As luck would have it, Ken worked for Tom Dempsey who offered his idyllic, wooded spot between Nevado’s and the Alpenhof Lodge. Out came the big tent and up went 1800 chairs. One thousand people came to listen to six bands over two days.
By the third year, 1991, the Jubilee expanded to 10 bands, 3 days, and almost 3000 people, but they’d outgrown 4th of July weekend. It turned out that the following weekend was a slow one, so the festival was moved forward one week where it has remained for the last 17 years. The lineup has remained steady at 20-30 bands, 11 stages and 4000-5000 people per day.
“The second year we called 26 bands and got six to come,” Ken said, quite a difference compared to the present. “Now 300-400 bands from all over the world apply to come play at Jazz Jubilee…from as far away as Guatemala, Germany and Japan.”
Modest as they are, Flossie and Ken are enormously busy strategizing a mountain of details.
Bonnie Colgan, festival photographer and volunteer for 16 years, paints a portrait of a couple in constant motion: “They are separate kaleidoscopes of movement and color as they oversee this amazingly successful festival. They juggle diverse personalities of volunteers, staff and guests, putting out fires from delayed transportation of musicians, airplane flights, road closures, unexpected weather changes, rearranging schedules, greeting guests and returning lost badges,” Colgan says.
Up to 500 volunteers staff Jazz Jubilee every year. “We have the best volunteers on the whole [jazz jubilee] circuit,” Flossie said. And most are loyal, longtime volunteers. “In the beginning we looked in the phone book and combed through our Christmas card list,” looking for volunteers. Bill and Gail O’Sullivan, for example, are still volunteering from the second year. “They’ve only missed one festival,” Ken said.
It’s obvious that Flossie and Ken are masterful entrepreneurs who care deeply about their musicians, while capitalizing on the nature of the artists to want to sit in with fellow musicians and jam the night away. With their observant eyes and ears, the Coulters have created several bands out of existing combos at Jazz Jubilee, that have gone on to be famous elsewhere – We 3, JAS’M, PB&J, Ivory & Gold, to name a few.
The pair finishes each other’s sentences, so their stories are a fascinating weave of two perspectives. They talked about the genesis of some of these groups, often sounding like Chinese take out (one from column A, one from column B…)  In the early years, they had three tents strung together in the Yard (the old town yard across from the Village). Every night when the music ended, Flossie checked in with the “night sleeper” at the tents. One night, a light was on and he heard a piano, finding Jeff Barnhart and Bob Draga. Flossie put them together with the Titan Hot 5 and they became the Titan Hot 7.
Later, the drummer (Danny Koots) and Bob Draga and Jeff Barnhart created a light night group known as WE 3.
The Professors are the instructors for the Jazz Camp, but they were playing with four or five other bands and had difficulty syncing their schedules, so Flossie made them one band.
“We encourage guys to sit in with other bands,” Ken says. Ken, who plays with his own Temple of Folly band, has been a drummer since he was 10 years old.
 Flossie says, “it’s a festival by a musician for musicians. Musicians can take home the money they make; they don’t pay for food, transportation, housing…it’s all provided.” Colgan has watched both Ken and Flossie personally thank each musician as they hand them their paychecks.
Don’t think for a minute that it’s only music. There are vendors providing food and drink, there are dance floors at most venues, even a couple of dance floors just for kids (the Holler and Big Top), and there are class reunions, family reunions – even a wedding reception. Some people come in the RVs and stay for the entire month of July. Others come especially to participate as volunteers.
According to a study done seven years ago, Jazz Jubilee brought some $5-7 million dollars into the local economy. Flossie estimates that with people now staying the whole week, that influx translates to $10-12 million for the town. Not too shabby for the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney hey-let’s-put-on-a-show spirit.
“Finally,” Colgan said, “they show their joyful appreciation as they greet personally each volunteer, thanking them for their service at the volunteer finale dinner...sometimes even from a plow after cleanup and all the chairs are folded and stacked for storage until next year.” It’s definitely a year-round job, and, after debriefing with all their managers at the end of July, they’re off on the trail of the next year’s Jubilee, which for 2009 will be July 8-12.