The Apres Music Festival makes its debut in April at Buttermilk Ski Area, and the Aspen Skiing Co.-sponsored event already is making noise with advance bookings.
Skico announced details about the festival, which is being held in collaboration with Belly Up, on Jan. 28. Last week, Stay Aspen Snowmass, which Skico owns, reported the festival “triggered significant pick-up for April.”
Bookings for that month are now up 7.3 percent after being down 8.7 percent in SAS’ Dec. 31 report, SAS said.
“This change was a result of an impressive increase of 187 percent more room nights booked for April this January as compared to last year,” SAS reported. “While not all of April’s growth falls to The Apres weekend, it is a considerable portion of it.”
The festival is scheduled April 5 to 7 at Buttermilk, the last weekend the chairlifts will be running at the laid-back ski area.
April traditionally marks the end of skiing and snowboarding at the four mountains Skico operates. Aspen Highlands is scheduled to close April 14; Aspen Mountain and Snowmass close April 21. Any season extensions will be announced as the scheduled dates draw near.
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The Apres Music Festival features two jam bands with notable followings.
Umphrey’s McGee plays April 5, a Friday, on Buttermilk’s Panda Peak, the same venue used for the Winter X Games concerts. The String Cheese Incident headlines Buttermilk on April 6 and 7.
Umphrey’s also plays Belly Up on April 3 and 4. String Cheese plays the downtown nightclub April 5.
Skico is selling three-day music passes for $79.99 to the Buttermilk concerts and also is offering a $199.99 three-day music pass with a two-day lift ticket valid during the event.
Elsewhere in local bookings, paid and total occupancy was 76 percent in January. Aspen lodges had a reservations rate of 75 percent in January, down 0.1 percent from January 2018, while Snowmass, which rolled out the new Limelight Hotel in December, set a record with 78.2 percent occupancy, up 5.5 from January 2018, according to SAS.
January bookings were propelled by the X Games and Gay Ski Week, as well as the school holiday break calendars that went into January, SAS noted. Weekend bookings for the X Games were up 3 percent, SAS said, basing that figure on information from Destimetrics.
February bookings, meanwhile, were pacing up 4 percent ahead of February 2018, according to the report, which was released Feb. 14.
Winter bookings are up 4.1 percent for the year, SAS said. That also can be attributed to a solid snow season, as evidenced by 99.8 percent of Skico terrain now open, as compared with 73 percent at the same time last year.