With the Christmas and New Years holidays wrapped up and winter weather bringing in the chilly temperatures and snow, more people are opting to stay in rather than venture out.
The time between the post-holiday period and the return of warmer weather can really have an impact on revenue for retailers and businesses, especially those located in downtown Greeley.
Seeing the effect this lull was taking on businesses, musician Gii Astorga met with Aimee and Bob Hutson, owners of Aunt Helen’s Coffee House, to come up with a plan to pump some life into downtown.
“We decided to get together with a bunch of merchants and speak about what we could do to make downtown a little more busy during the January/February time,” Astorga explained. “We came up with a few ideas, but the biggest idea was a winter festival.”
Through their meetings and talks with other local businesses, Astorga and the Hutsons learned that there was a festival called Crazy Days that took place in the 90s in downtown Greeley.
“We kind of realized that we should make Crazy Days into Freezy Daze to incentivize people to come to downtown during this time,” Astorga said. “Obviously it is cold, and we get that, but at the end of the day, these businesses still stay open.”
The Freezy Daze Fest kicks off at noon Saturday with dozens of participating restaurants, retailers, bars and businesses offering a variety of deals such as discounts, buy-one-get-one, hidden gift cards, freebies and more.
“Staying in line with the old Crazy Days, we wanted to make it very family friendly,” Aimee Hutson said.
The event will feature free carriage rides, cold yoga sessions, dance lessons and much more for people of all ages.
“All the merchants downtown will be offering daily specials as well as pop-up flash specials that will go off every hour at different locations,” Bob Hutson said.
Visitors to the Freezy Daze Fest can pick up a map of all the participating businesses, as well as a schedule of all events and flash deals that will take place throughout the day.
“We will also be posting everything on the event’s Facebook the day before to kind of show people a little more of where all that will be,” Astorga said. “This whole thing is really grass-roots driven, so we really want to make it to where it is more interactive than your typical ‘just show up and figure it out.’ We want to encourage people to visit stores they haven’t seen.”
The Moxi Theater, 802 9th St., will be giving away free tickets to shows while beginning at 11 a.m., the first 50 people to walk into Meeker’s: A Colorado Kitchen and Bar at 919 7th St. will receive a free cinnamon roll.
The Colorado Model Railroad Museum, 680 10th St., is offering visitors $2 off admission and the Greeley History Museum, 714 8th St., is offering $3 off admission coupons.
Blue Sky Cycles will be doing free bike tune-ups for visitors to the store, located at 916 8th Ave.
“It started with just three of us and it grew to over 35 businesses wanting to participate,” Aimee Hutson said. “So we’ve got a lot of business owners’ support. We are all working together as a team and really embracing this event.”
Local artists will also be getting in on the fun with pop up booths located on 8th and 9th street plazas featuring a variety of hand-made items and crafts.
Those that are into polar plunges and embracing the nippy temperatures may want to partake in the event’s cold yoga, hosted by Balanced Movement Yoga.
Local nonprofit, Country KickUp will be providing country swing dance lessons while Girl Talk will be doing face painting for kids of all ages.
Visitors of all ages are encouraged to don their best winter outfit for a chance to win a gift basket.
However, the event’s definition of a “winter outfit” is pretty broad, so that could mean a speedo and a beanie or layers upon layers of cold weather gear, so participants are encouraged to exercise their creativity for the competition.
A photo booth provided by ALLO Fiber will record each contestant and their best winter outfit.
“The whole purpose of calling it ‘Freezy Daze’ was to kind of embrace the coldness,” Astorga said. “Whether that is funny or fashionable or however you want to dress up.”
The festivities don’t end when the sun goes down.
The Box, 822 9th St., is hosting a Fire and Ice Party with $3 Fireball from an ice luge sculpture, $3 Bay Freezy and giveaway of a custom Fireball snowboard.
Bear’s Bar, 813 9th St., is offering a Boots & Booze Special where ladies drink free from 9-11 p.m.
Gentry’s, 813 9th St., will feature live music from Gii Astorga and $9 freeze pop martinis from 9 p.m. until midnight.
The Jager Bar and Pizzeria, 822 9th St., is hosting karaoke with $4 Infusions and $4 White Claws.
All ages are welcome to attend the free Freezy Daze Fest as are well-behaved leashed dogs.
“Hopefully it will be an annual event that we can do every single year,” Aimee Hutson added.
For more information on participating businesses and offers, go to http://bit.ly/3YVuN33 or visit the Freezy Daze Fest Facebook page at http://bit.ly/40UqJBR.
