The Big Wonderful is moving its musical area farther from concerned Stapleton residents when it relocates to Aurora in 2016 and is taking its summer festival on the road to two new locations in the southern metro area.
Earlier this year, The Big Wonderful — a festival featuring food trucks, craft vendors, a beer market, local music and more adjacent to the River North Art District in Denver — announced it was under development in Aurora.
When residents got wind, some worried about noise when local bands play outdoors. Parking was also a concern.
Some live just 100 yards from where the bands would have played. But Josh Sampson, who created the event more than two years ago, said he is relocating the band area away from homes and closer to the Stanley Marketplace building.
Tentative plans call for events at Stanley on Saturdays once or twice a month from 2 p.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. June through September, he said.
“We will not be in the big field next to the neighbors, mainly because of the noise,” Sampson said. “We play very low amplified music. It’s not a huge music production.”
And for the most part, that appears to be the case. According to city records, The Big Wonderful was issued one noise violation this year after receiving a warning on Aug. 20, according to Meghan Hughes, spokeswoman for Denver’s Department of Environmental Health. The event was fined $500.
Stapleton resident Frank Meyer has been inquiring about the potential noise issue with Aurora and the Stanley Marketplace after reading media reports about its relocation.
He lives at 25th Drive and Beeler Street at Stapleton, across the street from where the outdoor music events would have been held.
Even though the music area will be farther from his home, he still worries about noise. He noted that when an arts festival had live music at Stanley Marketplace in October, it was loud enough to hear from inside his house with the windows closed.
A meeting between Stapleton residents and Aurora officials is scheduled for next month.
“We’re all concerned,” Meyer said. “We don’t know what it’s going to be like yet.”
Stacy Fairbanks and her husband, Owen Brown, moved to Stapleton from the City Park area of Denver a year ago, partly because of the number of events held at City Park. The issue there was parking, and she’s hoping parking and noise won’t become problems in her new neighborhood.
“We are fully in support of Stanley. But as they do things like The Big Wonderful, we hope they keep in mind the neighborhood,” Stacy Fairbanks said.
Meanwhile, renovations continue at the former Stanley Aviation site that, when completed, will include 8,000 square feet of retail space, a 10,000 square-foot event area, 4,000 square feet of office space and 500 parking space.
Sampson is planning to hold monthly festivals in Littleton and Castle Rock next summer as well. The festival in downtown Castle Rock will be at The White Pavilion, which serves as a covered outdoor ice skating rink in the winter.
The Big Wonderful festival in Littleton will be at Geneva Park, adjacent to the Littleton city government building.
Littleton spokeswoman Kelli Narde said Sampson approached the city saying some patrons who attended his festival in Curtis Park came from Highlands Ranch and other parts of the south metro area.
That Geneva Park site was chosen because there is plenty of parking, it’s two blocks from a light-rail stop and it’s one of the biggest parks in the city, she said.
“We’re going to give it a try this summer,” Narde said.
And for his , Sampson hopes to hold at least one more event there before construction begins on the housing project that forced him to find a new home. But that isn’t certain, either, he said.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or @cillescasdp
