The biggest changes are the result of a new venue, southwest Denver’s outdoor Levitt Pavilion, rather than the indoor Colorado Convention Center downtown. Located in the Ruby Hill neighborhood, Levitt is a city-owned, grassy swath of land with a stage that sees upward of 60 concerts per year — the vast majority of them free.

But that����ap far from the only difference.

The 2026 festival will also be cheaper to attend, shorter and will have more of a music festival vibe. It will take place during the day rather than in the evening. And then there’s the unknown variable of Denver weather during the fest’s Oct. 10-11 dates.

In addition, many attendees – and there will be far fewer of them than in the past – will have to take pre-booked shuttles (at a cost of around $20), ride-sharing car services or public transportation to get to Levitt, located 5 miles from downtown.

“The different and creative use of the venue is something we are really excited about,” said Levitt executive director Meghan McNamara in an interview with The Denver Post earlier this year. The venue has been working with the Boulder-based Brewers Association — the industry trade group that runs GABF — on logistics.

“We have had cultural festivals on the lawn and other events. GABF will be new. It will look different than anything we have done,” she added. “One of the beautiful things about Levitt is you can choose your own experience. Dance, sit, stretch out under a tree.”

Shawnee Adelson, executive director of the Colorado Brewers Guild, which hosts several of its own major festivals, said some of the state’s breweries have expressed some “hesitation” about the venue.

“Mostly, they have questions. Breweries want to know how it is going to look, how it will go,” she explained. Others are concerned about the possibility of cold weather or snowfall. “You are always risking it with the weather in Colorado. We could get a snowstorm, or it could be 80 degrees.”

But Adelson also pointed out that there are beer festivals all over the Midwest, the East Coast and the Pacific Northwest that take place in cold weather, snow and rain without any problems. “I don’t envy the Brewers Association because switching locations is challenging. It is hard to have change. People like their consistency. But change can also reinvigorate something.”

Beyond the location, there could be other significant changes to the number of breweries in attendance and how their booths are staffed. For instance, in the past, hundreds of volunteers have handled the majority of the pouring duties, but a note on GABF’s website this year reads, “Participating breweries are expected to staff their booth at all times. Volunteer pourers will not be provided.”

The BA, through its outside public relations firm, declined to comment on volunteers.

In addition, Levitt can hold a maximum of 6,500 people per event, which means that the total number of attendees could only be 13,000 at most over the two days. The Brewers Association said the total is 15,000, including those working at the fest.

At one time, the GABF annually drew upward of 60,000 people to the Convention Center over three days each fall, with dozens and dozens of local bars, breweries and restaurants hosting their own events, beer tappings and mini-festivals.

But interest and ticket sales began to decline in 2022 after GABF returned following a two-year COVID-19-related absence, and because of a softening in beer sales nationwide and a waning interest in craft beer as a novelty. That necessitated a move to a small venue.

“If you have been to GABF the last couple of years, you recognized that the Convention Center wasn’t the right venue anymore. I think that is something people understand,” Adelson said.

So far, the majority of the feedback that Levitt has heard has been positive, McNamara said. “They are excited about a new format and festival.”

Tickets for GABF go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on June 25. The festival takes place Oct. 10-11 from noon to 4 p.m. on both days. Tickets are $60 plus $6.53 in fees. The paired food-and-beer event will also return; tickets for that are $170.38. Get information about tickets, times and shuttles at .

Thursday-Sunday. Cast reunions from beloved movies and TV shows are the word of the day at this year’s Fan Expo Denver, which features the usual mix of comic-convention programming alongside an impressive celebrity roster. There will be nostalgia-tugging gatherings of all the heavy hitters (with a few exceptions) from franchises such as “The X-Files,” “Lord of the Rings,” “The Goonies,” “Cobra Kai,” “The Boys” and “Reno 911!” — plus notables from “Stranger Things,” “The Mandalorian,” “The Lost Boys,” “Dr. Who,” and “The Outsiders,” among others.

Those panels and pricey photo-opps shouldn’t overshadow the meat of the event, which is a multimedia celebration of all things sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comics, cosplay, gaming, anime/manga, and spec fiction. Kids’ programming, competitions, live performances and a huge artist alley are also on the menu for the Thursday, May 28-Sunday, May 31 show at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St. in Denver.

Tickets are $130 for four-day admission and range from $35 to $80 per day, depending on the day. Child passes (ages 6-12) are $15. VIP upgrades and themed packages are also available. Visit for more details.

