Vertex Music Festival Might Not See Second Year Due to Noise Restrictions

October 27, 2016

The boutique festival in Chaffee County, Colorado known as Vertex may not even see a second year to due debilitating conditions that three commissioners gave the organizer. The conditions are as follows: a one-year permit extension (instead the requested three), ending the music earlier and limiting noise to 85 decibels. Festival director Michael Sampliner told the commissioners that all three have the potential to kill the event.

Last year, 8,000 gathered for three days of music and art. Madison House Presents out of Boulder, wants to bring in an 12,000/year over the next three with a cap of 20,000 tickets. With the festival organizers already having artists ready to play, they just needed to give the go-ahead…by this past Tuesday.

Among the concerns from opponents of the festival were drug use and a better emergency evacuation plan. The recent discovery of heroin by a local resident says they can trace it back to the event. As well, the EMS team were vastly understaffed with them having to fight through massive crowds to get anywhere. Mentioned was the Mumfords & Sons “Gentlemen of the Road” concert held in Salida last year as being far more manageable for their staff.

Sampliner had action plans in place for rearranging stage positions, muffling the sound by stacking hay bales on top of each other as well as other preventative measures to help with sound-absorption. Unfortunately, lowering the decibel levels that low (85 db) just wasn’t an option. Another stipulation was the concert ending before 1 a.m. Friday/Saturday and by 10:30p on Sunday, all but muting the reason for patrons to purchase tickets. With the town divided, it’s hard to tell the outcome as some want to boom in tourist attractions and others who would like the region to stay quiet as it has always been. A spokeswoman for Madison House and their parent company AEG Live said that they would have an official statement in the coming days addressing the commissioner’s decision and the future of the Vertex Music Festival, whom hosted Odesza, Duke Dumont and Rufus Du Soul amongst others in their debut.