Outdoor events in the Rocky Mountain region are both stunningly beautiful and potentially risky. Cloud 9 loves to play in Colorado in both the city and the high country. The saying, "if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes" has no truer application than in Colorado. We have developed some guidelines to protect our expensive musical instruments from the elements and ensure that our players are not required to take a risk due to weather conditions. String instruments are very expensive and rather fragile. They are often very old wood and are irreplaceable. They cannot be exposed to cold, heat, moisture, or direct sunlight. Even though we play many events outdoors occasionally we must move indoors due to weather conditions. We ask that every outdoor event have an indoor back up plan. Some events are moved entirely indoors. On some occasions, a last-minute decision will be made to have part of the event outdoors even though the conditions are not safe for the string instruments. We would still need to be protected from the elements. We recently played an event in Denver where a last-minute decision was made to have the wedding ceremony outside. The temperature was 30 degrees and dangerous to our instruments. We were able to set up in the reception hall and use microphones to broadcast our music to the freezing crowd outside. 

We want your event to be amazing! To avoid the "October Surprise" we have come up with some guidelines:  

1. The temperature at performance time must be between 60F and 95F. 
 
2. The group must be fully in the shade and protected from any rain, snow, sleet, etc. 

Canopy Rental

3. The performers will sit on chairs on a flat, dry, surface

4.  A back-up space will be provided in the event of bad weather. 

​

Keep in mind that the weather in Colorado changes quickly and can greatly affect your outdoor event. 

There is a risk. We advise our clients that when they choose a venue and a date for their event, they must weigh the risks and be ready to adjust their plans. We recently had a bride from Florida ask if we could play for her wedding in Vail, outdoors, in December. Well, we would be happy to play, if it is over 60 degrees and dry. She seemed like we should be willing to take the risk and agree to play no matter what the conditions. No, we don’t take risks like that with other people’s violins.

​

The risk is yours. You will need a backup plan!

The Good News is that we have played over 2000 events outdoors in the Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and have seen only a few times when we could not play due to the weather and there was no back up indoor option.