Skiing cowboys, indigenous celebrations, global ice artists and more on tap

By the Thirst Team

Get Out of Town is our weekly roundup of recommended events across Colorado, mostly focusing outside of Denver, to help everyone enjoy the entire state. For more happenings, check out our events calendar.

First Peoples Festival

Estes Park hosts the First Peoples Festival this weekend. The event is a celebration of indigenous culture, arts, language, oral traditions and much more.

The festivities begin Friday with a dinner at Twin Owls Steak House with guest speaker Sean Sherman, known as the "Sioux Chef." Saturday and Sunday events around town include competition powwows, a fashion show, indigenous film symposium, live music by the band Indigenous, a market and workshops.

Cowboy Downhill

The 50th annual Bud Light Cowboy Downhill event is coming to Steamboat Resort on Monday. The race brings together more than 100 top pro rodeo cowboys and cowgirls to race down a dual slalom course, take a jump, lasso a person and saddle a horse.

To kick off the party, Steamboat hosts a drone show at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. On Monday, in addition to the race, there will be 4-H farm animals, a roping clinic, souvenirs and an appearance by the Denver Broncos cheerleaders. Finally, the day closes with a concert by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe.

Snow Sculpture Championships

Breckenridge hosts the 34th annual International Snow Sculpture Championships this month. Starting on Monday, sculpting teams from around the world showcase their creativity and skill while carving 12-foot-tall, 25-ton blocks of snow by hand.

Teams are coming from Argentina, Canada, Finland, Germany, India, South Korea, Mexico, Mongolia and Turkey this year. Representing the USA are two Wisconsin teams and the Breckenridge home team. Sculpting continues through 9 a.m. Friday, and the public is invited to watch the artists at work.

The finished sculptures can be viewed from 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 24, through 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29. They also will be illuminated every night.

Viewing reservations are required for Saturday.

Big Richard tour

Our favorite all-woman Colorado supergroup has a few more local shows before releasing their debut album later this month. The band will perform in Durango Thursday and Friday, and Telluride on Saturday.

The four-piece band is Bonnie Sims (most famously of Bonnie and the Clydes) on mandolin, Joy Adams (who has performed with Nathaniel Rateliff, Bruce Hornsby and Chick Corea) on cello, Hazel Royer on bass and guitar, and Eve Panning (of Lonesome Days and Barrage) on fiddle.

The bluegrass-tinged band initially came together for a one-off festival set, found chemistry and fans, and have been playing together for more than four years since.

They have released singles and a live album, but will put out a full-length debut album on Friday, Jan. 24.

Read our Big Richard profile here.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar.