One more great summer party will hit the banks of the Wood River in Hailey as live music takes the stage in a benefit to help buy snowmaking equipment for the Rotarun ski area west of Hailey.
The concert, featuring Johnny Neel and headliner Tony Furtado, will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 16, in Hop Porter Park. As well, the event will be a festive, bring-your-own picnic, with a $10 cooler donation that will go to the cause.
Along with music there will be a raffle drawing for such items as a cruiser bike from Sturtevants, a 20/20 pass from Sun Valley Co. and a mini yurt vacation from Sun Valley Trekking.
It'll be dance time when keyboardist, singer-songwriter and Grammy winner Johnny Neel opens the show with his blend of Southern rock and blues. Formerly a touring member of the Allman Brothers, Neel has been a coveted session player for more than 20 years.
An award-winning banjo player and slide guitarist, Furtado began his career as a touring sideman with bluegrass musician Laurie Lewis. But over the course of the past two decades, he's swept in other genres and become known for fine songwriting skills and his fusing of bluegrass, country, rock, blues, jazz and folk. A solo artist now based in Portland, Ore., his 13th album, "Thirteen," was released earlier this year.
Currently, Rotarun has a Doppelmyr surface lift, a rope tow, a warming hut and restaurant and 475 vertical feet of skiing. It has lights for night skiing and offers the only night skiing within a three-hour drive.
First used as a ski hill in the late 1940s when Anne Jeannette Winn taught kids to ski by hiking up, a rustic rope tow was installed so that Jim Savaria could offer lessons, for $1 a week. The hill received a community boost in 1957 when Hailey dentist Dr. Art Richards worked with the Hailey Rotary Club to replace the old rope tow with a newer one, thus the name Rotarun. Also that year, the Arkoosh family of Gooding gave the Rotarun a 99-year lease on the land for $1 a year, thus the annual "Arkoosh Cup" ski race. In 1993 the property was deeded to Blaine County, with the original lease and mineral rights owned by Rotarun.
Installation of snowmaking will be part of a development plan that includes a chairlift and a new base lodge.
Many local skiers have pushed off for their first downhill tracks on the Rotarun slopes over the past 60 years. Among the best known are Olympic champion Picabo Street and Paralympic medallist Muffy Davis.
Express photo by Willy Cook
Families make use of the pomalift and inexpensive lift tickets each year at Rotarun, as long as there is snow.