Wheelchair Sports Camp at Meow Wolf

Saturday. Arguably Denver’s most singular band, the nationally known Wheelchair Sports Camp will celebrate the release of its new hip hop/punk album “oh imperfecta,” releasing May 22 on Alternative Tentacles, the label of Dead Kennedys singer (and Colorado regular) Jello Biafra.

The experimental act — led by emcee, songwriter and visual artist/activist Kailyn Heffernan, along with drummer Gregg Ziemba (Rubedo, DeVotchKa and Unit E Records) — will headline Meow Wolf Denver on Saturday, May 23, with support from Dressy Bessy, BRŪHA, Rayann! and Biafra himself. Tickets for the 8 p.m., all-ages concert at 1338 First St. in Denver are $26.75 via .

Memorial Day 2026

Saturday. This year’s events that mark Memorial Day, on Monday, May 25, include the 13th annual Colorado Remembers Ceremony at the Colorado Freedom Memorial in Aurora. The free community event honors “generations of Colorado’s fallen veterans as well as those still serving today,” plus Colorado’s sesquicentennial and America’s 250th birthday, organizers said.

The program starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday with a free pancake breakfast and a musical performance by Victory Three, followed by the Remembrance Ceremony at 10 a.m., with “a special military flyover, a ceremonial laying of wreaths featuring the ADF-C Joint Force Color Guard from Buckley Space Force Base, and tolling of the Honor Bell,” they added. It takes place at Aurora’s Memorial Park at 756 Telluride St. in Aurora. Visit for more details.

The 27th Denver Arts Festival

Saturday-Sunday. The 27th tented gathering of artists and art-lovers known as Denver Arts Festival returns to MCA Central Park’s Conservatory Green for its 27th year this Memorial Day weekend, offering wares from 140 Colorado artists, makers and artisans along with music, food and adult drinks, and an art-activity area for kids and adults.

More than 140 artists were selected to participate this year, “exhibiting creative works that range in styles, price points and mediums, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, jewelry, glass, metal, ceramics, wood and photography,” organizers wrote online.

Admission and on-site parking are free at 8304 E. 49th Place in Denver. The event runs 10 a.m.-8  a.m. Saturday, May 23, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, May 24. Visit for more details.

But in building years, it is a washed-up retail concept in failing health that needs radical action to survive.

Left on its current course, the Pavilions could suffer a slow death, hindering the recovery of the rest of Upper Downtown, according to a panel of experts with the Urban Land Institute who were brought in to offer a diagnosis.

“It has had its place. It has had its moment in the sun, and we believe that it is now time to move on, to close this chapter and start the next one,” Kristen Morris, president of Morris & Fellows, a mixed-use development firm based in Atlanta, told downtown leaders at a presentation earlier this month.

After gathering opinions and touring the Pavilions and the surrounding neighborhood, the ULI panel offered a plan of care more akin to amputating both legs and less like a prescription for statins and exercise.

Tinkering with the tenant mix or giving the three-story development more time to find itself won’t resolve the fundamental issue — stacked outdoor retail hidden away from the street is a concept that stopped working a long time ago, Morris said.

The move away from mall culture to online purchases, generational shifts in shopping preferences, the unexpected loss of downtown office workers — those accelerated the downward spiral, but didn’t cause it.

The development’s decline was underway before the pandemic, and it has failed to recover long after it ended.

The city, which finalized its purchase of the outdoor mall late last year, should demolish the western half of the Pavilions and a good portion of the eastern side to make room for a “culturally significant open urban space,” according to the ULI panel’s recommendations.

In their initial concept, the panel favors an active urban park, finding inspiration from places like in Manhattan and in Cincinnati.

The United Artists theaters should be preserved to provide an indoor gathering space, useful during the colder months. What’s left of the retail space should focus on community-oriented programming with small-scale, local tenants who rotate through, creating a “kaleidoscope” of experiences.

The 800-parking spaces underneath the Pavilions are a valuable, income-generating asset that will be hard to replicate and should be preserved.

Two residential towers with 1,200 units between them should go up on the two empty lots, but in different phases. Those residents are key to turning a one-time tourist retail destination into a neighborhood amenity. Their energy is required to breathe new life into the area.

If Union Station became Denver’s “living room” after its redevelopment, the ULI argues the Pavilions could become Denver’s “front porch.”

“There’s like, really, no end in sight,” Morris warned of the current trajectory. “You can leave it there, and you can continue to let it deteriorate, both economically and performance-wise, as well as the building.”

