Favorite Climbing Festivals in North America -- Sharing personal experiences for a blog post

Hey folks,

I'm organizing a blog post about climbing festivals in North America and looking for contributors to share a blurb about their experience.

The ask: 50-100 words offering a highlight or your impression of the festival (only looking for festivals from the list below).

• Please include: Your name, when you attended the festival, and your blog or social profiles you want me to link to
• Email me at gerry [dot] aaron [at] gmail with your submission
• Due by Thursday (4/11) at 12PM EST

I've already written the descriptions of the festivals, so this is to add additional color and offer a backlink to your blog (if that's your thing). The end result will be similar to this blog post.

These are the featured festivals:

Beanfest
Leavenworth Rockfest
Flash Foxy Summerfest
International Climbers’ Festival
Dover Island Boulderfest
Idaho Mountain Festival
24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell
Joe's Valley Fest
Red River Gorge Rocktoberfest
Rumney Craggin’ Classic
Color the Crag

I look forward to hearing about your experiences, and let me know if you have any questions!

Email'd

@Timothy, I received your email! Looks great.

You should add Facelift to this list.

Pretty sure Summerfest this June is the inaugural one so you may have a tough time getting feedback on that one.

@Kevin it does look like a fantastic community event, but does much climbing take place?

For the sake of keeping the focus, I'm zeroing in on climbing festivals. Of course I understand the need for conservation and protecting the places we hold dear, but some of the other festivals incorporate a clean up event as part of the festival.

Maybe I can do a "giving back to our crags" list, too.

@La MoMoface yea, not all the festivals will have feedback, unfortunately. 

Aaron Gerry wrote: @Kevin it does look like a fantastic community event, but does much climbing take place?

For the sake of keeping the focus, I'm zeroing in on climbing festivals. Of course I understand the need for conservation and protecting the places we hold dear, but some of the other festivals incorporate a clean up event as part of the festival.

Maybe I can do a "giving back to our crags" list, too.

Lol, yes, much climbing happens, they don't have clinics but they do have gathering events and movie showing and slideshows and talks by notable climbiners. It's a gathering that is heavily attended by climbers and I would venture to guess that there is as much climbing happening at Facelift as there is at a climbing festival like Red Rocks Rendezvous (which considering my attendance at that Climbing Festival, the amount of people that "attend" the rendevouz who never actually do any of the clinics or gatherings attached to the Rendezvous is pretty high.)

You may want to remember that (except for the gym crowd) climbing is a pretty individualistic sport and there's a huge difference between how many (especially older) climbers "attend" a climbing festival when compared to how normal people attend their own chosen topic of festivals. The fact that something like Red Rocks Rendezvous is specifically about "climbing" and Facelift is specifically about conservation is a distinction more in what they offer rather than how climbers attend them. 

kevin deweese wrote:

Lol, yes, much climbing happens, they don't have clinics but they do have gathering events and movie showing and slideshows and talks by notable climbiners. It's a gathering that is heavily attended by climbers and I would venture to guess that there is as much climbing happening at Facelift as there is at a climbing festival like Red Rocks Rendezvous (which considering my attendance at that Climbing Festival, the amount of people that "attend" the rendevouz who never actually do any of the clinics or gatherings attached to the Rendezvous is pretty high.)

You may want to remember that (except for the gym crowd) climbing is a pretty individualistic sport and there's a huge difference between how many (especially older) climbers "attend" a climbing festival when compared to how normal people attend their own chosen topic of festivals. The fact that something like Red Rocks Rendezvous is specifically about "climbing" and Facelift is specifically about conservation is a distinction more in what they offer rather than how climbers attend them. 

Okay. You’ve convinced me!

Would you be interested in providing a quote about your experience?

Just curious why no ice festivals are included?

Ouray

@Dallin and Mario, I decided to add Ouray after several people suggested it. How was your respective experiences? 

Here you go, folks!

Thanks for all of your feedback.

https://aarongerry.com/2019/04/11/the-coolest-climbing-festivals-in-north-america/

For your next edition, I nominate Smith Rock's Craggin' Classic, Enchanted Rock's Granite Gripper, and Austin's Limestoner. I think putting some focus on smaller festivals would be cool. 

@JP, for sure, I didn't even know about Enchanted Rock's Granite Gripper or Austin's Limestoner. The focus is definitely on trying to cover lesser known events.

Have you been to those?

Anyone going to Facelift this year? I was lurking on wide fetish and saw talk of a "parade" as part of the festivities. I think it was just a troll, but it was pretty funny.