Green River’s two-day celebration of the Flaming Gorge has fizzled out this year with the city announcing the cancellation of Flaming Gorge Days.
The event, which had been held for 65 years, has been a favorite southwestern Wyoming event, having featured national acts like Styx, Eddie Money, Kenny Chesney (before he was famous) and most recently Ned LeDoux.
It also has included an annual parade, children’s entertainment, vendors and many other attractions.
Steve Core, a spokesman for the city of Green River, said it was recently discovered that organization of the event, slated for June 23-24, was lacking and there wasn’t time to get the celebration back on track to happen this summer.
Flaming Gorge Days is not a city-sponsored event, but had previously been organized by the Urban Renewal Agency, local Main Street director and a group of volunteer residents and business leaders.
The event was cancelled in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic but came back strong last year with LeDoux as the headliner.
‘Just Got Tired Of Doing It’
In the past the event held a rock show Friday night and country music Saturday.
“In recent weeks it has been discovered that many of the plans for the event have not been completed to make a successful event,” according to a press release. “The city reached out and worked with some of the past committee members to see if there was enough time to put on a quality scaled-down version of the event for the weekend.
“Based on what was discovered it was determined that it would be best not to hold the event this year.”
Core said Flaming Gorge Days is “huge” for the city with concert attendance.
But for whatever reason, the event just didn’t come together this year and nobody noticed until it was too late.
“Over the years, it became a volunteer deal and the committee members just got tired of doing it,” Core said.
He added that it takes a minimum of six months of planning and organizing to pull the event together.
Down, But Not Done
While Flaming Gorge Days will take the year off, city officials have no plans of letting the event go by the wayside.
A meeting will be scheduled in late August to find volunteers who want to help organize future events.
“Hopefully we can get it going again with some new volunteers,” Core said.
While contacting vendors to notify them of the cancellation, Core said there was a lot of interest in reviving Flaming Gorge Days.
“People seem to want to help out and get it going again,” he said. “We are expecting a good turnout for the meeting in August.”
John Thompson can be reached at: John@CowboyStateDaily.com
