Fort Collins Colorado

Come Enjoy Bikes, Beer and Benevolence while supporting Overland Mountain Bike Club, Bike Ft. Collins and Ft. Collins Bike Co-op

New Belgium Brewing is bringing Tour de Fat, its traveling celebration of things bicycle, home on September 3. In its 12th season, Tour de Fat is more than an event; it’s a rite of passage that includes a costumed bicycle parade, New Belgium beer, eye-popping entertainment, local food, crazy bike contests and much more. Last year, the Ft. Collins Tour de Fat stop had approximately 15,000 attendees and raised more than $52,000 for local non-profits.

A highlight of every Tour de Fat stop is the annual car-for-bike swap and we’re still looking for a swapper to represent Ft. Collins in this challenge! At each Tour de Fat stop, one person hands over his or her car keys and commits to one year of living car-free. Each car-for-bike swapper will receive a hand-built Black Sheep (http://www.blacksheepbikes.com/) commuter bike in return for his or her car.

Volunteers are chosen after submitting an application describing their desire to live sans- car. To apply, go to New Belgium’s Tour de Fat Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TourDeFat), click on events and your city of choice, and upload your application in one of three formats: video (two minutes or less, please), photo or the written word.

“Ft. Collins is where this cycling carnival first came to life, so it’s always fun when we get to bring it back home,” said Bryan Simpson, spokesman for New Belgium. “People who haven’t witnessed Tour de Fat don’t quite know what to expect, but that’s what we love. It’s an uninhibited day of quirky costumes, bikes and entertainment while supporting our non-profit friends.”

Here are details about the Ft. Collins event:

Date: Saturday, September 3

Parade Registration: 9:00 a.m.

Ride Times: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Entertainment: 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Civic Center Park – North Howes Street and La Porte Avenue

Benefitting: Overland Mountain Bike Club (http://www.overlandmtb.org/) Bike Ft. Collins (http://www.bikefortcollins.org/) Ft. Collins Bike Co-op (http://fcbikecoop.org/)

Sustainable Support By: Zero Hero (http://www.zeroheroevents.com/)

Performances By: The Daredevil Chickens Club – www.daredevilchicken.com The Dovekins – www.myspace.com/dovekins YoYo Squared – http://www.yoyoshow.com Los Amigos Invisibles http://beta.amigosinvisibles.com/ The Claptet – http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Claptet/235723659784548 Matt Skellenger – http://www.mattskellenger.com/ Sambadende – http://www.sambadende.com/ That 1 Guy – http://www.that1guy.com/

Price: Admission – Free Parade – Suggested donation of $5 or more Beer – $5 for a 16 oz. pour

A few tidbits about Tour de Fat:

Tour de Fat encourages everybody to team up and present each city with the most colorful, respectful and creative bike parade ever witnessed. (Hint: No one stands out like the guy who was too cool for a costume!) Tour de Fat seeks to leave as small an environmental imprint as possible and composts and recycles waste. The waste diversion rate for 2010 was 91 percent. Tour de Fat is free to attend, but beer and merchandise proceeds go to local cycling non-profits. During its lifespan, Tour de Fat events have raised more than $1.75 million for philanthropy. Last year Tour de Fat raised $331,428. All musical acts perform on a solar-powered stage decorated with recycled materials; trucks and transport use biofuel sourced from recycled waste oils; and all vendors operate off the grid.

This is a pro-bike celebration, not an anti-car rally…non-cyclists are more than welcome to join the festivities.

The New West Fest is Fort Collins oldest and largest continuously running outdoor event. New West is celebrating its 23rd year and the featured entertainment Bohemian nights is celebrating it’s seventh year. There is not another music event in Colorado that rivals Bohemian Nights. With 6 stages and eight bands and music events this is the largest free entertainment event in all of Colorado and maybe the entire west. Below you will find a link for the music schedule.

The vendors come from far and wide to participate in the festival and there are over a hundred local vendors showing off their wares. These folks are lined up down East Mountain Ave for two blocks plus they are on Oak Street and Matthews Street for two blocks as well. There is art, photography, food and much more. You can talk real estate with Remax and insurance with insurance agents. You can buy clothes, sun glasses and t-shirts. You can buy some pretty unique gifts for the rest of the years and if you get hot there are straw hats too. There is also a carnival for the kids on the south side of library park. The park itself also has things for the kids like slides and other fun things.

The Creative Garden Returns this year and Beet Street, brings a unique artistic experience to Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest by transforming the Remington and Oak St. parking lot into a shady café-style oasis bursting with the talents of Fort Collins’ arts and culture community. Featured are a juried visual arts show/sale & youth arts exhibition,The Bohemian Nights Singer/Songwriter stage, family-friendly performing arts showcases, gourmet food, specialty beers, & wine and hands-on arts demos & activities

Included in the events on Saturday and Sunday is the kids dance exhibitions. Also on Saturday and Sunday you can find the stages full of demonstrations, magic and other entertainment by and for kids as well as adults. CLICK HERE for Schedule

Festival Hours, Details and Tips for Attendees

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Friday: Kick off concert Friday night 5:40-10:00pm on Mountain Ave Saturday: 10:00am-7:00pm with evening concerts until 10:00pm Sunday: 10:00am-7:00pm.

