Many of the same organizations that put together the nine-day Sun Valley Nordic Festival ending Feb. 7 are already hard at work on another festival being dubbed "Sun Valley Rhythm and Ride: Bike and Music Festival."
The festival will run from June 24-27 and is being designed for locals as well as to attract road and mountain bike enthusiasts from all over.
"This is a great opportunity to help significantly raise the profile of Sun Valley as a premier biking destination, and to highlight the Sun Valley area's incredible single-track trails," said Greg Martin, director of the Wood River Bike Coalition.
Organizers said tentative activities include a 100-mile Sawtooth Century Bicycle Tour starting in downtown Ketchum and passing through Sun Valley before heading north over Galena summit to the turnaround at Alturas Lake. The race is organized by the Blaine County Recreation District, which also participated in the Nordic festival.
Other activities will be a Sheeptown Fat Tire Rally in Hailey, short track and dual slalom competitions, an Idaho Pump Track State Championships, and a Dollar Mountain 10-km trail run.
The four days of bicycling will be underlined by nights of music in Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley.
Carrie Westergard, marketing director for the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau, said that like the Nordic festival, Rhythm and Ride will be an effort shared by many organizations and businesses, each providing events and special deals. She said the chamber is spearheading the festival's marketing, same as with the Nordic festival.
"We have seen the success that positive community collaboration can bring," Martin said, referring to the Nordic Festival.
Martin's Wood River Bike Coalition was one of the first partners involved in planning the festival. However, it all started with Will Caldwell—organizer of Ketch'em Alive—at the end of last summer. He was planning a weekend music festival for summer 2010 and quickly decided to incorporate some sort of recreational activity with the music. Bicycling was the natural fit. Caldwell is now chairman of the festival's committee, which consists of about a dozen businesses and organizations.
"We're meeting regularly now to hammer out the specifics," Caldwell said. "We are committed."
To find out how to get involved as a partner or sponsor, contact Carrie Westergard at 725-2110.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
