Film Festival beckons you to Leadville during the start of shoulder season for Colorado mountain town
Leadville has no problem with keeping the local shops and restaurants busy during the warm Colorado summer months and has plenty of traffic during the ski season, but it's during the "shoulder seasons" of spring and fall that things slow down a little bit.
"Stories Worth Telling" film festival is just one of the things trying to shake that reputation, hoping to draw crowds to the charming and historic Tabor Opera House for a night of independent short films.
"I heard about the event and just thought this would be such an awesome fit for our community based on sort of the, the goals and kind of the way that that festival aligns with our community's priorities," Adam Ducharme, tourism director for Visit Leadville/Twin lakes said. "We have to find a way to get this event up here."
The festival originated in Golden, but has since moved starting last year to Leadville, a bit further from the reach of the Front Range crowd, but within a community, the festival believes will be perfect to screen too.
The nonprofit organization says it "celebrates passionate creatives and the journey of the human experience through the art of storytelling."
Their stories range from a Columbian girl finding her place in the U.S., a rock star that falls in love with a heard of buffalo, and teens tapdancing in New Orleans. Ducharme said that fits right in with the down to earth population living in the tallest incorporated city in North America.
"We have we've been, you know, a mining community since the 1860s, but we also have a pretty deep, rich history of being a bedroom community," Ducharme said. "We kind of have always represented a little bit of the grit and determination and sort of we, unlike some of our more established resort communities around, we are kind of the the salt of the earth type folk."
As for the venue, this isn't your Aspen concert hall, but that's where the charm comes from. The historic Tabor Opera House buit in 1879 just finished renovating the outside brick walls, but the inside is next in line for renovation.
The stage is untouched, and seats are the same seats you'd sit in more than a century ago.
The films will be shown on a projector there.
Sarah Dae, executive director for the Tabor Opera House added this might be your last chance to see the house, this season anyway.
"We do winterize after this, so we can be all tidied up," Dae added.
If you are interested in checking out the festival, doors open on Saturday, Oct. 14, at 5:00 P.M.