Parents, You Want Your Kids At This Party

Crested Butte Devo is upholding the MTB heritage of the Rocky Mountain town by teaching kids how to be respectful and responsible, all while having fun on bikes.

- Dawn Belloise

Junior Bike Week in Crested Butte, Colorado, is growing up to be the biggest kids’ bike party on the planet—and very likely the only multiday festival that’s 100 percent focused on youth. Originally started as Junior Crested Butte Bike Week in 2016, the event is held in conjunction with the oldest and one of the wildest bike shindigs in America, Crested Butte Bike Week.

“What makes Junior Bike Week so special is that it’s one-hundred percent entirely for the kids and not a sideshow to an adult event,” says Amy Nolan, executive director of Crested Butte Development (CB Devo), which started and organizes Junior Bike Week.

It’s all about fun over a long weekend packed with events like the Strider Cup, Skills Clinics, Pump Track Challenge and Bike Trials Stunt Show with Robbie Pfunder, as well as the headliner event, the 12-mile Junior Wildflower Classic race. There’s also a slow race, in which the last person to the finish line wins—but there’s a catch: racers can’t put their feet down. Bike films shown during the weekend’s Movie Night, which benefits the high-school MTB team, are popular, too, but the pizza and ice cream party is an over-the-top hit.

Even though Junior Bike Week occurs at the same time as Crested Butte Bike Week in mid-June, CB Devo wanted to give their event its own identity and not ride on the other gathering’s coattails, so it was rebranded with a new logo and website. Not only does Junior Bike Week give kids their very own festival completely separate from the adult events; it’s also inclusive for kids of all ages, regardless of their competitive interests. Some come for the racing while others just want to be part of the scene.