{"id":2448321,"date":"2019-09-04T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312302"},"modified":"2019-09-04T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:00:00","slug":"ceo-jas-labor-day-19-was-best-festival-weve-ever-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/ceo-jas-labor-day-19-was-best-festival-weve-ever-had\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO: JAS Labor Day \u201919 was best \u2018festival we\u2019ve ever had\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Sting performs on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience in Snowmass Village. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

From 1990s classics and covers from Weezer<\/a> to 95 minutes of Sting\u2019s greatest hits<\/a>, many of the nearly 30,000 fans enjoyed another full-bodied JAS Labor Day Experience over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Like last year, the Saturday and Sunday shows were soldout at the Snowmass Town Park venue\u2019s 10,000-person capacity, and the opening show wasn\u2019t far off with numbers around the 8,500 mark.<\/p>\n

As Jim Horowitz, CEO, president and founding member of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, disclosed these numbers Sept. 2, he also said they aren\u2019t that telling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story here is about what happened,\u201d Horowitz said. \u201cAnd all in all, this was the best Labor Day festival we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 2g, Horowitz described Sting\u2019s epic closing night performance as exceeding already high expectations; the performances of up-and-coming artists ZZ Ward and H.E.R. as great; the bus system in and out of the venue as running much smoother than last year; and the three-day festival\u2019s hot, sunny weather as \u201crecord breaking\u201d in his book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw standout performances all weekend long,\u201d Horowitz said. \u201cThis was a great lineup because it featured artists who have never played here before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horowitz said JAS has invited John Mayer and Sting to play during the Labor Day Experience festival several times in years past, but this year was the first year it worked out for both of them to perform here.<\/p>\n

After securing them as the Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 headliners, Horowitz explained that he and his staff tried to find artists who worked well as openers and created a smooth blend of diverse genres over the entire weekend that a wide variety of music lovers could enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always work to create a balance and appeal to as wide an audience on different nights at different times as possible so altogether we have a great variety of sounds,\u201d Horowitz said.<\/p>\n

And this year, Horowitz said that balance was so great and the festival was such a hit that JAS has one main question moving into its preparations for its 30th anniversary season: How can we do that again?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a logistical challenge to get 10,000 people on and off of a grass field via a two lane road in the mountains,\u201d Horowitz said, laughing. \u201cBut people love it and there is a lot of tradition here. \u2026 We\u2019re always looking for ways to improve the audience and artist experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Horowitz has heard from many of this JAS Labor Day Experience lineup\u2019s artist managers that the musicians loved the festival and want to come back.<\/p>\n

He also said there weren\u2019t any major incidents that jeopardized public safety this year, or any major logistical issues despite a few minor challenges with parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig hats off to the production team and local officials who made it happen,\u201d Horowitz said of this year\u2019s JAS Labor Day Experience. \u201cYou know that saying, \u2018It takes a village?\u2019 This event is the poster child for that slogan.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sting performs on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience in Snowmass Village. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times From 1990s classics and covers from Weezer to 95 minutes of Sting\u2019s greatest hits, many of the nearly 30,000 fans enjoyed another full-bodied JAS Labor Day Experience over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 04:25:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}