Float to a Music Festival!
Looking for a unique way to fill the dog days of summer? Try floating into a music festival—i.e. the Yarmony Music Festival, a three-day, hippie-filled, Hula-hooping bluegrass concert on the Colorado River at Rancho del Rio. Held in August in conjunction with the Perseid Meteor Shower and named after 9,516-foot Yarmony Mountain and Ute Indian Chief Yarmony, it lets you take in live music from a unique floating stage where bands play Ripple while you’re floating on the water’s ripples. Put in right there in the eddy on whatever floats your boat, be it a SUP, tube, or giant inflatable swan, or float down straight into the concert on the 7-mile stretch from Radium to Rancho.
Expect banjos, standup-basses and accompanying debauchery. Past bands include Steamboat’s own Buffalo Commons, Tenth Mountain Division, Travelin’ McCourys, Drunken Hearts, Kitchen Dwellers, Infamous Stringdusters and more. Most musicians are rafters themselves, so they’re fully in tune with the river revelry (just try not to splash when you clap). It’s a watery Woodstock sporting every type of blow-up creature and craft you can fathom, from 10-person mattresses and couches to dragons and unicorns filled with arm-circling, hand-paddling party-goers. Hint: Tie off to the anchor rope angling off the stage to keep your hands free for beer and to avoid getting carried downstream for a premature exit stage left. Bonus: Hike to dinosaur tracks across from the beach! Info: www.yarmonymusic.com
