Here’s a bit of whimsy that falls under the category, “You can’t make this stuff up!”

There’s a new outdoor concert venue north of Colorado Springs that’s getting a lot of bad press due to excess noise in its neighborhood. That’s all I read on NextDoor these days. But that’s not what this blog is about.

The new Colorado Springs venue was called Sunset Amphitheater while it was under construction, but then they sold the naming rights to Ford Motor Company so it’s now the Ford Amphitheater.

Decades ago, President Gerald Ford maintained a home in Vail, and the town named an amphitheater after him. You can see where this is going can’t you? Here’s the story:

The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail has never branded itself as the Ford Amphitheater, but the shortened handle has stuck nonetheless.

It has never been an issue until this summer when a new venue in Colorado Springs sold its naming rights to the Ford Motor Company, and the Colorado Springs location chose that moniker.

Some concertgoers predicted it would be an issue. On Instagram, in a post announcing the venue’s new name, one user predicted that there would be “a lot of (upset) people who bought tickets to the wrong venue.”

Dave Dressman, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater’s event director, said that prediction did indeed come to pass recently when concertgoers showed up in Vail to see The Beach Boys with tickets to the Colorado Springs venue. The Beach Boys played the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater [in Vail] on Aug. 15 and the [new] Ford Amphitheater [in Colorado Springs] on Aug. 16. – Denver Post, August 23, 2024

Oops!

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14.12, ESV)