Starting FGD planning

The city of Green River may or may not work with the same company as last year to run this year's Flaming Gorge Days.

During the January 7 City Council meeting, a motion for the city to enter into an agreement with Adelska LLC for the 2025 Flaming Gorge Days died as there was no second in a motion to approve.

City Administrator Reed Clevenger said that the city would like to continue to work with event company Adelska, who managed the concert for Flaming Gorge Days in 2024. The new agreement with Adelska, totaling $24,656, is primarily focused on the concert. However, Clevenger added that this year the city is anticipating that Adelska will handle all the marketing, branding, and social media for the event, including the parade, and provide some volunteers and lead risk management. Clevenger also hopes to have Adelska handle most of the ticket sales and aid in beer banding.

The city would assist in the running of all events related to Flaming Gorge Days under the new contract. However, City Communications Administrator Steve Core said that Adelska would consolidate and maintain registrations for all events, including handling all payments through the Flaming Gorge Days website. 

Council Member Jessica Maser inquired about the profitability of the concert last year, and Clevenger explained that it was not, adding that Flaming Gorge Days in general was not profitable, but that all events stayed within the set budget the city had for the event. Clevenger also said that if the event turns a profit this year, the city will see said revenue, but added that the city will have to eat that cost if Flaming Gorge Days is not profitable.

Clevenger noted that time is of the essence and that getting the contract approved as soon as possible is imperative so that Adelska and the city have enough time to prepare for the event, especially regarding the concert lineup. 

April Dawn Berg, assistant manager of Arctic Circle, approached the council to convey concerns about working with Adelska, as Arctic Circle faced some challenges with the company last year. Arctic Circle was one of the sponsors of Flaming Gorge Days, and Berg expressed that Adelska had not held up their end of the sponsorship agreement, such as providing promised concert tickets promptly, never receiving promised t-shirts that included advertising for Arctic Circle, and a failure to properly "tag" Arctic Circle in promised social media posts. Berg also noted that Flaming Gorge Days is usually the busiest weekend of the year for Arctic Circle, and last year it was not. 

In response to Berg, Clevenger said that concert tickets and promotional t-shirts were sent directly to the city, so it most likely would have been city staff who did not deliver the tickets and shirts to Arctic Circle in a prompt manner.

Council Member Mike Shutran made a motion to approve the contract with Adelska, however the motion did not receive a second, causing the initial motion to die. Shutran said he would like a special workshop to deliberate Adelska's involvement in Flaming Gorge Days. Mayor Pete Rust asked that the workshop take place as soon as possible so they can try to get the contract clarified and agreed upon so that the event can begin to move forward.