The Aspen Recess
Paonia, CO
September 11th - 13th
Tickets will go on sale in Spring of 2014
Stay tuned for more 2015 event information
But for now, we'll keep up what was the 2014 ABR Event Schedule
-- note, be sure to preload the bellow maps, as there is no cell service for many of the locations. --
Check out the Event Map!
Location A: Parking (park only in mowed spots, hot cars on tall, dry grass can cause a grass fire). Look for a posted phone number to call a shuttle down to pick you up, or walk the 15min up the road to the campsite.
Location B: Darby Ranch Dance Hall (most late night dances)
Location C: Camping and Event Kitchen (all dogs must be leashed area).
Camping: The entire event we will be camping at the same location above Paonia: ABR 2014 Camping Location.
All Weekend Parking Location (Same as ABR 2013 camping location) Parking location at 39091 Pitkin road, Paonia.
*We will have a shuttle taking people and their things and up and from the parking spot. Or walk the 15 minutes :-).
Thursday, July 17th: Paonia, dinner and dancing at Dev's Place!
6pm Arrival: Set up camp, eat dinner (6pm ish), dance to follow! ABR 2014 Camping Location.
Thursday Night: set up your tent for the weekend, dinner and Dancing: 6pm - Late, at the ABR 2014 Camping Location
7pm: Dinner at the above campsite.
Friday: July 18th: Daytime Reservoir Swimming, McClure Pass Sunset Picnic and dance
11:00am (ish): Brunch at the campsite.
1pm - 4pm: swimming at Paonia Reservoir, hiking and playing on McClure Pass.
7:30-8:30pm: Picnic on McClure Pass on top of the bus. McClure Pass 7:30pm Picnic Location
9pm - Midnight (ish): Dancing in the Aspens on McClure Pass: Friday McClure Pass Dance Location and Maps: Park at Location A/ Dance at location B/ Above Picnic at Location C. All within a quarter mile from one another.
1am (ish) -4am: Dancing at The Darby Ranch Dance Hall! back in Paonia.
Saturday: July 19th: Dancing in the Bus and at Eric's epic new dance hall!
Brunch: 11am at the campsite
Daytime: Magic, still TBA
Dinner 6pm (ish) at campsite.
8:30pm: Intro to Blues Class at the Darby Ranch Dance Hall.
Nighttime – 9:30pm onward: Dancing in/on/around the mobile Recess bus venue @ The Darby Ranch!
Sunday: Sept 29th:
Brunch: 11am (ish)
Daytime: Hike Lamborne, swim, dance, play
8:30: Intro to Blues Class at the Darby Ranch Dance Hall.
9:30pm - Sunrise: Dancing at The Darby Ranch! in Eric's newly constructed dance hall!
Monday: 11am Brunch, 1pm goodbye lovely people! Say goodbye, thankful that all we ever asked was granted.
Tuesday: The Recess Bus Leaves for Portland, Road Trip!
Location A: Parking (park only in mowed spots, hot cars on tall, dry grass can cause a grass fire). Look for a posted phone number to call a shuttle down to pick you up, or walk the 15min up the road to the campsite.
Location B: Darby Ranch Dance Hall (most late night dances)
Location C: Camping and Event Kitchen (all dogs must be leashed area).
Camping: The entire event we will be camping at the same location above Paonia: ABR 2014 Camping Location.
All Weekend Parking Location (Same as ABR 2013 camping location) Parking location at 39091 Pitkin road, Paonia.
*We will have a shuttle taking people and their things and up and from the parking spot. Or walk the 15 minutes :-).
Thursday, July 17th: Paonia, dinner and dancing at Dev's Place!
6pm Arrival: Set up camp, eat dinner (6pm ish), dance to follow! ABR 2014 Camping Location.
Thursday Night: set up your tent for the weekend, dinner and Dancing: 6pm - Late, at the ABR 2014 Camping Location
7pm: Dinner at the above campsite.
Friday: July 18th: Daytime Reservoir Swimming, McClure Pass Sunset Picnic and dance
11:00am (ish): Brunch at the campsite.
1pm - 4pm: swimming at Paonia Reservoir, hiking and playing on McClure Pass.
7:30-8:30pm: Picnic on McClure Pass on top of the bus. McClure Pass 7:30pm Picnic Location
9pm - Midnight (ish): Dancing in the Aspens on McClure Pass: Friday McClure Pass Dance Location and Maps: Park at Location A/ Dance at location B/ Above Picnic at Location C. All within a quarter mile from one another.
1am (ish) -4am: Dancing at The Darby Ranch Dance Hall! back in Paonia.
Saturday: July 19th: Dancing in the Bus and at Eric's epic new dance hall!
