Snow Days is back, and it’s bigger than ever

By John LaConte VAIL — The annual Snow Days celebration of winter returns to Vail starting Thursday, Dec. 13, and this year’s party has been expanded to four days.
The festival will include activities for both children and adults, with the main family outing taking place on Thursday in a new Snow Days event, the Prey for Snow Kick-Off Party and Bonfire.
Starting at 5 p.m. at Golden Peak, there will be live music from Rewind, a torchlight parade and ski down, fire dancers (who are perfectly safe), a snowball eating contest (also safe), and, of course, fireworks.
There will also be a traditional prayer ritual for snow from the Ute Indian tribe, which has visited Vail several times throughout its history, dating back to the resort’s opening years.
Then right away the next morning, the sponsor villages will be in full effect.
It’s all part of an effort to create a festival that can be looked at two ways, as both a party for kids and for adults.
“You want to be able to provide something for everyone, and so mixing it up a little bit this year with things for both adults and kids, it’s exciting to see,” Vail Resort’s Sally Gunter said. “With bigger headliners for the concerts and a new event like the bonfire, also kicking it off on Thursday rather than Friday, it’s a more encompassing festival.”

CELEBRATE SNOW
While party goers can enjoy pub crawls, concerts and more at Snow Days (read about that in tomorrow’s Vail Daily), families visiting Vail on Thursday can take in an atmosphere once reserved only for New Year’s Eve — Vail’s torchlight ski down and fireworks display.
The Ute Indians will also provide a nice cultural experience.
There is a debate over when the Utes first performed their snow dance in Vail, local lore says it happened in Vail’s first year but others say it was actually Vail’s second year.
The point that’s not argued is that Eddie Box Sr. and his son, Eddie Box Jr., of the Southern Utes, a tribe that once lived in the area and is the oldest continuous Colorado residents, performed in Vail in its early days as a ski resort, and snow followed.
Eddie Box Jr. has returned several times since, bringing snow each time.
The current iteration of the dance hearkens back to the tribe’s early days in Colorado, when its members would perform rain dances. Vail enjoys it as a way of honoring the area’s heritage with the Utes, and with Thursday’s event being family focused, it’s a perfect inclusion into Snow Days, an early season festival created to celebrate snow.
This year, however, “they may have already done the dance considering how much snow we have,” Gunter said.
The bonfire, snow dance and fireworks will take place at Golden Peak on Thursday, with events set to kick off at 5 p.m.

FESTIVAL VILLAGES
The sponsor villages open at 9 a.m. on Friday and are set to feature popular vendors like GoPro (you know they’ll be giving away a camera or two), Helly Hansen (cornhole competitions for free giveaways), …read more

Via:: Vail Daily