Hot off the presses: 36 Hours now Friday Night Lights

Sorry if someone already posted this, but I checked around a bit.

KEYSTONE — Keystone Ski Resort is replacing its 36 Hours at Keystone with a ski-and-concert series called Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights will occur on three consecutive Fridays starting Nov. 21, featuring skiing until 8:30 p.m. and free concerts that start about 8 p.m.

“Thirty-six was a great event that people especially loved, but we just wanted to generate more of the early season scene,” said Katie Adamson, Keystone’s communications coordinator. “A lot of resorts have (a) spring concert series but no one has (an) early concert series.”

Keystone held the 36-hour event for four years featuring round-the-clock skiing for anyone with a lift ticket and a team challenge that required completing a run down the mountain once every hour.

The hope is that patrons who couldn’t get away for a whole weekend will attend the Friday night events, said Heather Nordquist, events manager for Keystone.
Not everyone was too excited about the change, though.

Richard Dyess, who competed in 36 Hours for the first time last year, said he was disappointed to hear the event was being changed.

“That sounds like what they would normally do throughout the year anyways,” Dyess said. “The event of having one big weekend is going to be diluted by trying to spread that out over three Fridays.”

The dilution may help out on the mountain for skiers and snowboarders, though. Last year, the mountain was congested as everyone attempted to complete their runs down the hill Dyess said.

“With everyone trying to use the same slopes, it caused a lot of angst,” Dyess said. “A number of our team members were somewhat run-over ... But that’s part of it. You take the risk when you go out there, whether its nighttime or daytime.”

The congestion and injuries were not part of the reason for changing the event Adamson said.

“I think our background reasoning was that (36 Hours) was a great early season event for us ...,” Nordquist said. “We had great feedback, as it was an amazing event the past three to four years. And just now, we are ready to start something new.”
The Friday Night Lights also will help highlight the new gondola at Keystone, she said.

The concerts will take place in the Hunki Dori parking lot, which is right at the base of the ski area. This allows patrons to see the concert as they load onto the gondola.
Keystone also is offering lodging promotions in an effort to draw more people Nordquist said.

Currently, Keystone is in the contracting phase with the bands that will play at the concerts, so names cannot be released, but Nordquist expects that to be finalized later this week.

“The kind of backing to this event is similar and somewhat larger than our push for 36,” Nordquist said. “It’s time for something new and bigger and better, and this is the year to do it.”