A convention hotel won’t work

The Denver Downtown Development Authority (DDA), which voters granted $570 million in future tax dollars for revitalization efforts, has made the Pavilions a focal point of its attention.

The DDA spent $37 million of its limited funds to purchase the struggling open-air mall, as well as $23 million for 1505 and 1518 Glenarm Place, two adjacent parking lots along 15th Street that had different owners.

Another $8 million was set aside for renovation costs and lease incentives, not enough to foot the bill for a major demolition and new park.

That the authority has dedicated more than a tenth of its spending capacity to buy up the two blocks and then sought a ULI advisory panel for advice highlights how important it considers the area to Upper Downtown’s revival.

But the panelists wasted no time in quashing two of the ideas floated early on. One involves freshening up the retail and restaurant mix and bringing in more local concepts. As more office workers return and more residents move in, a recovery could eventually take hold.

Another proposal suggests the two lots be used for a large-scale convention hotel that could host gatherings too small to fill up the Colorado Convention Center but too big to fit in area hotels.

Denver eventually will need another convention hotel, which could help it win over meeting planners who don’t like putting attendees in a variety of smaller properties, said Suzanne Mellen, a senior managing director with HVS, a global hospitality consulting and valuation firm headquartered in New York City.

But at best, a hotel on the two undeveloped Pavilion lots could provide about 65,000 square feet of meeting space, which is less than the 100,000 square feet meeting planners would be looking for, she said.

And convention hotels aren’t cheap to build. Construction costs run at $800,000 to $1 million per room, meaning a 1,000-room property could top $1 billion, Mellen said.

The high costs mean substantial public subsidies would be required, requiring a long and drawn-out approval and planning process. The Pavilions needs a more immediate intervention, Mellen said.

“The panel concludes that hotel use is not recommended for the vacant parcels,” she said.

Who makes the call?

Behind the facade of fun destinations like Coyote Ugly and Lucky Strike, behind the memories of family meals at Maggiano’s Little Italy or lunch gatherings at 5280 Burger Bar, hides an uncertain future, one that the panelists warn won’t be resolved by waiting around.

The ULI has guided Denver leaders at critical moments in the past, including where to locate Denver International Airport and the Colorado Convention Center, and how to integrate Coors Field into the LoDo neighborhood.

In July 2022, the for the Speer Boulevard/Cherry Creek corridor. That greenway was actually a redevelopment in the early 1900s of a bunch of shanties and businesses that were using Cherry Creek for waste dumping.

The recent recommendations are tamer and include taking steps to more closely integrate the Auraria campus and Downtown, and bringing more residential and retail onto the campus.

And while the ULI recommendations carry weight and will receive careful consideration, the advisory panel is urging a more extreme and faster course of action, which could generate pushback.

A more detailed report is expected in the next three to six months, and the final call will likely come down to Mayor Mike Johnston and his point person on redevelopment, Bill Mosher, as well as the DDA board, which must approve any spending.

If the amount crosses $500,000, then the Denver City Council gets a say. At the crossroads of those two groups is DDA board member and City Council President Amanda Sandoval.

One of the nation’s leading downtown redevelopment consultants, Brad Segal, president and a founding partner of Progressive Urban Management Associates, is also based in Denver.

He helped get the original Pavilions off the ground in the 1990s, when he headed up the Downtown Denver Partnership.

And if any group were likely to speak up if it saw value in preserving the retail development as it is, that would be Historic Denver. Spoiler alert, it isn’t opposed to tearing down a large part of the Pavilions.

The Denver Post talked to Mosher, Sandoval, Segal and Historic Denver to get their take on what the ULI recommended.

The start of a conversation

“It was well done, really thoughtful and big picture,” said Bill Mosher, Denver’s Chief Projects Officer, of the ULI plan, stopping short of endorsing it as the final word.

“I view it as the start of a conversation,” he added politely.

]Mosher has proven himself a master of turning the city’s losses into wins. He has become Denver’s patron saint of impossible development causes.

His signature victory in a long list involved turning Union Station, a neglected Amtrak stop, into “Denver’s living room” complete with an active transit hub, high-end hotel and restaurants.

His messiest save was the Asarco Smelter, a once-vital industrial site that helped make Denver prosperous in the mining days. But the land paid a heavy price. After decades of remediation, Mosher helped it find a new life as the Crossroads Commerce Park.