Help the festival be GREEN – Please help us in this effort by recycling & composting!

Bohemian Nights Music Schedule

Seven years and growing every year, Bohemian Nights 2011 will feature over 80 of Colorado’s finest bands performing on six stages throughout this FREE, three-day, outdoor music extravaganza.

Bohemian Nights is the main entertainment venue in this years’ 23rd annual NewWestFest celebration. The Bohemian Nights music program brings a world of music to Fort Collins and the best of Colorado music to the world. This years event will run Friday-Sunday August 12-14 in Historic OLd Town Fort Collins, Bohemian Nights seeks to share the incredible and diverse talent of Colorado musicians. Anchoring each day’s packed lineup of Colorado’s best musicians are national headliners – music fans will not be disappointed!

Kicking off the weekend and starting at 5:30 p.m. on Friday August 12, Bohemian Nights will host three bands: first, Colorado band and the 2011 International Blues Competition winner, Lionel Young Band, will hit the stage; followed by alt-rock band, Cracker; and ending the evening, the cool blues, hip hop and roots sounds of G. Love & Special Sauce will rock Downtown.

Shows start at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Fans are encouraged to attend early in the day to catch some of the best, new Colorado acts. Tedeschi Trucks Band will headline Saturday night, combining two amazing performers into one of the most celebrated acts in recent years. Husband-wife duo, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, will showcase their incredible talents and perform a blues, rock, soul-funk repertoire to wow Fort Collins.

Sunday ends an amazing weekend of music with Austin’s most famous Texas swing group and nine-time Grammy Award winner, Asleep at the Wheel.

With so much local talent, there’s truly something for everyone at Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest!

Bohemian Nights Music Schedule

Still breaking ground in their 20th year, New Belgium Brewing has dipped into the world of publishing with Tour de Fat; Sights, Sounds, Feelings, Flavors, a coffee table art book celebrating the first eleven years of the Colorado brewer’s traveling, philanthropic bike festival. The limited edition hard cover book chronicles the trials and triumphs of building an event from the ground up. From the early years when the whole show fit in the back of a pickup truck to 2010’s hometown Tour de Far with more than 15,000 attendees, the story is a first-person narrative from the cyclists, carnies, performers and car swappers who lived to tell the tale.

“Having seen this thing grow up from the get-go,” said New Belgium Spokes Model, Bryan Simpson, “the book truly reflects and celebrates the blood, sweat and perseverance it took to build this event into a powerful philanthropic engine and a bike advocacy building block.”

The project stems from a long-standing collaboration with Fort Collins-based independent publisher, Wolverine Farm Publishing. WFP staff and volunteers have traveled with the tour for the last six years extolling the virtues of literature married to activism and art. Publisher Todd Simmons published and edited the book.

“Tour de Fat rises above every other summer festival in its commitment to artistic integrity, philanthropic protest, and complete worship of the bicycle, and this book is merely an extension of that—a wildly flung tail of the last eleven years,” said Simmons.

This season Tour de Fat is expected to surpass $2 million raised for bike advocacy since its inception. With stops in 13 cities throughout the summer and fall, the Tour raises money for non-profits thru beer sales and challenges one driver from every city to give up their car for a year in exchange for a bicycle. Every event starts with a costumed bike parade followed by a mix of music, vaudeville and general spectacle topped off with the actual swapping of a car for bike and a celebratory dance party.

The book is available online at or at Tour de Fat events throughout the year.

New Belgium Brewing (www.newbelgium.com) today announced two new releases in its Lips of Faith series, “Kick” and “Clutch.” Both are collaboration beers suitably named in honor of their collaborative counterparts and each offers something fine and rare in the Lips of Faith tradition. Lips of Faith beers are New Belgium’s more esoteric creations, delivering palate-elevating brews that are only available for a limited time.

New Belgium’s Founder and CEO, Kim Jordan, and Seattle-based Elysian Brewing Founder and Head Brewer, Dick Cantwell, are in cahoots again with Kick, a ruby-hued, slightly sour ale. The rich and tart pumpkin cranberry ale is blended with wood-aged beer to deliver a uniquely complex harvest season sour. Kick’s ABV is 8.5%. Elysian and New Belgium have a history of celebrated creations with past “collabeerations,” including eight beers in the Trip Series.

Clutch is the result of synchronicity with the Maryland-based hard rock band with the same name. The sour stout has a pronounced bass line of dark chocolate, coffee and black malts that bridge the sourness of the dark wood ale for a fluid riff. Clutch’s ABV is 9%.

“Clutch is one of my favorite bands and this collaboration derives from the perfect storm of random happenings,” said New Belgium brewer Eric Salazar. “The band made a stop in Ft. Collins to tour our brewery, but we were closed. That day, I happened to run into them at a Ft. Collins restaurant and we started talking. I offered them a tour and the next thing you know, we’ve produced a soulful beer together.”

Kick and Clutch are available August through October. Pricing varies by market.

To find New Belgium beers in your area, you can use the New Belgium Libation Location tool: http://www.newbelgium.com/beer.aspx. You can also follow New Belgium on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/newbelgium