Music festivals have gone through a lot changes in Colorado. Once a cash cow of the state’s live music industry, the summer festival circuit was brought low by the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020. While many festival promoters had good intentions, there was the uncomfortable feeling of an unsustainable money grab. If was as if enough large names on the poster could justify the growing cost of admission while festival conditions got worse. This ultimately could not survive a once in a generation pandemic, and looking back at the festivals that dominated the summers in Colorado, only a few survived.
One such festival is the Ft. Collins local music celebration FoCoMX, taking place this year on April 24-25 in Old Town Ft. Collins.
How did a festival that focuses solely on the local music scene with no national headliners survive where others could not? For Peggy Lyle the Executive Director for FoCoMA the answer is simple; it’s the community. “We just have the best fans,” states Lyle in our recent interview. “After years of working on this and other music projects around town, we really have grown a culture for appreciating local music, and I don’t think that happens in a lot of communities.”
While FoCoMX is a nonprofit, it still seems counter intuitive to host a two-day event that only features local bands and expect a return on investment. This requires a level of blind faith from the non-musician community to put up their hard earned money for bands they have probably never heard of. Yet, year after year the people of Ft. Collins do and each year the response is overwhelmingly positive. “Our goal is to uplift our musicians, to showcase, them, talent, both new and experienced,” says Lyle. “And to be able to have a sense sharing that with our community. It’s about building those connections through music.”
Now in it’s 18th year, FoCoMX started as a simple showcase of northern Colorado bands. “At the time, Fort Collins was kind of a little bit forgotten when you talk to people in the bigger markets. When you were in Denver, were they even thinking about Fort Collins and having a music scene? And we really were vibrant, but we just no one knew,” recalls Lyle. “So I think that once we got a taste of showcasing people and, really celebrating all the cool stuff that we had, I think there was no going back.”
Now it hosts a staggering 450 bands over two days, playing at more than 40 venues. With that came the need to expand their infrastructure, something the local community also leaned into. “We have a much bigger team, we’ve got this really amazing audio production team that makes all the venues sound wonderful,” states Lyle. “We have almost 500 volunteers that help make it happen. It wouldn’t happen without those people. And so we have all these other teams and things that happen behind the scenes like with any good show.”
Looking towards the future, FoCoMX doesn’t look to be going anywhere. With a firm reputation in place and a beloved part of the northern Colorado music experience, FoCoMX has become an institution. For Lyle, this is from a real sense of authenticity. “I think if I had to attribute it to anything, it’s about being genuine and having heart,” muses Lyle. Everyone can tell that there’s love for music and love for our scene. I do know that we’re unique in that way in northern Colorado but I don’t think that’s the the whole point. The point is we’re all in it together.”
Photos by Blackstage Flash
FoCoMX takes place Friday and Saturday April 24-25 in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Advanced tickets are $60.
