2023 Festival:
The Festival will run during the week of July 7-16 with few to no events on Wednesday, July 12. The 2023 Program Guide will be available in March, and early registration for Members starts March 20. General registration will open April 3.
Dating back to 1883, this historic building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot was located on the eastern edge of town in the day, when the northern section of the building was built for the developing supply and mining town of Crested Butte. It withstood the test of time receiving freight, passengers, and goods on the narrow gauge railroad (along the east yard). It exported coal and lots of it from area coal mines chugging down the East River Valley to Gunnison and beyond. Alas, area coal mines were closed in the 1950’s and narrow gauge rail lines abandoned, leaving this lovely building to stand as a vestige of the once prosperous mining era. The Crested Butte Society of the Arts in the 1970’s repurposed the building to serve a host of celebrations, weddings, meetings, and art events over the decades. It later required more care and the building was gifted to the Town of Crested Butte to engage in rehabilitation work that began in 2012 and completed in 2016. Local funding together with three grants from History Colorado’s State Historical Fund, and a lot of hard work by area contractors made this building [what it is today]. (Source: crestedbutte-co.gov)