CHEYENNE — A final swan song for Edge Fest, Wyoming’s largest free music event, will take place this summer, then it will be no more.
The popular music festival will come to a close after its 10th anniversary event in August, founder and Warehouse 21 CEO Dave Teubner announced Tuesday morning.
“It’s a bittersweet thing for us,” Teubner told Cowboy State Daily. “The primary reason [for ending] is we had 10 years of a really great run. But it’s really hard to keep it going in regard to the costs associated with executing this kind of event.”
Over the years, the festival has featured headliners such as Bishop Briggs, ZZ Ward and K.Flay. While Teubner did not have exact audience estimates, he believes the event has attracted anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 people a year over the last two Edge Fests.
Teubner said it can cost around $200,000 to put on Edge Fest because of artists’ fees, production costs and much more. Warehouse 21 donates about half of the money to organize Edge Fest annually.
What About Charging?
While Teubner thinks people would still come to Edge Fest even if the organizers decided to charge for tickets, that wasn’t the point of the event.
Edge Fest was designed to be free to allow people from all economic backgrounds to attend.
“We’ve heard a lot of beautiful things about families who are grateful that it didn’t cost them a couple hundred dollars to see a show like that,” he said. “They can bring their whole family and some money towards their dinner or some merch. We set out to keep this thing free and we stood by that.”
‘They Gave The City A Show’
Former Edge Fest performer Devante Anderson, a Cheyenne musician who raps under the name VanteSlayedIt, was saddened to hear of the festival’s shuttering after this summer.
“They provide a lot of entertainment for the city,” Anderson said. “It was affordable, and they created a place where people can enjoy music, eating food and seeing people they love. I thought it was cool, what they were doing.”
As a musician, Anderson was especially grateful for the opportunities he has received from performing at Edge Fest, such as meeting nationally known artists.
The Edge Fest organizers “treated us like one of the stars,” he said.
However, Anderson understands why the organizers would choose to wind things down this year, likely its peak of popularity.
“I get it’s not the easiest thing to provide for the whole city, but I’m super appreciative that they were able to do this for the past 10 years,” Anderson said. “They even gave us locals an opportunity to be on a stage like that, which is crazy. They gave the city a show.”
What’s Next?
While Edge Fest might be wrapping up this year, Teubner doesn’t believe the event will be dead and gone. The organizing team will keep its social channels open and explore what could come next for the event, or at least something like it.
“We’re not done contributing to young artists in Cheyenne. We’ll probably just look for a different way in which to do that,” Teubner said.
Ellen Fike can be reached at ellen@cowboystatedaily.com.