Mosher said he was joking with the ULI panel that reactions they could expect would range from nostalgia to good riddance, from “we celebrated our prom there, please keep it,” to “it has had its day and needs to be demolished.”

“There is something between in my view,” he said. “We need to be thoughtful.”

Although it is struggling, the Pavilions is still 60% occupied with some loyal tenants, which is more than can be said of many of the surrounding office towers. It contains 350,000 square feet of space, which would be hard and costly to replicate.

Mosher said he was surprised that the two lots along 15th Street were never developed, and that the DDA was able to put all the parcels under one umbrella. If residential towers are the way to go, he sees 800 units as a more manageable number than the 1,200 the ULI has proposed.

The calls for 2,000 new housing units in Upper Downtown, but that represents more of a starting point than a final destination.

L.A. developer Asher Luzzatto has purchased four distressed office , pennies on the dollar, and plans to convert them, with the help of DDA support, into 1,200 housing units.

Mosher may need more convincing that a hotel won’t work. He is the CEO of the Denver Convention Center Hotel Authority and the lead developer on the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, which was also considered a long-shot project at the time.

“We will look at what they say. I don’t know if it will be our roadmap,” Mosher said. “It provides some food for thought and a vision that makes us think in a larger context.”

Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval said she appreciates the work that the ULI panel put into its recommendations, and agrees with most, but not all of them.

“I loved the idea of preserving the theater and connecting that to the Sundance Film Festival,” she said. She also “loved” the idea of adding two residential towers instead of a convention center hotel.

“I am not so sure about their recommendation of a park,” Sandoval said.

Rather than another green space, she envisions something more akin to a community gathering space surrounded by street-level retail, like a mercato or plaza that could hosts farmers markets in the summer and the Christkindlmarkt in December.

The DDA is investing heavily to revive two downtown parks, including one that is only a few blocks away from the Pavilions.

“I want to see those investments come forward,” Sandoval said.

The DDA is pouring $30 million into the redevelopment of Civic Center park, with another $7 million to overhaul the McNichols Building, which will add a garden dining area and an arts marketplace. The first phase is expected to cost $50 million.

The “, which rebuilds the stretch west of Arapahoe Street between 16th and 17th streets.

The DDA has approved $5 million in support, with $2.5 million coming from the Elevate Denver Bond Program, $1 million from Great Outdoors Colorado, and $19.5 million from Denver Parks & Recreation.

What will take the stage?

The land that now hosts the Denver Pavilions was part of a larger theater district that served as a draw for city residents looking for entertainment. Only the Paramount Theatre remains of that era.

In the push for urban renewal, the city tore down several beautiful buildings on the land, said Brad Segal, the urban consultant.

For more than two decades, the land sat fallow, hosting parks until the land was developed by Bill Denton and the Entertainment Development Group. Ken Gart and Gart Properties purchased the Pavilions in 2008.

Mosher was also active in trying to fill in the gaps along 16th Street. Segal, as director of the Downtown Denver Partnership at the time, was involved in the early stages.

Segal said a key takeaway out of the session for him was that the Denver Pavilions is an outdated retail format and most likely won’t be retail again. He agrees that a convention center hotel is a nonstarter, and he wishes the panel had gone beyond a single recommendation of an urban park.

The word carries different connotations for different people, and he envisions more of a town square, a point of comparison being the space in front of Union Station.

“When you characterize something as a park, that might have been a fumble,” he said.

Although compelling, the ULI recommendations are more important in terms of what they said not to do than what to do.

Reactions are mixed on tearing down the lion’s share of 350,000 square feet of retail space.

Sandoval, who has warm memories of time spent there with her children, questioned if a way could be found to create active gathering spaces without demolishing so much of the complex.

After three difficult years of construction along the full length of the former 16th Street Mall, she questions whether the area could survive another disruptive project.

Not communicated by anyone was a sense that the Denver Pavilions represents an architectural gem worthy of historic preservation, or that it should be preserved as a time capsule to late 1990s retailtainment.

Denver’s ordinance on historic designation requires a minimum of 30 years, more generous than most jurisdictions, which require 50 years.

That may reflect a realization that buildings are most vulnerable to demolition at that age, said Jay Homstad, senior director of preservation advocacy with Historic Denver, in an email.

Historic Denver, in an official statement, said the group was among the many stakeholders that the ULI team consulted during its weeklong study process in Denver.

“We’re supportive of the proposals, particularly the approach that retains a significant portion of the building, including the movie theater, while opening up space along 16th Street for the kind of street-facing retail that reflects how people actually use urban spaces today,” the group said in its statement.

