Bart Dahl, Michaela Bacon and Floyd Bacon are gearing up to host Maddie-palooza, a Castle Rock Music festival that will benefit veterans this year.
Bart Dahl, Michaela Bacon and Floyd Bacon are gearing up to host Maddiepalooza, a Castle Rock Music festival that will benefit veterans this year.
Maddiepalooza begins at 3 p.m. Aug. 11 in downtown Castle Rock with children’s activities and live music. The event is free but proceeds from beer sales will benefit local veterans’ organizations. Donations are also accepted online at maddiepalooza.com.
Castle Rock lovers of beer and Colorado-grown bands can see those passions combined in this year’s Maddiepalooza, a music festival on Aug. 11 that raises money for local nonprofits and charities.
The event is free but 2018 proceeds from beers sales will go toward local veterans’ organizations — Douglas County Veterans Monument Foundation, Veteran Expeditions and Fallen Heroes Honored. Donations will also be accepted.
Once the stage is erected at Fourth and Wilcox, attendees will see a lineup that has Bart Dahl, the event’s music coordinator, bursting with excitement.
Dahl has spent most of his career in artist management and recently as a talent buyer for Denver area clubs. For Maddiepalooza, he’s booked headliners Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, which recently finished an international tour with Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
Also performing are Wildermiss, One Flew West, RL Cole & The Hell You Say, Trapdoor Social, Delta Sonics, The Outliers, Anthony Russo Band and SR3. Castle Rock High School and Douglas County High School marching band members will join Trapdoor Social for one song.
This is the festival’s fifth year. It began in 2014 near the anniversary of the date Maddie’s Biergarten opened in downtown Castle Rock in 2013.
The festival gained nonprofit status in 2016 and has been Maddie’s way of giving back to the community that supported its startup, said Michaela Bacon, one of Maddiepalooza’s founders and co-owner of Maddie’s Biergarten.
Past years’ attendance fluctuated between 7,000 and 10,000, she said, and this year she’s expecting the biggest turnout to date. Bacon and Dahl attributed that projection to heightened marketing ahead of the 2018 festival, but also to the town’s population growth.
In addition to Dahl’s lineup, Bacon said, they’re bringing in more family-friendly activities. Attractions, such as bouncy houses and rock walls near Third and Perry Streets, will run from 3 to 6 p.m.
Bacon’s husband, Floyd, takes on a more behind-the-scenes role during the festival but he shares his wife’s passion for music. The festival, he said, is a way to showcase craft beers and first-class entertainment they all hope keeps pace with other large-scale Colorado festivals.