Brunch: 11am at the campsite
Daytime: Magic, still TBA
Dinner 6pm (ish) at campsite.
8:30pm: Intro to Blues Class at the Darby Ranch Dance Hall.
Nighttime – 9:30pm onward: Dancing in/on/around the mobile Recess bus venue @ The Darby Ranch!
Sunday: Sept 29th:
Brunch: 11am (ish)
Daytime: Hike Lamborne, swim, dance, play
8:30: Intro to Blues Class at the Darby Ranch Dance Hall.
9:30pm - Sunrise: Dancing at The Darby Ranch! in Eric's newly constructed dance hall!
Monday: 11am Brunch, 1pm goodbye lovely people! Say goodbye, thankful that all we ever asked was granted.
Tuesday: The Recess Bus Leaves for Portland, Road Trip!
Aspen Recess 2014
Thursday night, July 17th through the 20th
Paonia, Colorado
Three days and four nights of Alt-Blues, Blues, and Fusion dancing, camping, hiking, and dancing in some of the most beautiful and rugged mountains in the country. ABR was the first of a unique series of national alt-blues/fusion exchanges that focus on building dancer community and solidarity, love for the outdoors, and unrestrained self-expression through dance and music. Aspen Recess is unique because the event itself is your host, with every dancer living, exploring, and dancing together in the same place all weekend.
This year we are tailoring ABR to be more like the west coast Recesses. This means we will have a home base where we will be camping all weekend at the Darby Ranch in Paonia, CO. It also means you will have the option to eat communal meals with the event if you decide to buy into the Recess Food Coop ($20 bellow or $40 with meat). Additionally, this year everyone who registers will sign up for a couple hour "plug-in" shift to help make the event happen. A typical plug-in shift might be spent helping in the kitchen to cook for your fellow Recessors or building sweet art installations to dance in all night. You will sign up for your Plug-In shift when you arrive at the event.
This year we are tailoring ABR to be more like the west coast Recesses. This means we will have a home base where we will be camping all weekend at the Darby Ranch in Paonia, CO. It also means you will have the option to eat communal meals with the event if you decide to buy into the Recess Food Coop ($20 bellow or $40 with meat). Additionally, this year everyone who registers will sign up for a couple hour "plug-in" shift to help make the event happen. A typical plug-in shift might be spent helping in the kitchen to cook for your fellow Recessors or building sweet art installations to dance in all night. You will sign up for your Plug-In shift when you arrive at the event.
Event Registration Break Down
What's with the sliding scale pricing structure this year? In order to make this event financially accessible to as many people as possible, this year we are offering tickets on a sliding scale pricing with tickets ranging from $75 to $195. Please consider your financial situation and buy a ticket at the high end of what you can afford. This gives access to folks who couldn't otherwise afford to come. If $75 is outside of your price range, fill out one of our sexy-lookin' Volunteer and/or Scholarship applications and our scholarship committee will work to issue you a ticket you can afford. These events are about community and access. Please, don't be bashful, we all have/are living out of our cars and off of food stamps... but that doesn't mean any of us are not an important part of our community and that doesn't mean you can't still come celebrate with us at the Recess!
DWOLLA registration option: to pay with DWOLLA simply pay the amount of your chosen ticket to [email protected] then checkout with the free DWOLLA ticket bellow to officially put your name on the event guest list. If you are including money in your DWOLLA transfer for an Event Food Ticket ($20 veggie/$40 meat) as well, you will have a chance to tell us that during the DWOLLA ticket checkout.
Setting Up A DWOLLA account: We are now offering payment through DWOLLA. It's a secure online payment system that allows for direct transactions between banks (or local credit unions!) that offer a great work-around that avoids extortive credit card fees. It takes a bit of set-up; but if you opt to pay with DWOLLA, we'll give you 10 business days to get your account verified and balance transferred. You can give both yourself and Blues Recess a $10 DWOLLA credit if you open a DWOLLA account through this link: Blues Recess DWOLLA new account referral. Additionally, DWOLLA just enabled a "guest checkout" so anyone can now use DWOLLA to pay!
DWOLLA registration option: to pay with DWOLLA simply pay the amount of your chosen ticket to [email protected] then checkout with the free DWOLLA ticket bellow to officially put your name on the event guest list. If you are including money in your DWOLLA transfer for an Event Food Ticket ($20 veggie/$40 meat) as well, you will have a chance to tell us that during the DWOLLA ticket checkout.
Setting Up A DWOLLA account: We are now offering payment through DWOLLA. It's a secure online payment system that allows for direct transactions between banks (or local credit unions!) that offer a great work-around that avoids extortive credit card fees. It takes a bit of set-up; but if you opt to pay with DWOLLA, we'll give you 10 business days to get your account verified and balance transferred. You can give both yourself and Blues Recess a $10 DWOLLA credit if you open a DWOLLA account through this link: Blues Recess DWOLLA new account referral. Additionally, DWOLLA just enabled a "guest checkout" so anyone can now use DWOLLA to pay!