Historic Denver also said it welcomed the addition of housing, which should “bring much-needed life to a part of downtown that has been struggling for activation.”

The development timeline for the Pavilions has been corrected. Bill Denton and the Entertainment Development Group built the Denver Pavilions, which in 2008 was acquired by Gart Properties. 

They’ll be part of a contingent of local Democratic heavy-hitters — also including Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib — visiting the Crescent City to bolster Denver’s bid as it competes against four other cities.

Crow said the fact that Denver has done it before means it’s more than prepared to do it again. Denver hosted the Democratic convention in 2008, when a fresh-faced U.S. senator from Illinois named Barack Obama accepted the party’s presidential nomination.

“We know we can do this and do this well,” the congressman from Aurora told The Denver Post in an interview on Thursday. “We have the capacity. We have the infrastructure.”

And Colorado, he said, has the blue credentials to excite the base and put them to work making sure the next occupant of the White House is a Democrat.

“At a time when the Democratic Party is facing a crisis of confidence in so many places, and in so many ways, Colorado is a beacon of how to do it right,” Crow said.

Early last month, the national party announced that Denver to host the Democratic National Convention — joining Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. The nominating convention for the party’s presidential ticket is set for Aug. 7-10, 2028.

The party and potential host cities are working out site visit plans for each in the coming weeks. A decision on which city wins the bid will likely be made this summer.

Johnston and other city representatives have lobbied for the event both formally and informally in recent months. The mayor’s spokesman, Jon Ewing, confirmed Johnston’s appearance in New Orleans this weekend and said the mayor recognizes the manifold benefits of steering the event to the Mile High City.

“Landing the DNC would be an enormous economic boon for Denver, bringing tens of thousands of visitors to Colorado and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in activity for the city and local businesses,” Ewing said.

Murib spoke to The Post by phone from New Orleans, where he’s been since Monday. He will join Crow and Johnston in speaking to the delegates at the spring meeting on Friday evening.

“We’re hoping to show them why Denver is the best place for the 2028 convention,” he said. “We want to emphasize the seamless experience they will have in Denver — from the airport to the hotels to the convention.”

Each of the finalist cities has hosted at least one past Democratic convention — Philadelphia in 2016, Boston in 2004 and Atlanta in 1988. Chicago hosted in 2024, the most recent of its dozen times playing the role.

“We want to show how the convention could be one for the history books again,” Murib said, alluding to the nomination of America’s first Black president 18 years ago.

Murib said three Denver City Council members — President Amanda Sandoval, Chris Hinds and Darrell Watson — will be at the national Democrats’ meeting as well.

Crow, an Army veteran who represents a Colorado district that takes in the eastern and southern suburbs of Denver, is serving as battleground co-chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2026 election cycle.

Colorado was among the top states in the nation for Democratic performance in the 2024 election, bucking what was otherwise a red wave that handed control of the White House and Congress to Republicans. Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris beat now-President Donald Trump in Colorado by a margin of 11 percentage points.

“We’re a model for the country,” Crow said.

He said this week’s gathering of party leaders is a critical moment in the push to get Denver back on the national stage two years from now.

“This is the biggest gathering between now and when the (convention) decision is made,” Crow said.

Murib said the meeting in New Orleans won’t be all serious business, though.

“It’s a little bit of a party — and a pitch,” he said.

Someone dressed in a big blue bear costume — an homage to the 40-foot ursine behemoth who peers into the Colorado Convention Center along 14th Street in downtown Denver — has already been getting a lot of attention from attendees, the party chair said.

“Everyone is getting a picture with the big blue bear wearing Mardi Gras beads,” he said.

The renovation covered all 13 themed floors of the hotel, including guest rooms, hyper-themed suites, and meeting and event spaces. The redesign updates the hotel’s playful style while incorporating modern technology and design elements, featuring art curated by .

“We’re officially introducing A New Era of Play at the Curtis. We’ve reimagined everything guests loved about the property to make it bigger and bolder. I couldn’t be prouder of our team of creative geniuses that brought this dream to life,” said Lizzie Raudenbush, general manager at the Curtis.

Each themed floor reflects a different concept, including a summer camp-inspired “Camp Curtis” floor, an arcade-focused “Level Up” floor and a “Knock on Wood” floor, known for its superstition-themed decor.

Guest rooms will feature interactive elements, games matching the floor theme, and a variety of new tech upgrades, including smart TVs in Hilton Connected Rooms and upgraded Wi-Fi throughout the property.

