For the third year, Big White was packed this weekend for AltiTunes Music Fest.
The annual music event took place at Big White’s Happy Valley Friday and Saturday, with thousands of people showing up at the local ski resort for the mountain festivities.
“The community response has been great,” said AltiTunes co-organizer Mitch Carefoot.
“The Saturday sold out pretty quickly … our biggest competitive advantage is the venue, the place that we call home. Up at Big White Ski Resort the artists are here for four or five nights, they’re on the ski hill, they’re taking the gondola rides.
“This isn’t just a show that you’re putting on, this is an experience for you and your team to come have fun.”
Kelowna locals Carefoot and his partner Kurt Jory, the minds behind Thick as Thieves Entertainment, have been putting on events around the city for several years now, starting with Denim on the Diamond back in 2018. While spring and summer events like Denim and Kelowna Beer Fest pose their own challenges, a winter festival is particularly unique.
While Big White was seeing full spring conditions last weekend, with temperatures in the double digits, winter weather returned this weekend.
“The variability, that’s one of the tougher parts, you’ve got to plan for everything,” Carefoot said.
Carefoot estimates that roughly 400 people are involved in making AltiTunes a success, from set up, to bar staff to security.
“You’ve just got to surround yourself with good people who can all pull together, and it takes the weight off Kurt and I to know that we have good people that we can rely on,” he said.
Carefoot said hosting events like AltiTunes falls under the category of “Type 2 fun” for himself, where it’s not always stress-free fun throughout the event. But he says it’s always worth it.
“It is a big risk this business that we take on but we’re really passionate about bringing people together,” he said.
“It’s kind of cliche when you say it like that but coming through COVID when there were those moments of being told you weren’t able to hug a friend and then we saw the first show when we came back, the Denim after COVID, and people were crying at the baseball diamond. That kind of re-infused and reinvigorated us, to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Thick as Thieves’ Beer Fest event takes place May 11, while Denim on the Diamond will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1. Both events take place at Kelowna’s City Park.