Scholarship and Volunteer Applications
At Recess we have separate scholarship and volunteer forms in an attempt to divide the idea that those who give time are those who cannot pay the full amount and that those who can pay full price shouldn't be inspired to help. These events are run off of two resources, Time (aka. Love) and Money. If you can and want to give shit tons of both, yay for abundance! If you can't give that much, you still belong here. But we need both for the event to happen, that is just real. Thus, the forms:
Scholarship Forms
Volunteer Forms
Scholarship Forms
Volunteer Forms
Getting to and from the Event
Event Rideshare Board: Check it out! Find a ride, get a ride, find people to rent a car with. OR, go on our sweet bus road trip.
Recess Bus Road Trip!!!
(one-way from ABR to Portland, via San Fran?)
The Recess Bus will be returning back to its summer home in Portland, OR, the Tuesday following the Aspen Recess. It will leave Tuesday, July 22nd from Paonia, CO, and will arrive in Portland no later than July 29th. Gas costs per person will be $80/person for the one-way ride. The bus will be taking the following route: Paonia, CO, Grant Junction, Moab, UT, Salt Lake, Boise, ID, Portland, OR. If there are at least 6 riders pre-paid that want to go to Sacramento/San Fran we will head west at Salt Lake City, UT, through Reno, NV, Sacramento, CA, then north on I-5 to Portland, OR (thus skipping Boise). If you would like to reserve a spot on the bus be sure to pay bellow to reserve your spot. There is a limited amount of space on the bus, so be sure to reserve in advance! If you need further convincing, the Olympia Dance Convergence will be just north of Portland in Olympia a few days after we arrive in Portland (1st of August), and setup for Massive will start a few days following the convergence. Hop on the Recess summer road trip! If you have any questions regarding the ride please email us at [email protected].
What To Bring, How to Prepare
- Everything you need for camping (or have some rearrangements to share tent space). We are talking ground pad, sleeping bag, tent, the works. We will be camping every night of the event.
- Warm clothes: It's the mountains; anything can happen. Be sure to bring cold weather gear as well as hot weather and swimming gear.
- Sun screen and clothes to be in the sun for much of the day. Temperatures at night will be cold, but daytime highs in the 80s.
- Snacks: we will have three meals served a day if you purchase a food ticket. Times (heavy on the "ish") will be Brunch at 11am, dinner at 6pm, and a late night snack at 2am.
- Clothes to be screen printed. Willow Elixir Designs will be available for purchase as patches and some pre-printed, up-cycled clothing.
- Leashes for Dogs: Dogs are welcome at the Recess, however will need to be leashed whenever at our campsite location. Our amazing host has a host of free range chickens and other wildlife and has requested dogs be kept on a leash.
- Maps Pre Loaded On Your Phone or Printed: as you probably won't have cell service.
- Fires and Stoves Policy: all camp stoves or fires must be approved by the event. Check in with organizers at the event if you would like your camp cook stove or fire to be approved.
- Eating Utensils and plates: for those on food plan. we provide the food, you provide your own plates, cups, forks and spoons.
Refunds: We don't want to penalize anyone for wanting to come to the recess, especially if it ends up that you aren't able to join us (I mean that is punishment enough, right?). So our refund policy is that we give them and in full, but only up until two weeks before the event so that we have more than enough time to find a replacement body and for them to buy a plane ticket. Any refund requests within two weeks of the event are not guaranteed and will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. But we will always give you an event credit for a future Recess.
What is an Alt-Blues Recess?
A Recess event is a break from constraints: a recess from traditional obligations, a recess from the uninspiring, a recess from boundaries (in music, movement, conventional norms, and expression), a recess from the creative-voids of the every day. We call it Alt. (short for Alternative) because that's what we are, that's the music we prefer, that's the experience we strive to create--something outside of the ordinary. We call it Blues because that's who we are, we are Blues dancers and a part of the larger Blues community. We dance with the creative brilliance of Blues connection, technique, and musicality, often to Blues music. . . and often to something else. We believe in an inclusive and expansively nonrestrictive idea of what the Blues community "IS" and what it can become. We believe in dance as a living, ever-evolving cultural movement: borne out of the time-honored traditions of the past and inspired by the sounds, movements, styles, rhythms, and progressive social revelations of today. We are a community of students, parents, dance instructors, artists, musicians, lovers, engineers, wonderers, magicians, healers, and beyond. We are a community of dancers; we are the Recess Family.