Madison House Presents and AEG Live Rocky Mountains joined forces August 5 through 7 on the inaugural Vertex Festival, which took place at Cottonwood Meadows, a private property in Buena Vista, Colorado. With 360 degrees of breathtaking mountain views, Vertex’s mission was not only to thrive off a stacked musical lineup—headliners included Alabama Shakes, Odesza, Trey Anastasio Band, Gramatik, and Duke Dumont—but off the land it called home for the 8,000 fans in attendance.
The two driving forces behind the event’s production drew inspiration from both their home bases in Colorado and a past joint venture, a Michigan-based festival called Rothbury, which took place on a ranch in 2008 and 2009 and now is home to the Electric Forest festival.
“We love to work with non-traditional festival spaces and fill them with music stages, yes, but also create interactive experiences filled with memorable characters,” Madison House Presents vice president Alicia Karlin said. “One of our main goals for Vertex was to bring our collective vision to our home state of Colorado.”
Similar to Rothbury’s Sherwood Forest, an interactive art arena set in the woods, was the Vertex Bazaar. Welcoming guests with illuminated signage, shacks dispersed throughout the venue’s courtyard hosted different themes and talents. From a Revolutionary Age-poet at work to a tickle house with feather-toting seductresses, bizarre encounters in the Bazaar were both memorable and entertaining. In addition, attendees were invited to the Black Rock Observatory of Burning Man fame to stargaze each night.
“Hosting more than just music—including outdoor experiences, unique camping options, local vendors, and multiple curated art installations—is all part of celebrating the quintessential Colorado lifestyle,” Karlin said.
The most popular onsite curation was the development of the Bee Vee Beach Club, where DJs delivered day sets from a "shipwrecked" hot air balloon booth made of butterflies, helmed by art director Nova Han and her team. “Jed Selby, the property owner, set the stage by creating a body of water on the land. From there, it blossomed into the perfect space to host a daily beach party,” said Karlin. Festivalgoers danced, feet-in-sand, as loungers lazed under striped beach umbrellas and swimmers relaxed on floats in the manmade sea—all in front of a mountain panorama. “It was the perfect space to host some amazing DJs in a new festival setting,” she said.

In addition to the on-location activities, the festival offered an itinerary of field trips. From local disc golf or a tour of downtown Buena Vista, to rafting trips or hiking with a tour of a ghost town, options catered to all activity levels. “We had hundreds of participants, and a lot of the artists wanted to get in on the action as well,” said Karlin. “Many of our field trips sold out this year, while others were available for no charge, offering low-key opportunities to enjoy the surroundings.”
One factor affecting the debut festival's attendance was that two established festivals took place in different parts of Colorado the same weekend. The Vertex site was built to accommodate 20,000 people, so the festival has room to grow should it continue in 2017. “Colorado has always had one of the most active and thriving music scenes in the country," Karlin said. "[It's] one which has always been able to support multiple events and shows in the same time period.”
