Vail Soul Music Festival to take break in summer
VAIL — Colorado’s only soul music festival is taking a one-year hiatus. Vail Soul Music Festival organizers have made a one-year commitment to re-evaluate positioning to improve the experience for the audience, local community and strategic partners. An enhanced Vail Soul Music Festival will return during the summer of 2014.
“It was not an easy decision to let the festival return in 2014 instead of this summer,” said Rhonda July Jackson, founder of the Vail Soul Music Festival. “We are really proud of the event and it is for this reason that we want to give ourselves time to reflect upon how to provide a greater experience for our fans, as well as attract the best possible partners to assist.”
With a primary focus on a deeper level of community engagement and identifying benefits to local businesses, the event organizers plan to work with the town of Vail to gain an understanding of how to best achieve those goals, while still providing fans with the high level of experience they have come to expect from Colorado’s premier soul music-centered festival.
The first three years of the event successfully attracted some of the top names in the genre, including artists such as Raphael Saadiq, Alex Cuba, Chrisette Michele, Jeffrey Osborne, Allen Stone and Lalah Hathaway. Audience attendance included sold-out events in smaller restaurant-type venues and registered more than 1,500 people for the main concert stage multi-day events at Vail’s Ford Amphitheater. Jackson believes that with input from strategic partnerships, not only will the music festival continue to gain audience numbers, but it will develop a deeper economic benefit to the town of Vail.
“Strategically we are taking this year to build and identify partners who are symbiotic with our vision. This will help us attract a wider audience and offer more engaging activities throughout Vail. In a nutshell, we are investing this year in order to move forward,” Jackson said.
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The 2014 festival attendees will experience live performances from across the spectrum of sounds that share soul music origins, including R&B, hip-hop, alternative rock, blues, neo-soul, poetry and Spoken Word. In addition to live music performances, Vail Soul Music Festival will offer educational forums, fitness and outdoor activities, inspirational seminars and celebratory soirees.
More details will soon be released regarding the 2014 date and artist announcements. For further information, visit http://www.vailsoul musicfest.com.
