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Sunny. High 79F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..
Clear. Low near 45F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: July 4, 2024 @ 1:47 am
Serving Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue and Carey
July 4, 2024
U.S. racer Finnigan Donley competes in the 2023 slalom competition at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Sun Valley.
A section of Main Street in Ketchum could be closed next March for a festival during the 2025 FIS Alpine World Cup Finals ski races. Portions of the thoroughfare are currently closed for reconstruction, above.
U.S. racer Finnigan Donley competes in the 2023 slalom competition at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Sun Valley.
A section of Main Street in Ketchum could be closed next March for a festival during the 2025 FIS Alpine World Cup Finals ski races. Portions of the thoroughfare are currently closed for reconstruction, above.
The Ketchum City Council on Monday voiced approval in principle for a plan to temporarily close several streets in downtown Ketchum in March 2025 to make space for a festival celebrating the FIS Alpine World Cup Finals.
Ketchum entertainment firm 5B Productions has proposed that 5850 Fest, named after Ketchum’s elevation, will include food and merchandise vendors, a biergarten and a stage with live music. It would be organized in concert with the city of Ketchum and Sun Valley Co., though neither is funding it. Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw said the most important step before this plan is set in stone is to make sure downtown businesses are in favor of the event.
“This is an amazing opportunity for Ketchum to put its best foot forward in terms of welcoming visitors and having a great place to celebrate,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of [business] outreach required. It’s no secret that a lot of these businesses on Main Street have had a lot of disruption already. So we want to make sure that the outreach is complete and we get really good feedback so that the council can make decisions based on what they’ve heard from the community.”
Proposed street closures are as follows:
5B Productions plans to conduct focus groups with the public and affected businesses through July and August to collect more feedback on and make tweaks to the plan.
Before the end of the summer, the organizers plan to submit the Main Street closure request to the Idaho Transportation Department, which must also sign off on closing that road. City officials would review the site plans and road closure requests again before the end of the summer.
In September, the production team plans to return to the City Council with final plans for approval.
The list of proposed festival events includes après ski music, ski race watch parties, after parties at Whiskey’s on Main and ski film screenings. Brandon Kuvara, co-owner of 5B Productions, said all events will be free and open to the public, with the festivities being financed by a combination of sponsors and VIP tickets. Jenny Dupre, co-owner of 5B Productions, said the goal for her and the 5B team is to provide an event that showcases the best Ketchum has to offer while also ensuring all needs are met for locals and visitors alike.
“Main Street is beautiful, it has character and it’s special,” she said. “That’s why we want to put [the event] there. The whole vision of everything we planned is really about the community and addressing pinch points that we think could happen around food, beverage and access,” she said. “We have reached out to a lot of community members already, just trying to figure out the best way to maneuver.”
There was no other discussion of the pinch points Dupre mentioned, though officials have expressed unease at past meetings with the anticipated number of World Cup Finals visitors and the services that will be needed to accommodate them. When 5B Productions submitted its event application to the city, it estimated the total number of festival participants would range from 5,000 to 7,000.
The plans presented on Monday call for most of the festivities to be centered around Washington Avenue. Initial mockups show a VIP tent between Sun Valley Road and Second Street and a stage placed on Second Street between Valley Apothecary and MyHouse Furnishings. Food tents and stalls, as well as seating for the public, could be placed on Washington Avenue between River Street and Second Street. Forest Service Park will likely be home to various artists and vendors. The plans also show gourmet food tents set up on First Street outside the Limelight Hotel.
Outside of Washington Avenue, Main Street will likely be another center of activity. The plans show most festival infrastructure, like the stage and seating, placed between Sun Valley Road and Second Street. The biergarten could be located in “The Pod’’ between Sotheby’s and Whiskey’s on Main, or on Second Street between the Sun Valley Culinary Institute and Lululemon. The biergarten will serve as a coffee shop during morning hours, Kuvara said.
Councilwoman Courtney Hamilton said all this is pending approval from the Ketchum business community.
“In theory this all sounds great,” she said. “But we know there are a lot of frustrated business owners already.”
Councilwoman Amanda Breen said this is a golden opportunity for the Wood River Valley.
“I’ve been to some big events over the years, including the Olympics, and you do generally see something like this there,” she said. “This could centralize everybody and show off the city. I think it’s exactly what we need.” 
aguckes@mtexpress.com
“In theory this all sounds great. But we know there are a lot of frustrated business owners already.”
Courtney Hamilton
Ketchum councilwoman
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With the event scheduled so late in the season, isn’t it true that most of the event season globes have already been decided? If so, the leaders are likely to not show up for this event? Thus we will not see Shiffrin and the other major stars? If so, then this event will not be what we would all hope for…
Totally not true. The World Cup Final is at the end of each ski season in March. Men’s and women’s races are held in four disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super G, and downhill, as well as a team event. Only a limited number of racers are invited to ski at the Finals, including the top 25 in the World Cup standings in each discipline, the current junior World Champions in each discipline, and any skiers with at least 500 points in the general classification.
Like most residents, I am excited about Ketchum hosting the World Cup ski races next March. My enthusiasm wanes now that I have learned that locals get to pay for the privilege. Sun Valley Co. owns this for-profit event. Yet, at the City Council meeting on July 1, the event organizers revealed they want Ketchum residents to subsidize this event to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. Additionally, they asked the Ketchum City Council to close Main Street for 13 days in March to host concerts and viewing parties. They have also asked the Council to pay a $250K sponsorship fee for the event. Ketchum locals will “absorb” potentially tens of thousands of dollars in snow removal, policing, transportation, and cleanup expenses. Why would our elected officials agree to this corporate welfare for Sun Valley Co.? Why not tell them we are excited about the event, but we will charge them for our costs?
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