $35 for kids 12 and under. For more information, call 970-748-6200.
Beaver Creek lift closing
Please note that after the Labor Day holiday, the Centennial Lift (No. 6) at Beaver Creek will be closed until the resort opens for the 2024-2025 season on Nov. 27. Normally, the lift is open during the weekends in September, but that is not the case this year. The base area activities like miniature golf, gem panning, the climbing wall and the bungee jump trampoline will be up and running as well as 4×4 Jeep tours, so you can still head to the Beav’ and have some fun. The hiking and biking trails will be open as well.
After the Labor Day holiday, Gondola One (No. 1) and the Eagle Bahn Gondola (No. 19) will be open Fridays-Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Sept. 29. Enjoy a scenic gondola ride, especially once the fall colors arrive. There’s also Epic Discovery with activities like summer tubing and the Forest Flyer Mountain Coaster and miniature golf for the whole family or the mini tubing and zip line for the littlest adventurers. If you already have your Epic Pass for the upcoming ski season, you can ride the gondolas for free. As a reminder, Epic Passes go up in price on Sept. 2.
