The Evergreen community will get a new bluegrass festival this August that organizers hope will become an annual draw, similar to other bluegrass festivals in the area.
But unlike the others, this one is closely tied to a late member of the Evergreen community.
“(Tom) would say, ‘This is my dream, this is my little baby. I would love to have a bluegrass festival in Evergreen,’ ” said Dana Price of her friend and fellow community member, Tom Hushen, who died Oct. 2.
Hushen was a real estate agent and an active volunteer for other community events. In 2010, he was named “Volunteer of the Year” by the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce.
Lin Browning was president of the chamber at the time and said Hushen was passionate about helping others and finding new ways of doing so.
“Tom knew the importance of connecting others and always had solutions to help those in need,” she said.
Price said she met Hushen during a welcome event for teachers at the Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen, where his wife, Anne, teaches and where Price sat on the board of directors.
They started talking and “hit it off” Price said, and, before long, Hushen suggested a bluegrass festival as a fundraiser for the school.
“He really wanted to do this,” Price said. “He was kind of our anchor, since he had done all the festivals before.”
The festival was originally slated for the summer of 2014, but some things fell through and the event fell by the wayside. Hushen’s death in October was unexpected.
“And so, in honor of him, we decided to keep it going and, by the end of the school year, had a large committee,” Price said. That committee — part of the Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen’s board — is made up of the group Hushen often referred to as “his girls,” Price said, choking back emotion.
The festival is focused on local music, featuring the , , Ragged Union, Quick Draw Homegrown Music from Indian Hills and Blue Moon Bluegrass of Evergreen. Also in the lineup are the .
Price said the short-term goal is to make the event as fun and successful as possible this year, with the long-term goal of making it an annual event that “puts Evergreen on the map one more time for something very special.”
Red Stag Productions has been hired to handle the details of the festival and it should be a big event, if the organizer’s past successes are any indication. Owner Bob Potrykus — whose full-time job is his Lakewood-based law practice — is responsible for numerous popular community festivals in the area, including the founding of the Evergreen Chili Cookoff and helping Golden launch its Knock Your Boots Off Beer and Chili Festival. Red Stag also puts on , which would be in its fifth year this year but it is taking a year off, Potrykus said, to allow focus on other events. Its website directs visitors to the Evergreen Bluegrass Festival.
Potrykus’ son, Bobby, helps and is a professional event planner himself. As with other festivals, his company will help the Evergreen Bluegrass Festival committee get the event off the ground, lending expertise and support.
“They’re a great group,” he said. “They definitely have a passion for seeing the vision of Tom coming to fruition.”
Josie Klemaier: 303-954-2465, jklemaier@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JosieKlemaier
Evergreen bluegrass festival
When: Gates open at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 22
Where: Evergreen Rodeo Grounds, 29830 Stagecoach Blvd.
More information: evergreen bluegrassfestival.com
