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Copper Mountain Resort’s Cider Circus offers tastings, entertainment

Cider Circus will bring a sampling of craft beers and ciders to Copper Mountain Resort on Saturday, Aug. 29. Provided entertainment includes Fractual Tribe aerial performers from Boulder and the band MarchFourth! will headline.
Courtesty Copper Mountain Resort |

If you go

What: Cider Circus

Where: Copper Mountain Resort

When: Saturday, Aug. 29

Cost: $40 for the Grand Tasting (includes unlimited sampling, live music and circus entertainers), $60 for VIP experience (includes 1.5 hour early access to sampling, special tappings, unlimited samplings, live music, circus entertainers, and cheese and cider/beer pairings)

The event will feature more than 75 ciders and beers from Colorado and beyond, including Colorado Cider Company, Rekorderlig Cider and New Belgium Brewing, along with circus acts, aerialists and live music from MarchFourth! Kids and friendly dogs are welcome. More information can be found at http://www.cidercircus.com or http://www.coppercolorado.com. A portion of the proceeds for Cider Circus benefit Team Summit Colorado.

Event Schedule

Noon to 1:30 — VIP entry

1:30–6 p.m. — Grand Tasting

Noon to 3:30 — Fractal Tribe Aerial Performance

4 p.m. — MarchFourth!

The day will also include cider-making demonstrations, kids craft activities and food provided by a selection of Copper Mountain restaurants.

Beer and wine festivals are offered in abundance in Summit County over the summer, drawing crowds of locals, Front Rangers and visitors to one side of the lake or the other to taste whatever the theme of the weekend is. On Saturday, Aug. 29, another such event hits Copper Mountain Resort, but this one comes with a twist.

Cider Circus puts a unique spin on the traditional tasting events featuring circus acts, a performance by Boulder-based Fractual Tribe aerialists and live music from MarchFourth!. The band features 13 musicians and four dancers, providing both a visual and musical performance unlike most other live shows. Adorned in elaborate costumes, a MarchFourth! show might bring stiltwalkers, acrobatics and hula-hoop performances to the stage.

“One of the things our events are always known for is we try to pick a theme and run with it and have fun,” said Stephanie Carson, director and media coordinator for SuperFly Fabulous Events. “We felt like the circus theme is fun, we’ve got aerial acrobatics (who) will be going on during the tasting, and we were able to secure MarchFourth! as well, and, if you’ve ever seen them, you know they have very much of a circus-type feel. We wanted to give people something to look at and enjoy while enjoying sampling all this great cider and beer.”



Fractual Tribe brings an aerial performance element to Cider Circus, suspending performers doing twists and turns in the air on pieces of silk.

“It’s really mesmerizing, we’ve had some of their performers in events in North Carolina and you really can’t take your eyes off of them, you find yourself staring because it’s so amazing and unique,” Carson said.



The event will feature more than 75 ciders and beers from Colorado and beyond, including big names like Colorado Cider Company, Rekorderlig Cider and New Belgium Brewing. Carson stresses that there will be beer as well as cider to taste, and even those not a fan of typical ciders will be impressed by the selection.

“We wanted to include some breweries as well, so that cider lovers may come and find a beer they like and vice versa, and a lot of the breweries are bringing things they have with an apple influence. Epic is bringing a Sour Apple Saison, and they are bringing their Glutenator. I think it’s a neat marriage of cider makers and breweries, and the lines are blurring between them now. You’ve got cider makers making dry-hopped ciders, and you’ve got brewers using apples.

“We feel like there is a lot of people that say ‘I don’t like cider’ because all they are familiar with is what’s mass produced on the market on a large scale,” she said. “Colorado particularly has a lot of smaller and even larger cideries that are making really excellent stuff that is appealing to people that may not like the typically sold sweet ciders.”

Carson said organizers with SuperFly Fabulous Events started out working closely with Rocky Mountain Cider Association to invite its members first. She said one of their main objectives is education on craft beers, to have guests come out and learn something about what they are drinking and the people who are making the brews and to understand that right at their doorstep in Colorado, there are folks making great cider and using Colorado apples.

“Some of the cider makers in Colorado will tell you that apples grown at higher elevations have different characteristics, so it’s really interesting to see that,” Carson said.

Guests can also run their beer or cider through a device called a randall, which infuses the beverage with fresh ingredients such as mint leaves, providing another way to try things that can’t be found at a liquor store.

Morgan Whitehouse, communications coordinator for Copper Mountain, said although the event is an alcoholic sampling, it is also very kid-friendly, with crafts and entertainment the whole family can enjoy. There will also be cider-making demonstrations and food provided by a selection of Copper restaurants.

“We are really excited to have (Cider Circus) here at Copper … having so many local and in-state cideries and breweries is such a cool piece but then, obviously, having the circus acts, those kind of wild entertainers is what we are most excited for,” Whitehouse said. “It’s just a really unique element to bring to an already really awesome event.”

A portion of the proceeds from Cider Circus will also be donated to Team Summit, a local nonprofit that promotes character development through on-mountain activities.

“We are excited to be in Summit County, and I think that events like ours prove that Summit County has something to offer year-round — it’s not just skiing, it’s everything,” Carson said. “We are really excited to offer one more thing to the calendar to get people to come year-round.”


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