Every year, downtown Durango holds a five day long celebration with smaller events hosted by local businesses called Snowdown. This year’s theme is reliving the 80s with events starting Jan. 27 and ending Jan. 31.
Snowdown is a community coming together and hosting the events to promote fun, commerce and tourism, Linda Brockway, event co-coordinator of Snowdown, said.
“It’s just so awesome that we have this incredible town that gets involved,” Brockway said.
The community picks the theme during the events in the Snowdown box at Magpies Newsstand, she said.
After Snowdown a retreat is taken in the fall to look at possible Snowdown themes for the following year and a decision is made, she said.
When deciding what the next snowdown theme will be the committee first determines which ideas have the most entries in the box, Brockway said.
Next, they decide which is the most cost effective and most user friendly, she said.
Then, they take into account what has and has not been done before, Brockway said.
Every item used to promote Snowdown, like banners and posters, is done by local artists, she said.
Locals started submitting their artwork Feb. 3, 2015, then the board of directors and co-coordinators selected the best artist for the theme, Brockway said.
Snowdown is a nonprofit organization that takes in revenue from donors and sponsorships, she said. Ten percent of profit from all events is contributed to funding Snowdown.
By issuing press releases to local, regional, and national media outlets snowdown receives public attention to gain more attendees, she said.
The community puts on the events while the board manages the events, she said.
“People come from all over” to be a part of the annual Snowdown tradition, Brockway said.
Events held by locals gets people at their business and in return brings in more revenue, she said.
Getting information through media creates more traffic at the Snowdown events hosted by the local businesses, Brockway said.
Each year contacting media outlets can vary depending on the theme, Julie Oskard, volunteer manager of media relations, said.
“I often target the national outreach to theme-oriented entities,” she said.
For example, with the Snowdown, 2013 Get Your Geek On!, press kits were submitted to Wired Magazine and sent to producers and actors of the “Big Bang Theory,” among others, Oskard said.
This year, MTV received information; in addition to, many regional and national news outlets and organizations, she said.
For the 2016 Snowdown there are 146 events, 27 are family friendly and 23 new events with some dog and cat events, hosted by the community to promote fun, commerce, and tourism, Brockway said.
Hosting an event has to be approved by the Snowdown board of directors and co-coordinators and determine if the proposal is doable, Brockway said.
The board asks the questions will people attend, is there enough room, venue, not a competing events, and is it user friendly, she said.
“The job is to get as much as traffic as possible,” Brockway said.
All PR is dependent on free press coverage usually generated in response to our word of mouth reputation, Oskard said.
“Social media and webpage best forms of public information,” Oskard said. “Our facebook page currently has 10,000 likes. I expect it to exceed the 10 grand mark before next years event.”
The Snowdown Themed Contest box is located at Magpies, 707 Main Avenue, she said.
“Our webpage and the box has listings of themes already used,” Oskard said. “We don't repeat the same exact theme; although, sometimes there are similarities.”