It started with a dream. Now Rocky Mountain Flower Fest is a dreamy music festival full of flowers that’s going on its fifth year.
“One of our friends went to sleep one night and woke up with a magical dream that she was wandering around a flower farm with mountains as the backdrop and music and flowers everywhere,” says Nikki McComsey, co-founder of Gather Mountain Blooms. “A year later we found Rocky Mountain Highway as the music festival collaborator, and we got to see the dream become a reality!”
Rocky Mountain Flower Fest blends a festive bouquet of beautiful blooming fields full of flowers with rollicking live bluegrass and Americana music, barn dancing, food trucks, craft beer, floral cocktails, artisan vendors, floral selfie stations and welcoming vibes for all. It has become a favorite on the local summer festival calendar, and Flower Fest is coming up again on Saturday, Aug. 9.
Held at the historic Venetucci Farm in Colorado Springs, Rocky Mountain Flower Festival is an annual collaboration between the flower farm and Rocky Mountain Highway Music Collaborative, the local nonprofit dedicated to building community through the power of live music with events such as MeadowGrass Music Festival. (Springs Media is proud to to be a sponsor once again.) Rocky Mountain Highway arranges the bands and live music, coordinates the local vendors and army of volunteers. Gather Mountain Blooms provides the event space and kaleidoscope of color from its blooms for flower picking. Together, it’s a celebration of summer, live music, natural beauty and Colorado community.
It’s the kind of festival where everyone joins hands in a circle and dances together under the stars as the band closes out the night —one of McComsey’s favorite Flower Fest moments. “It was moving and magical,” says the co-founder of Gather Mountain Blooms. “And it was a quintessential moment of Rocky Mountain Flower Festival.”
About Rocky Mountain Flower Fest
The partnership between Gather Mountain Blooms and Rocky Mountain Highway began in 2021. It was a natural fit, according to Rocky Mountain Highway Executive Director Jessica Barney. “Rocky Mountain Highway, a music collaborative nonprofit, has been behind the MeadowGrass Music Festival for 16 years, so we have a lot of experience with festivals,” she says. “When Gather Mountain Blooms approached us with their vision for a flower festival, our response was an immediate, ‘Heck yes!’”
The festival has blossomed into a space for community connection and a chance to enjoy the sweet notes of summer at Gather Mountain Blooms. In its first year, Flower Fest was a small, intimate gathering, but it has grown every year since, adding additional food trucks and vendors. Even as the number of attendees grows too, Barney and McComsey love the connection people find with one another amid flowers and folk music.
“Venetucci Farms holds a special place in the hearts of many people in the community. There have been many memories made here at the farm, mostly surrounding the pumpkin season,” McComsey says. (From the 1950s to 2002, the farm’s founder, Nick Venetucci, famously gave away millions of free pumpkins to local school children.) “With flowers now being grown at the farm, holding a music and flower festival only made sense. It provides the opportunity for new memories to be made.”
Now guests are invited to sip, savor and shimmy all afternoon and evening at Rocky Mountain Flower Fest. Food trucks serve bites. Craft beverage flow in the beer garden. And live bands play country, Americana, pop, bluegrass and folk tunes. This year’s lineup features Grass It Up, Jason Miller & Rob Fulton, and Ruby Greenberg. It is BYOC — Bring Your Own Chair — although you may not use it much if you stay on the dance floor. The barn is a popular spot for line dancing between band sets.
This year’s festival was moved back a few weeks to allow all the flowers to reach full bloom. The popular zinnias, sunflowers, marigolds and cosmos should be in their full glory. So should the supporting cast of some of McComsey’s favorites, including amaranth, dill and flowering basil. “They’re not as showy out in the garden, but they make for a beautiful bouquet element,” she says.
Those who purchase the “You-Pick Flowers” ticket can stroll the flower fields and create their own bouquet. And the selfie stations with all those flowers are always a big hit for everyone. While the entire festival grounds offer a picturesque backdrop for capturing memories, those curated photo stations filled with colorful blooms are guaranteed to pop in photos and your Instagram feed.
