Denver’s free Day of Rock packed the 16th Street Mall on Saturday with thousands of hipsters, families and drifters, transforming the city center’s weekday rush into weekend revelry.
When bands from Bop Skizzum to Mindless Behavior gazed out from the five stages, they saw mostly sober masses, including animated children, with a few elderly pensioners in wheelchairs at the fringes. Police and paramedics reported relatively few incidents.
The sea of faces before singer Angie Stevens struck her as “people here to see the music, not to get drunk,” she said after finishing her set, playing an acoustic Blueberry guitar sent by a fan.
She and the other performers weren’t paid but gained exposure. They also won new fans, such as 11- year-old Alex Wilcoxon of Greeley.
Alex had played his uncle’s electric guitar once and lately has been playing the video game “Guitar Hero” a lot, and he thought he was exclusively interested in rap. But sitting cross-legged on the grass, watching Stevens, he decided he liked her songs too.
He was first to greet Stevens as she stepped off the stage.
“Awesome,” he said.
The music made for a good afternoon for Alex and his stepdad Karl Judisch, 34, feeling good with his transplanted heart and hips. The whole family came down from Greeley with Karl’s mother Terri, 53, for her birthday, after Karl’s wife, Jen, heard a radio ad for this second annual Day of Rock.
Newmont Mining, Southwest Airlines and Southern Wine & Spirits were major sponsors for the event, a fundraiser for 40 local charities for children.
Funk bass booming through the doors of Famous Footware also invigorated the afternoon shift for 22-year-old clerk Martin Indiatse. He’d started the day in a nearby restaurant watching the Manchester United-Barcelona Champions Cup soccer match on TV and caught the carnival vibe. Downtown had “an upbeat feel, not like a regular day,” he said.
Meanwhile surfer-turned-singer Erin Jo Harris of Bop Skizzum was firing confetti from a sparkling launcher on Stage 4, after some fired-up musings about boyfriends and girlfriends and coolness. Bicyclist Edward Murphy, 65, who rode all the way from Highlands Ranch, decided to delay his return a bit longer to film the action on his iPhone.
The 24 bands combined to boost downtown decibel levels. Jay Frost, 20, who lives off the $50 to $100 a day he makes on tips for playing his version of “Hallelujah” and other songs on the pianos positioned along Denver’s mall, was drowned out.
“I can’t compete,” he said.
West African immigrant meat-factory worker Ismael Lassissi, 35, brought his visiting mother from Benin.
They found the music unfamiliar, but she posed happily with western American carriage driver Bri Kokemuller, 27, and her cattle dog, Lilly, and her horse.
“Very good,” Lassissi said. “This has been a good day.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
