Music & Arts Park – Planning Phase

Howdy Folks,

Today would have been our 23rd Annual Farm Concert and, boy, do we miss you! As many of you know, we took this year off from “the big show” in order to dedicate time to family as Baby Nora, our newest granddaughter, was born right when we would have been gearing up. Now, she’s three months old and cute as a button, and we’re enjoying the summer together as a family.

Although we haven’t been preparing the grounds for a show, we HAVE been creating a Park for your future. Here’s what’s been going on.

In 2023, the Town of Berthoud bought Newell Farm from us and established it as a Town Park with the intent to evolve it into a music and arts park. As part of this agreement, we live in the park while it is built around us. For a couple of years, Newell Farm Park plans were put on the back burner while the Town did great work on other parks, such as the Town Park splash pad and the Waggener arboretum (coming soon).

But now it’s time for the Newell Farm Park build-out.

We are thrilled to announce that the planning process for Newell Farm “Music & Arts” Park has begun! Bids for the concept plan were sent out last week after a robust Town meeting that you can read all about in this article from the Berthoud Weekly Surveyor. Thanks to the dozens of you who attended that meeting and voiced your support for the “new” Newell Farm Park amphitheater.

At our 2017 Farm Concert, we promised you that we would find a way to preserve Newell Farm with its 1879 farmhouse, 100-year-old trees, and agricultural history. That is now a reality, thanks to the Town’s shared vision when they purchased the property from us. We also committed to bringing more music to the farm, and now that dream is within our grasp too. With a series of summer concerts with seating for over 1500 people in the new amphitheater, you’ll have a choice of shows to enjoy and even a possibility of season tickets that you can use or provide to family and friends.

So, no more disappointments with tickets selling out in 15 minutes. Suddenly, our wonderful community can look forward to multiple outdoor shows, eventual indoor shows, festivals, Town events and anything else we can come up with that will make this unique multi-stage venue the jewel of the Little Thompson Valley.

If you would like to chime in on the park design and you haven’t been receiving on-going updates, feel free to reply to this email. We’ll put you on our “Friends of Newell Farm” email list and you’ll get the skinny as it happens.

In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful rest of your summer and we’ll look forward to seeing you at the Farm Concert next year.
Sarah & Butch, Casey & Mike, Cloud, Everett, & Baby Nora