This is not Red Rocks:
Chicago’s Taste of Randolph Festival got a big bite of Colorado last month. In celebration of Red Rocks Amphitheater’s 75th birthday — it’s actually about 300 million years old, but never mind that — Visit Denver constructed a massive replica of the much beloved amphitheater in the streets of Chicago.
Two 76-foot-long and 30-foot-tall hand sculpted, hand-painted monoliths towered to either side of the “Denver Live on the Rocks” stage at the west end of the festival. The stage featured Colorado-based headliners such as The Motet, Devotchka and Michael Menert throughout the weekend.
But how?
This Visit Denver video shows a peek into the construction process for the elaborate stage, as well as some weekend highlights:
But why?
Visit Denver chose Chicago as the first city in which to attempt this type of aggressive marketing because Chicago is a traditional feeder city for travel to Denver. And with Taste of Randolph celebrating its 20th year, "Denver Live on the Red Rocks Stage" enjoyed exposure to more than 76,000 guests throughout the weekend, the Convention and Visitors Bureau said in a press release.
Chicago is appealing to Visit Denver for other reasons, too. In the VIP area of the festival, the visitor's bureau hosted clients, from some of Chicago's many corporations, worth more than $200 million in potential business for Denver.
Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.
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