At the heart of the property’s transformation are the Curtis’ hyper-themed suites, offering experiences such as:

• Party Like a Rockstar – On the Life of the Party floor, this suite features an iridescent glitter wall and lively artwork.
• Recess – On the Blacktop floor, the suite is designed like a vintage classroom, with desks, chairs and a chalkboard accent wall.
• Get a Clue – On the 13th floor, this suite includes a mini pool table, a Clue game set and a moody color palette.

Aside from the newly renovated guestrooms, meeting and event spaces were also updated, totaling more than 30,000 square feet and featuring vibrant colors and patterns such as candy-striped walls, bright carpets and color-blocking.

This includes the Curtis’ 2,500-square-foot rooftop terrace, one of Denver’s largest outdoor hotel meeting spaces, offering city skyline views and an outdoor fireplace.

The renovation was designed by Sage Studio, the in-house creative team of the hotel’s management company, , and , a global design firm. Throughout the project, designers incorporated references to Denver’s culture, including memorabilia from the Denver Nuggets, Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies.

“It is no small feat to transform 13 themed floors and develop meeting spaces that are anything but corporate. We don’t take our nickname of Denver’s happiest hotel lightly, so we have brought smile-inducing details to every part of the guest experience at the Curtis,” Raudenbush said.

The Curtis Hotel, a DoubleTree by Hilton at 1405 Curtis St., has more than 330 guest rooms and is two blocks from 16th Street, near the Colorado Convention Center and the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

Scheduled for May 28-31 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver, producers of the event had already announced a “Goonies” mini-reunion, and a “Lord of the Rings” 25th anniversary cast tour featuring hobbits Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monoghan, as well as elven hottie Orlando Bloom and Gimli actor John Rhys-Davies.

Wood will also DJ at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom on Sunday, May 31, under the name Wooden Wisdom, with Zach Cowie. Costumes are encouraged for the fantasy-themed concert from the vinyl DJ project (see for more). Promoters called it a “full-blown Lord of the Rings rave experience set to the sound of carefully curated vinyl selections … dust off your cloaks, and sharpen your elvish ears.”

Last week, the national Fan Expo convention brand also set a cast reunion for the “Scream” franchise — timed to “Scream 7’s” theatrical release, which enjoyed the best box office opening of the franchise with on its Feb. 27 opening weekend.

The “Scream” reunion will feature the resurgent Matthew Lillard (“Five Nights at Freddy’s), plus Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, and Lee Waddell. (Sorry, but “Scream” franchise regulars Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox will not be in attendance.)

“The Goonies” reunion features cast members Sean Astin (already there for “Lord of the Rings”), Corey Feldman, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, Kerri Green and Martha Plimpton.

More celebrities include Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock,” “Beetlejuice”), Cary Elwes (“The Princess Bride,” “Stranger Things”), Lilli Cooper (“Wicked”), Mike Coulter (“Luke Cage”), Krystina Alabado (“Mean Girls”), Josh Holloway (“Lost”), and Joel Perez (“In the Heights,” “Fun Home”).

As with past years, the pop-culture confab will feature comics artists and animators, authors, anime and animation voice actors, cosplayers and notable gamers alongside panels, kid-friendly offerings, autographs, a marketplace and more. See for tickets and more information.

Note: This story has been updated to include Elijah Woods’ May 31 DJ gig in Denver.

Through Sunday. Spring is almost here and the Colorado Garden & Home Show has plenty of inspiration on tap. The event, which began Feb. 14 at Colorado Convention Center and closes on Sunday, Feb. 22, features 19,000 square feet of “lush landscapes, creative planting ideas, and innovative designs from local experts,” organizers wrote. “Learn from celebrity guest presenter and renowned UK garden designer Jo Thompson, sharing inspiration for gardens of every size.”

She’s among more than :500 exhibitors, hands-on workshops, interactive exhibits, local shopping, and a Kids Zone,” they added. The event runs noon-6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at 700 14th St. in Denver. Admission: $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and free for children under 12. Visit for more details.

Denver Children’s Theatre

Opens Thursday. If you’ve had a child over the last 15 years, you probably know Pete the Cat. The sunglasses-wearing, musically-inclined feline is a favorite of young kids in books and on Amazon Prime. Now they can see his story come to life thanks to Mizel Arts and Culture Center’s Denver Children’s Theatre. The singing, dancing show was created for the youngest kids, with a 45-minute production aimed at pre-K through third-graders.

