1,000 temporary Pueblo jobs lost as music festival in Boone is canceled, organizer says

The three-day Arise art and music festival, which was set to be held in Boone over Memorial Day weekend, has been canceled on short notice after Pueblo County officials denied the organizers a permit to hold the event. 

"Arise is devastated and heartbroken two weeks before production — and must terminate about a thousand jobs and services, many of them artists," the event's producer, Luke Comer, said in a statement posted on the festival's website.

Canceling the festival also meant a loss of around $1 million for the Pueblo area, he said.

More:The man police say is connected to Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Fest shooting turns himself in

Bob Sapena, a retiree who lives in Paonia, about 240 miles west of Pueblo, was set to drive five hours to Boone to attend the festival with his wife when they learned it had been canceled.

"Not only was the concert going to infuse a lot of money into the local community but it also was going to be a shining star on Pueblo's public persona," Sapena said in an email sent to The Chieftain on Saturday. 

"All of the local people that were hired to help out with the concert are now going to miss out on that paycheck," he said. "Grocery stores, restaurants, and service industries will not get that influx of money."

More:Pueblo takes Cinco de Mayo to the people with a car cruise around town

Arise was held from 2012 to 2019 at Sunrise Ranch in Larimer County, Colo., but its application for a permit to return there in 2020 was denied, with county commissioners citing concerns for public safety and emergency service response time, according to the Coloradan.

The festival was set to be held from May 27-30 on an organic farm and ranch known as The Cradle, in Pueblo County. Comer said he owns the property and "had the support of our neighbors" to hold the event, which would have featured bluegrass, electronic, funk, jam band, reggae and rock music, alongside activities such as art, theater, and yoga.

This year's festival would have been the first held in the new location. 

Comer submitted a traffic impact study to the Colorado Department of Transportation and safety information to the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, but neither agency signed off on the permit application, he said in a statement posted on Arise's website.

"I believe the Sheriff stonewalled the festival, not for reasons of public safety, but for cultural prejudice, and others supported him," he said, without going into detail. "I feel I was denied my constitutional rights related to property values (as I own the property) and freedom of assembly."

More:Pueblo event promoter and Bands in the Backyard founder Tommy Giodone dead at 57

Neither the sheriff's office nor CDOT gave Comer reasons for not approving his permit application, which had already been approved by several state and county agencies, he said.

"With this decision, Arise could not in any way be produced legally. And we did not have any other, realistic option but to ultimately close the business, permanently," Comer said.

Pueblo County Planning and Development was contacted for a comment, but did not respond before The Chieftain's deadline.

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com