The 15th year of The Denver Post’s Underground Music Showcase started strong Thursday night with crowds roaming up and down South Broadway in anticipation of the first bands taking the stage.
“I don’t get to see as (many local bands) as I want to, but I come here and they’re all in one place,” said Tom Rossbach, who lives in Denver.
The four-day festival features more than 400 national and local bands at 20 venues along South Broadway.
UMS director Kendall Smith said he didn’t have attendance numbers for the first night of the festival yet. But the event has continued to grow since its inception, and last year Smith said attendance numbers were higher than in 2013, when about 16,000 people came out.
Ara Decamillis has been going to the UMS for the past seven years. That experience showed as he pulled a festival schedule from his pocket, nearly every page marked in blue pen with bands he wanted to see.
Decamillis, who has several friends playing in bands at the festival, said the music and the people are what keep him coming back every year.
Shortly before the first bands were scheduled to go on at around 8 p.m., people stood in line waiting to receive their orange wristbands at the UMS booth on Archer Place and South Broadway.
Within earshot of the line, a woman was selling frozen water bottles out of banged-up red and blue coolers, declaring to all passers-by that she was on a mission to rid Denver of cottonmouth.
Farther down South Broadway, groups of people milled around outside a few of the venues, some which declared their UMS affiliation on their signs. Skylark Lounge’s sign read in part “Peace, love + the UMS,” while the Hi-Dive’s sign read “Till Death Do Us Party.”
Kat Manly, who lives in Denver, started going to UMS in 2010. Manly, who lived in New York City for a few years before returning to Denver, said the main reason she loves the UMS is that it’s a close, personal experience.
While many festivals take place in a field surrounded by food trucks, the UMS can be enjoyed at its own pace, she said.
“You can go home for a little bit then head back to your favorite dive bar and pick up where you left off,” Manly said.
Jessica Iannetta: 303-954-1510, jiannetta@denverpost.com
