What's up with Tour de Fat this year?
We've seen some locals vent their frustrations and worries about New Belgium's Tour de Fat coming to an indoor venue here in Colorado Springs, so we decided to hit up Bryan Simpson, NBB's PR Director for some answers. From the sound of it, it'll still be a rocking time, albeit very different from previous years.
A lot of locals are worried about the format changing from previous years, so what can be said about the format for this iteration of Tour de Fat?
The heart and soul of Tour de Fat is very much the same. We continue to bring our traveling ensemble of characters, sketches and acts. There will still be interactive games and contests like the Slow Ride and the Dance Off throughout the day. There will still be opportunities to win a cruiser bike and there will be plenty of great beer, costumes, and bike-minded fun. Tour de Fat will continue to benefit local nonprofit organizations like UpaDowna in Colorado Springs. In addition to that, you get bigger national musical acts like Wilderado for the Springs and the event will now roll into the evening.The only “missing” element is the parade currently and that is because permitting to close streets later in the day has been very difficult with most cities. That’s not to say people should not ride their bikes to the show and there may be opportunities for some form of parade within the show itself. Sometimes the best elements of the Tour de Fat come from the attendees themselves.
With Clips taking a year off, what is the Tour de Fat going to do to differentiate it from Clips?
Those have always been two very independent events – the only connective tissue is that both benefit nonprofit organizations. So, no, Tour de Fat is just going to feel like a ramped up Tour de Fat![vc_row row_type="parallax" type="full_width" text_align="center" background_image="13997" section_height="400"][vc_column width="1/1" position='center']
Sometimes the best elements of the Tour de Fat come from the attendees themselves.
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We're all about the beer, so what's in store for beer for the tour? Anything you can reveal now?
Our focus [for Tour de Fat] is on the core line of beers—as well as feature all the new entries like the Voodoo Ranger series (VR 8 Hop, VR IPA and VR Imperial IPA), Citradelic Tangerine IPA and Citradelic Lime.
Tickets! The biggest backlash we've seen in comments is the fact that it's a ticketed event now. What spurred that decision? Do you see future TDF events eschewing tickets for the old pay as you go feel?
The ticketed model came about as we were looking for ways to grow the event and reach more non-profits and communities. Ticketing allows us to bring in bigger acts and reach more communities which will spur more philanthropy. We believe the pricing [$15 for COS] is more than reasonable for a national act plus the supporting cast, great beer and a half day of fun. The ticket sales won’t even come close to making the event break even for New Belgium, and we are more than OK with that. It’s a fundraiser, after all.Tickets are on sale now for the low, low price of ~$25 after fees...get em while you can.
