'Downtown Open' Turns Civic Center Park Into Mountain Park This Weekend

DENVER (CBS4)- This weekend, downtown Denver will turn into a ski slope- literally. The Civic Center Conservancy is turning Civic Center Park into a mountain park, complete with rails.

Olympic and X-Games athletes will show off their stuff in what's called the "Downtown Open."

"It's a combination between sports music and then just the community," said one of the crew members setting up.

Community members are invited to watch world class athletes go head-to-head in a rail jam competition on Saturday.

"We're bringing in snow machines from Arizona to actually produce the snow for us. It's a process of ice going into the machines and it gets shot out onto the run, groomers come on and groom and sculpt it, and make it ride-able," said one of the crew members.

The event is free but a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Civic Center Park Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and enhancing the area.

Amanda Johnson is a spokesperson for the organization.

"Having that funding source is vital to our survival so we are able to bring new programs to the park," she said.

More importantly she says it's for the community.

"Living in Denver these are the types of events that Coloradans want to come out and see, everybody will have to get bundled up but no one has a problem doing that," Johnson said.

Event organizers hope it's a competition that they can keep bringing back to Denver.

"We are very excited hopefully the plan is to do this in more years to come so we are pulling out all the stops for this one."

The first annual showing of the event begins Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.