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Spectacle to play free show at Snow Bowl Friday

A Spectacle family photo from the Shangri-La Music Festival in Minnesota over Labor Day weekend.
Spectacle/Courtesy photo

The summer concert season isn’t done yet. 

Musical artist Spectacle will take the stage at Snow Bowl Steamboat at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9, bringing sounds from around the world together with dance music and live performance. 

The show, part of the Schmiggity’s Presents Snow Bowl Summer Concert Series is free to the public thanks to donations to Family Bowl, a Snow Bowl initiative to benefit the Steamboat community.



Family Bowl originated as a series of meals to get rid of food when COVID shut down restaurants. However, it turned into 30,000 meals for the community over the course of three months and has since broadened its ways of benefiting Steamboat.

“The stage and that whole concert venue is something that came out of COVID. People needed and wanted to be outdoors,” said Meryl Meranksi, vice president of marketing and a partner at Western Centers, the company that manages Snow Bowl. “A lot of the feedback we’ve gotten from the concert series is that we’ve created a space that isn’t just representative of concert and shows, but is a gathering space for community.”



Making the concert free for attendees is just the most recent way Snow Bowl is trying to improve the community and give people an accessible space to gather.

Spectacle is surprising to ears. The duo creates dance music that ears tend to attribute to electronic sources. However, Spectacle weaves live instruments into its songs, with Michael Mahan on Spanish guitar and Jessica Borth on violin. Mahan also plays synths, contributes on vocals and produces the songs, while Borth also plays keys and sings. 

The founding members of the group combine their instrumental talents with worldly sounds, creating mesmerizing music that resembles EDM with captivating beats and satisfying drops. However, the live aspect makes the musical group appealing to a broader audience. 

Borth won’t be in Steamboat this weekend, as she recently had a baby, said Mahan, but her sister, Michaela, will take her place after crushing Borth’s parts at the Shangri-La Music Festival in Minnesota over Labor Day weekend. 

“I’m excited to come up there and play,” said Mahan. “We’re on a roll.”

Also joining the group this weekend will be saxophone player David Bernot.

“(It’ll be) really high energy, fun, saxy show, but still sticking to the gypsy, dark Spectacle roots that is our band,” said Mahan. “The ethnic sort-of vibes that are our thing right now.”

If you go

What: Spectacle

When: 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9

Where: Snow Bowl Steamboat, 2090 Snow Bowl Plaza

Tickets: Free

Borth and Mahan appreciate all music and love incorporating classic sounds from around the world with modern electronic beats. 

Mahan said he’s looking forward to performing an unreleased song Astarte, which is a collaboration with an artist called Gallium.

“The song has this really ethereal woman vocal that is like a goddess, like a church opera sort of vibe,” Mahan said. “That’s the main root of it. I brought the song down with the Spanish guitar. I haven’t got to do that much yet, so we played it for the first time back at this festival and people love it.”

Snow Bowl will conclude the summer music festival next weekend with the Young Dubliners.


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