Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival 2024
Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival is ready to welcome you with Music, Wine, Seminars and more. Stroll River Run Village at Keystone on July 13 and 14 where you will find unique wines and smooth jazz around every corner. Keystone’s Wine and Jazz Festival is the signature weekend for July events in the mountains and one that should not be missed.
Keystone Wine and Jazz begins pouring a delightful weekend for all with hand-selected wine, lovely food dishes, and unique merchandise for your shopping endeavors. Colorado jazz musicians will fill the valley with sound as you explore River Run Village.
Four different stages situated throughout the Keystone base area will grace your ears and tickle your toes for an amazing two-day concert lineup. Notes from national jazz acts, including festival favorite Dotsero. The full jazz schedule includes: Dotsero, Laurie Michelle’s Jasper Silver Band, Espresso!, Dylan Teifer Duo, LATrio, Royal Street Ramblers,Shanaynay, Zizania, and Aidan Gould Jazz Trio. It doesn’t matter where you settle in at the festival, jazz tunes will sooth your sould and bring a smile to your face along with delectable festival food and wine.
“Keystone Wine and Jazz has become a staple in the summer mountain festival line-up and I’m particularly excited about the jazz line-up that we curated this year.” says Maja Russer, Director of Events and Marketing for the Keystone Neighbourhood Company. “We spent a lot of time listening to jazz bands and watching their YouTube videos to make sure it was the best jazz line-up ever with of course, Dotsero joining on both days of the event.” Says Russer “This year, there are also some female driven acts that I’m excited about including Laurie Michelle’s Jasper Silver Band on Saturday and Camilla Vaitaitis – pianist, vocalist and guitarist on Sunday.”
This event is family-friendly and features a kids’ zone with Frosted Flamingo crafts, face painting, the Cave of Confusion, and more! This year an interactive juice tasting bar will test the little kiddos on their refined palates while providing a bit of refreshment throughout the day.
The main event is most definitely the wine. Hundreds of varieties of wines will be available for tasting along with food from thirteen of Keystone’s finest dining establishments. Each offering is paired perfectly with each wineries choice of red, white, rose or bubbly. Kickapoo Tavern, a River Run Village staple will be serving up a mouthwatering Tapas Espanola: rosemary bread topped with sundried tomatoes, prosciutto, topped with parmesan cheese. The Keystone culinary team will be rolling with Rocky Mountain influenced lobster-roll sliders as well as fall-off-the-bone braised short ribs with a root veggie mash. Guests can eat until they are content with options for everyone who takes advantage of the “tap to pay” RFID wristband system. All food items are just $6 and are available to pre-purchase ticket holders as well as the walk-up guest.
SEMINARS & NEW EVENTS
A special addition to this year’s event includes the coveted Educational Wine Seminar. This year’s seminar topic is Seaside Sips and takes place on Saturday of the festival at 12PM. The seminar is presented by Scott Thomas and is a separate ticket from the Festival Grand Wine Tasting.
Seaside Sips: A Journey through Italy’s Coastal Whites: With over 4,700 miles of coastline, Italy boasts a wide range of styles and important white grape varieties located near the Mediterranean Sea.
Join Scott Thomas, Italian Wine Ambassador and founder of Grappolo Wine School, for this epic guided tasting journey around the Italian boot, exploring some of the key sun-kissed grapes and regions, from large islands to the rugged mainland where the mountains fall into the sea. Wines will be paired with small regional bites to showcase their versatility and importance in Italian seaside culture.
Dreamt up by the KNC event staff is a new Friday night, July 12 kickoff event: Bites and Bubbly taking place at Warren Station Center for the Arts. The Wine & Jazz Festival weekend opens with this bunch-inspired happy hour that includes an afternoon of elevated mimosas and delectable fare from Graze & Torreys Catering. Guests can enjoy a delightful combination of mimosas expertly paired with brunch-inspired farm-to-table bites crafted by Graze & Torreys. Adding to the ambiance, local musician Jordan Yewey sets the mood with soulful acoustic melodies. Take in the stunning mountain backdrop on the Warren Station patio and toast to the start of the Keystone Wine & Jazz Festival. Tickets for this specialty event are almost sold out.
Back for year four as the festival’s beneficiary is the integral Summit Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is a group that supports local community businesses in Summit County, is a key partner to the success of Keystone’s Wine and Jazz Weekend providing almost 90 volunteers throughout the two-day event. The Chamber serves as an instrumental communication hub helping local Summit businesses thrive in the mountain environment. More recently, the group is laser focused on being the driving force behind the success of all Summit County businesses. The Chamber is still in need of a few key volunteers and one can sign up on their website or by visiting here.
“This is our fourth summer partnering with The Summit Chamber of Commerce at Keystone Wine & Jazz Festival,” says KNC Director of Events & Marketing Maja Russer, “which I think speaks to the success of the partnership on both sides. We all want to see a thriving local economy, and the Chamber is such a great tool for local businesses. Not only do they help make Keystone Wine & Jazz happen with their volunteer base, but we get to give back to this entity that we see really helping the community.” To learn more about The Summit Chamber, visit their website.
RATES & PACKAGES
The Jazz Music is free. To enjoy the hundreds of wines in the Grand Tasting, organizers have reintroduced the popular weekend wine pass this year for $150 for two days of unlimited wine tasting as well as brought back the sought out 2-person ticket package that includes 2 commemorative festival wine glasses, unlimited wine sampling, and six food samples for you and a friend to share for $185.
If wine isn’t your thing then enjoy the music and festival food for which Keystone is known. An individual food pass can be purchased for $30 that includes one sample sized food item from five different festival participants. If guests just want to enjoy a glass of wine and take in free jazz acts, the Festival Wine Garden will sell wine by the glass, along with beer and cocktails, in the Events Plaza. One-Day Grand Tasting Wine Tickets to the festival start at $82 per person and includes unlimited sampling of all the wine the festival has to offer. Saturday’s wine tasting tickets are almost sold out.
Weekend lodging packages that include wine sampling are available from the festival’s preferred lodging partners, Keystone Resort and SummitCove.Com Lodging. Deals can be explored on the festival’s dedicated lodging page: https://www.keystonefestivals.com/lodging.
For all festival tickets and more information, visit: https://www.keystonefestivals.com/festivals/wine-and-jazz/
~Pepper Hamilton
Photo Credits- Jenise Jensen
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