has announced it will move to National Western Complex when it returns to Denver on Aug. 28-30. This marks the third location for the music festival in as many years, after the Sports Authority Field at Mile High parking lot provided a last minute location for Riot Fest when it was forced out of its original home. The festival has also changed its title to Riot Fest & Rodeo.
“They understand who we are, want to see the fest succeed and are sincerely some of the nicest people I’ve met in quite some time,” Riot Fest founder Michael Petryshyn said of the National Western Complex. “It still moves me to see people care about Riot as much as I do.”
Riot Fest Denver 2015 will feature themed installations as have previous years, which will be announced in May along with the lineup.
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In 2014, Riot Fest made national news when Arapahoe County in the small town of Byers east of Denver. The punk and rock music festival made its first appearance in the state at May Farms in 2013.
In her letter of denial, Arapahoe County Zoning Administrator Tammy King said Byers had “a general sense of being overrun with traffic and people” from Riot Fest in 2013.
With two months until the music festival was scheduled to take place on Sept. 19-21, Riot Fest was forced to
“Simply, we were duped. Certain groups, residents and so forth did not want YOU or US in their town, and there is something morally dishonest and unforgivable with their actions,” after the event was denied permits.
Within a week, Riot Fest found a , where the event saw few incidents when it took place on its originally scheduled dates.
Drawing about 20,000 attendees per day over three days, Riot Fest saw approximately , according to Sports Authority Field at Mile High general manager Andy Gorchov, who oversaw security at the event. From Sept. 19-21 police report six arrests for theft, trespassing and possession. The venue received about 20 noise complaints.
“Without question this was the most well mannered and well behaved crowd of all music festivals we’ve had,” . “It is a world class music festival that we were happy to host.”
