High Points: It’s all happening

It seems like it has taken a little while to get here, but the summer season is quickly rounding into form. It has been just two months since Aspen Mountain and Snowmass closed for the ski season, but if you look up at the hills, there is not much snow left on the peaks, and the ski runs are a mega shade of summer green.

The calendar played a few tricks on us with Memorial Day coming in a little early and the Food & Wine Classic coming a week later than usual, but this weekend — that would be Father’s Day weekend — feels like the official beginning of the packed summer schedule that is on tap.

The “Big Dogs” — the Food & Wine Classic, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and The Aspen Music Festival  and School (AMFS) — will all have their debuts in the next few weeks. The foodies come first for the weekend of the 20th. Then it is the intellectuals and media for Ideas Fest beginning on June 25 (The Health portion of the festival starts on the 22nd). And finally, the music afficionados gather for the 76th season of the AMFS, which begins on July 2 with a free Mariachi Celebration Concert in the Klein Music Tent. The AMFS has more than 400 events on tap this summer, many of them free to the public. And don’t forget Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) June experience, which fills the town with the sounds of funk, jazz, and soul from June 26-29.

Those mega events get so much attention each summer — and rightfully so, as they are all world-class in their presentations. But there is a plethora of other events up and down the valley that are integral parts of the summer season, as well.

Just last night saw the opening of the Snowmass Free Concert Series on Fanny Hill. This is the 32nd year of the Thursday night concerts, and the Fourth of July will see a special performance by the Spazmatics.

Thursday night also marked the opening of the curtain for Theatre Aspen, which has a stellar 2025 summer season scheduled. “Driving Miss Daisy” made its Aspen debut last night with two-time Tony Award winner Judy Kaye in the leading role. It will be followed by “Mamma Mia” and the “Million Dollar Quartet.” Theatre Aspen is a local treasure, and an evening spent by the Roaring Fork River in the Hurst Theatre is an unforgettable experience.

And this weekend sees the initial event of the Snowmass summer weekend season when the Snowmass Rendezvous and Concert comes to the village. Fifteen hundred or so beer lovers will take to the Village in Snowmass to partake in the best from a variety of vendors, including Glenwood Springs Casey Brewing and Blending and Gunnison’s Buckel Family Wines. It runs from 2-6 p.m.

Prefer a taste of the Wild West? Then on Saturday you might consider heading over to the Marolt Open Space at the entrance to Aspen for the Aspen Historical Society’s annual Holden Marolt Hoedown. It’s a free, family event that celebrates the history of the community and evokes a time when the town moved at slower pace. It runs from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

Or is rodeo your thing? If so, then Wednesdays and Thursdays are your nights. This Wednesday, the longest running rodeo in Colorado, the Snowmass Rodeo, turns ’em loose at 5 p.m. It runs each Wednesday until Aug. 20, and it sells out so be sure to get your boots there early. On Thursdays, buckaroos can head down to Carbondale where they’ll find the Gus Darien Arena on Catherine Store Road — the summer home of the Carbondale Wild West Rodeo. A little smaller than the Snowmass event, it still packs ’em in with great riders and ropers competing every week through August.

And that is just a sampling of some of the summer season events on the schedule.

Like I said, it’s all happening.