“Pete the Cat: The Musical” opens Thursday, Feb. 26, and runs through March 22 with public and school performances. The Sunday, March 1, show is free as part of the SCFD Free Day and Accessibility Performance, and more public performances will take place on Sundays each week. Tickets: $15 for a single ticket or $12.50 per ticket for a family four-pack (four tickets for $50). Elaine Wolf Theatre at 350 S. Dahlia St. in Denver.  to buy and for more information.

Golden’s Comfort & Comedy Fest

Starts Monday. Having settled into its shiny new home in Golden, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center is mounting its first annual Comfort and Comedy Festival, “a two-week celebration of comedy, theatre, music, magic and interactive performance,” organizers said online. The fest, running Monday, Feb. 23, through March 8, takes place at various venues in downtown Golden, including 20 performances, workshops, nationally touring comedians and Broadway performers, family programming, late-night shows, and hands-on classes.

That’s unusual for a comedy fest, and a sign that this one might be sticking around for awhile. See stand-up comedian Josh Blue, improv troupe Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, music-comedy duo Buckets N’ Boards, Broadway performers The Chalks, and magician Peter Juris by grabbing tickets — which range from $5 to $55, depending on the event, at .

Colo. Environmental Film Fest

Friday-Sunday. Even if political leaders can’t figure out how to acknowledge, let alone address, climate change, the rest of us have an opportunity to dive in with the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. The 20th annual event trades finger-wagging for diverse, entertaining, harrowing and groundbreaking explorations of the way our natural world is changing.

The 2026 festival highlights women climate leaders, starring a CU Boulder professor in “Women of Carbon” (the opening night film on Friday, Feb. 20) and closes with a special appearance and audience Q&A with Denver TV meteorologist Mike Nelson, following the documentary “Global Warming” on Sunday, Feb. 22. In between there are 13 Colorado-tied films, 50-plus documentaries from 13 countries, world premieres, filmmaker panels, and a vibrant Eco-Expo, organizers added.

Screenings take place at various times at the Green Center at Colorado School of Mines, 924 16th St. in Golden. Visit for more information and to buy tickets. Day and full-fest passes are available; individual events run $15. ]]> 7424081 2026-02-19T07:00:07+00:00 2026-02-19T07:00:07+00:00 /2026/01/29/gatbsy-ballet-rv-show-cowboy-gathering-library/ Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:00:47 +0000 /?p=7406302 Colorado Ballet visits Jazz Age

Friday-Feb. 5. As with the Colorado Symphony and Opera Colorado, performances by Colorado Ballet offer a fine-arts fix for those seeking respite from the chaos of the world. And this week is a great excuse to visit, as the nonprofit company will debut its take on “The Great Gatsby” on Friday, Jan. 30, and with various performances through Feb. 5.

This version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s enduring novel, which is often misinterpreted as a celebration of Roaring 1920s flapper-excess, arrives with choreography by JordenMorris and an original, jazz-infused score by legendary composer Carl Davis, performed live by the Colorado Ballet Orchestra, producers said. Think glamor, elaborate sets and period-accurate dancing — all with world-class showmanship and precision.

Tickets for the shows at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 1385 Curtis St. in Denver, are $40-$125. Ages 12 and up. Call 303-339-1637 or visit for tickets or more details.

Rustlin’ up a party

Friday-Saturday. After its first-ever showing at the National Western Stock Show, which ended Jan. 25, the Colorado Cowboy Gathering is headed to Golden for its 37th installment of Western songs, stories, poetry and humor, all inspired by the campfire culture of ranchers and cattle drives.

The festivities — from Friday, Jan. 30, to Saturday, Jan. 31 — include not just big-hat events but also family-friendly programming, themed sessions and an open-mic session, organizers said. Performances take place at the Buffalo Rose Event Center in Golden, 1119 Washington Ave. in Golden. Tickets for $30 are available for individual musical and storytelling shows from Colorado and national acts, via .

Late night, fully lit

Saturday. Until fairly recently, Denver’s literary scene was confined to book stores, niche festivals and writing workshops. For the past couple of years, events such as Reading Den and pop-up poetry and fiction readings have brought younger, hipper audiences out for drinks and conviviality, creating a genuine social scene around the printed word.

