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Town provides an update on Nederdays

Christopher Kelley
Posted 2/16/23

On Thursday, February 9, 2023, at 6 p.m. the Town of Nederland held a virtual meeting to provide an update on the upcoming town-owned event Nederdays. The event, which is planned for the weekend of

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Town provides an update on Nederdays

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On Thursday, February 9, 2023, at 6 p.m. the Town of Nederland held a virtual meeting to provide an update on the upcoming town-owned event Nederdays. The event, which is planned for the weekend of March 24 and 25, 2023, is being designed to be a specifically community focused event to promote local businesses. The virtual meeting aimed to address concerns regarding the planning and promotion of the event, as well as about the communication between business owners and Nederdays’ organizers.

Town Administrator Mirander Fisher and Town Administrative Support Manager Peter Cacek were present for the meeting as representatives of the Nederdays team, which also includes Parks Department Manager Nicki Dunn and Event Coordinator Stephanie Andelman.

The Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDDA), who funded Nederdays’ $8,500 budget, heard an update on the event from Dunn and Fisher during their February 8, 2023, meeting. Dunn listed for the NDDA all of the events currently planned for Nederdays, including a square dance to take place in the Caribou Village Shopping Center parking lot on Friday night, and a silent disco to take place on East 2nd Street and Snyder Street. In addition to ice sculptures being strategically placed throughout town, and a 5K run planned by Gavin Coombs, the Town of Nederland will also be creating a sledding hill for a race to take place on East 1st Street.

Nederdays was planned to support local businesses by promoting foot traffic through the four corners of Nederland. As opposed to staging beer and music tents and having food trucks from out-of town vendors, the organizers of Nederdays desire for local businesses to plan and promote their own smaller events to draw in customers.

Dunn mentioned during the meeting with the NDDA that Andelman and the Nederdays team has reached out to more than 40 of Nederland’s businesses. It was noted that the Nederland Fire Department will be providing s’mores, Wings of Lace will be hosting a winter fashion show, TEENS Inc. are holding a snowman contest, the Nederland Community Library is teaching winter homesteading skills, Salto will host Latin dancing lessons, the High School will have a fundraising Tug o’ War event, and Tres Gringos will hold a hot pepper eating contest.

During the February 9 public meeting Fisher and Cecek heard concerns that several Nederland businesses were not yet involved with Nederdays planning, citing they did not know enough about the event or was not yet in communication with organizers. With the event set to take place in nearly six weeks time, local business owner and NDDA Chair Barbara Hardt addressed Fisher and Cacek with questions from the public.

Cacek began by listing the events planned so far, which included some additions to Dunn’s list delivered to the NDDA the night before, such as a scavenger hunt, a “hot chocolate tasting trail”, a BBQ hosted by B&F, a wood splitting contest, a caricature artist at Kaleidoscope Gallery, and a beard contest.

“The goal of this is to bring people to the downtown area and have some activities for them to participate in, but not to keep people outside of the businesses,” Fisher said during the meeting. “We really want to make sure that they come and look at our festivities and then they walk into your establishment.”

“Ultimately we are trying to focus on getting different businesses and groups to do their own thing,” Cacek said. “It’s kind of like a stone soup; everyone brings something to the pot and we have all these smaller things that create something bigger together. And I think that’s ultimately what we’re looking at for this first event.”

Fisher noted that if a business owner wishes to take part in Nederdays by hosting their own event, but has not been contacted by Andelman or the Nederdays team, they can email one of the four main members of the team from the addresses listed below. Though the team hopes for businesses to get creative and come up with their own ideas, communication is required for business owners to know more information on what other events are happening around them.

Fisher wanted to assure that the Nederdays team does more targeted outreach to those businesses who feel they have not received the proper communication and information. The Nederdays team claims that they have reached out to the majority of brick and mortar businesses concerning their participation. Those businesses without a brick and mortar location could operate with a peddler’s license or coordinate with an existing brick and mortar location to provide them space.

There were questions concerning the expected size and cost of Nederdays. Cqcek stated that they are expecting roughly 1,000 people for the event and that the cost of Nederdays so far can only be measured in “man hours”. So far Cacek, Dunn, and Fisher have not tracked their hours, though their work has mostly been in planning stages, with Cacek handling the creation of the website and the social media campaign. Employees from Public Works will be providing hands-on work starting the day of the festival.

Cacek expected the website, www.nederdays.com, to be completed in the days after the meeting, and Fisher specified that an official statement on Nederdays will be provided to the public the following week, and continued updates on Nederdays will be posted online. Dunn had detailed to the NDDA on February 8 how the advertising and marketing campaign for Nederdays will begin rolling out on Monday, February 13, 2023, with ads in The Mountain-Ear and The Weekly Register-Call, as well as posters on display in stores and bulletin boards all over Nederland and Rollinsville.

Hardt asked about the potential closing of East 1st Street during the event and its effect on businesses like The Mountain People’s Co-Op and The Deli. East 1st Street will be closed on Saturday, March 25, starting early morning and all through the day, but Public Works will be opening the street back up on Friday and Saturday night during Nederdays. Cacek noted that the sledding event on East 1st Street should help draw plenty of foot traffic.

As to the question of parking, Fisher stated that the Town of Nederland is in ongoing conversations with Ron Mitchell and Nederland Central Business District Redevelopment LLC, who owns several barricaded lots in town that were previously used for parking. The Nederdays team will also provide a detailed map that will not only direct event goers to events and local businesses, but also to identified parking lots on the North side of town, such as street parking in 3rd Street or the Visitor’s Center parking lot.

“This is our opportunity to put on a small-scale event that the town can sponsor, it doesn’t mean that it’s the last of the events to come,” Fisher said. “This is kind of a soft launch of Nederdays; it’s an interesting opportunity for us to do something relatively low key, for locals only, local businesses only.”

“But we do hope that Nederdays can be the term used for these future Town-sponsored events, and as time goes on we can do larger events. We felt it was better to do something over nothing.”

“This isn’t the only thing that we have as an idea,” Cacek added. “And we’re also open to any other ideas that people bring to us.”

The Nederdays team will be releasing an official update in coming weeks, as well as rolling out their website and social media advertising and marketing campaigns. Fisher stated that they will strive to provide better communication and outreach to local businesses and others interested in being a part of the festivities.

“It’s a small but mighty team planning this, so use all of us as a resource. We’re happy to make sure that we’re meeting your needs and we’re answering your questions and we’re brainstorming with you,” Fisher concluded.

To contact the Nederdays team, please email:

Stephanie Andelman, Event Coordinator: auburnandel@gmail.com

Peter Cacek, Administrative Support Manager: adminasst@nederlandco.org

Nicki Dunn, Parks Manager: nickid@nederlandco.org

Miranda Fisher, Town Administrator: townadmin@nederlandco.org