Craft stations also let festivalgoers assemble a flower crown or press flowers for special keepsakes. And this year you’ll find a llama meet and greet, plus an artisan market featuring handcrafted jewelry, soap, books, gifts and more.
All those offerings require a lot of work, but Rocky Mountain Highway excels at bringing the whole experience. “We rely on an amazing team of volunteers to bring these events to life,” Barney says. “The biggest piece of our successful events is our committed volunteer force — our secret ingredient! Without our incredible team of volunteers, none of our events — Flower Fest, MeadowGrass and more — would exist. Good-hearted people and extra hands truly make light work.”
(For the record, Flower Fest could still use some more volunteers this year. Sign up here and enjoy the festival for free.)
Gather Mountain Blooms: From Pumpkins to Petals
There’s a heartening, healing vibe at Flower Fest, which comes as no surprise. Research, such as this study at Rutgers University, has shown that flowers not only trigger immediate feelings of happiness, but have long-term positive effect on mood, lessening feelings of depression and anxiety and increasing feelings of enjoyment and life satisfaction. McComsey has experienced those effects firsthand.
In 2017, she suffered a life-changing concussion that led to debilitating migraines. Dark days were made brighter by her husband, Zach, who brought her flowers each week. As they searched for answers and healing, flowers helped McComsey to cultivate gratitude and hope, planting the seed that would become Gather Mountain Blooms.
With unwavering support from her family, particularly her sisters Leah and Abby Remacle who joined as business partners, Nikki’s vision blossomed into reality. Gather Mountain Blooms came to life in 2020 in Nikki’s backyard and grew larger with a move to Venetucci Farm in 2021. The family-run business now offers events and workshops throughout the year that include brunches and event dinners, live music, flower picking, Mother’s Day at the Farm, a pumpkin patch and more — including Rocky Mountain Flower Fest, of course.
“I think that people are becoming more and more disconnected from farms,” McComsey says. “While Venetucci has evolved over the years, we now have new and unique ways to experience a working farm and to imagine the history in these fields.”
McComsey and her sisters plant their seeds in January and grow them in greenhouses before transferring them to the fields. It’s a labor of love, but a rewarding one. McComsey says it’s a little surreal to see the farm filled with people and flowers and to feel the support of so many people for the small business.
“This is our fifth year at the farm, and sometimes we forget what that experience is like just walking onto a farm filled with flowers for the first time,” she says. “And the history of the place brings back a lot of memories for people. It’s so special for us to be able to see that in the eyes of others and to see them really light up when they enter the flower farm.”
Rocky Mountain Flower Fest Details
- Aug. 9, 2:30 – 8 p.m.
- Location: Venetucci Farm, 5210 S. Highway 85
- Tickets: $39 General Admission; $59 General Admission and You-Pick Flowers (until sold out), $49 General Admission at the Gate
- Schedule and Music Lineup:
2:30 p.m. — Doors open
3 p.m. – Ruby Greenberg and Friends
3 – 7 p.m. – Flower picking (ticket add-on), flower crowns, petting zoo, kid stations
4:30 p.m. – Grass It Up
6:30 p.m. – Jason Miller & Rob Fulton (Woodshed Red)
Find more details, FAQs, tickets and more at GatherMountainBlooms.com.
Celebrate With Springs!
We’re celebrating 10 years of Springs Media! Join us for a toast at Flower Fest!
Don’t Miss Ongoing Live Music and Blooms
The music doesn’t stop with Flower Fest. Rocky Mountain Highway and Gather Mountain Blooms host weekly live music every Tuesday from July 15 to Sept. 30. Tickets are only $10 per person, and you can add on flower picking. Beer by Bristol Brewing, tacos from Huevones and floral-infused cocktails are regular offerings. Think of it as a mini Flower Fest running till the fall. You can check out the schedule and buy tickets here.
Rocky Mountain Highway has also revived its ongoing series of house concerts too, intimate shows that provide personal connection with the artists and also raise vitals funds for the nonprofit’s mission of live music and community. Watch the schedule at @RMHMC.
