With a nervous eye to the gray skies of the local and national economy, the Snowmass Town Council unanimously voted Monday to spend $50,000 from the town's marketing reserve for summer events.

“We have a reserve of $316,000 that we've been saving for a rainy day. Now its a rainy day,” said Beth Albert, Snowmass Village senior marketing manager.

The request for the money came out of meetings on June 26 and July 7 between the town marketing staff and Mall and Base Village merchants.

Faced with a 20 percent reduction in its budget for the year, the Marketing Department had made cuts for summer events that did not help to fill visitor beds. It also slashed the popular Thursday Night concerts on Fanny Hill from nine to six.

This had Village merchants concerned that there were not enough activities to help them through the national recession.

Many ideas to vitalize Snowmass Village this summer were discussed at the two meetings, some of which can be implemented with the money from the marketing reserve.

Mayor Bill Boineau suggested that the Village should work to draw valley residents as well as visitors.

“I've been looking at resort economies across the country. Many people are staying closed to home. This might be good time to get locals up here,” said Boineau.

Albert agreed, but noted that she was hoping to draw from a regional, as well as local population. “We are trying to get people here from Western Slope and Denver,” she said.

Already adding events

Savor Snowmass on Saturday, July 11, was one of the events that was added for the summer. It replaced the Antique Fair that was cancelled due to poor response from vendors.

Although it was created at the last minute with less than a week for advertisement, Savor Snowmass filled the Snowmass Mall and Base Village with people savoring treats from local restaurants and finding bargains at sidewalk sales by local shops. Cooking demonstrations, magic by Doc Eason, kids' activities and and classical music by Aspen Music Festival students rounded out the event.

“Savor snowmass had vitality. It drew an older crowd. We were pretty pleased with the results,” said Albert.

Another new event scheduled for the summer is Family Fun Saturdays.

“No one else in Roaring Fork Valley has anything for families. Snowmass Village is uniquely suited for families,” Albert said.

This new program promotes all the free and affordable things that families can do in the Village. For toddlers there are playgrounds, stoller-friendly trails, and swimming at the Snowmass Rec Center. For tweens and teens and adults, there are chairlift rides, miles of hiking and biking trails, mountainboarding, mountain biking, and disc golf on the slopes, and swimming, tennis, skateboarding, basketball, volleyball and softball at the Rec Center.

To augment this on Saturdays, there will be street entertainers on the Mall and at Base Village from 1 to 4 p.m. This includes a DJ, U.S. Cirque performers, stilt walkers, aerialists, acrobats and jugglers. There will also be face painting, clowns and airbrush artists.

Another new event scheduled for this summer is free chamber music on the Snowmass Mall each Friday, performed by musicians from the Aspen Music Festival & School from 4:45-6:45 p.m.