The latest notable is the free Late Night Lit, which organizer Jessie de la Cruz described as a way of making “adult library culture feel less like a lecture and more like a night out, rooted in reading, creativity and connection,” she wrote. Her latest event, complete with a DJ-driven afterparty, arrives on Saturday, Jan. 31, at MCA Denver’s Holiday Theater, although it’s already at capacity. So why did we bring it up? Because now is the time to RSVP for future events, via , such as Silent Pages Society, Curiosity Collective and other innovative adult library programs. All fill up shortly after being announced, de la Cruz said.

It’s also a good time to plan for the next Reading Den, another hip-lit series, on Feb. 25 at Denver’s Fort Greene bar. Visit for more.

On the road again

Through Saturday. This week’s thaw reminds us that spring and summer will be here before you know it, and that includes camping, national park visits and more outdoorsy fun that Coloradans crave. The Ultimate RV Show returns this weekend with plenty of ways to attack it.

Running through Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Colorado Convention Center, the free event is a window-shopping dream with more than 300 fully staged RVs “from compact, lightweight travel trailers to fifth wheels, toy haulers, motorhomes and more,” organizers wrote. The show also features a kids’ zone, balloon twisters, scavenger hunt, and on-site pet adoptions (for real). It’s all from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, at 700 14th St. in Denver. Visit or for more details.

It’s the first time that the event, in its modern form, will be under the open skies — something that is always risky in the fall in Denver. The goal is to blend GABF’s “legendary beer lineup with live music .. and a more immersive festival experience,” the organization said in a statement.

“Taking the festival outdoors lets us reimagine what����ap possible, and we’re excited to bring fresh energy to the festival and provide an experience that feels uniquely Colorado,” said Ann Obenchain, vice president of marketing and communications of the Brewers Association, in the same statement.

“This isn’t just a venue change for us, it����ap an evolution,” she continued. “We’ve listened to our attendees and we’re creating an outdoor festival that invites people to explore, discover, and celebrate craft beer in a completely new way — one that����ap all about gathering your friends, finding your spot on the lawn, and enjoying great beer and good times together.”

Both Levitt and the convention center are owned by the City of Denver, and the organizations worked together to move GABF, said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver, which helps manage bookings at the convention center.

“With the economy, we are seeing a lot of groups reinventing themselves. I think [the Brewers Association] was looking for something new, and they wanted to try something fresh,” he said.

Ruby Hill is more than five miles south, and a little west, of the convention center and even further from the hotels, bars and restaurants that attendees typically frequent during the weekend. It is located in a residential neighborhood. (Levitt executive director Meghan McNamara didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment for this story.)

Scharf said attendees will likely continue to base themselves downtown, just as they do for other big events that are further afield, including the National Western Stock Show and games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

The Brewers Association said the festival will be reduced to two sessions over two days, down from four sessions over three days a few years ago. This year’s event will be Oct. 10-11 from noon to 4 p.m. (rather than Oct. 8-10, as had been previously announced). Tickets go on sale in June. Attending the festival will cost $60 this year, down from $85-$95 in 2025.

Other details provided by the Brewers Association:

• “The event will be rain or shine. We will be prepared for any weather and expect attendees to come prepared as well.”
• Paired, a food pairing event, will continue. “More details to come.”
• “We are working on event details and layout and still expect hundreds of breweries.”

The festival, often described as the largest or among the largest commercial beer fests in the world, began in Boulder in 1982 before moving to Denver two years later, first to the now-demolished Currigan Hall and later to the Colorado Convention Center. It reached its peak in the early 2010s when tickets sold out within seconds.

Attendance began to slip before the COVID-19 pandemic, however, as interest in craft beer leveled out. GABF was canceled in 2020 and 2021 before returning as a smaller event. The Brewers Association has repeatedly changed formats over the years and added other alcoholic beverages, like cider, seltzer and spirits, in an effort to stay relevant.

Levitt, at 1380 W. Florida Ave, is a nonprofit amphitheater in Ruby Hill Park. It opened in 2017 and is owned by the city of Denver. It typically presents 40-50 concerts and events between May and October each year.

This story was updated several times on Tuesday with new information.

Saturday. Winter Park Resort’s sassy side, the Mary Jane base area, is marking its 50th anniversary this season with a celebration on Saturday, Jan. 10. It includes a kickoff party with celebratory first laps, a ski-down parade and a birthday toast with cake at The Jane’s base area. Festivities in town will include fireworks and a free concert by Big Gigantic, an EDM duo from Boulder.

The concert takes place at the outdoor Rendezvous Event Center, 78821 US Highway 40, in Winter Park. Visit for resort lift tickets and more information. — John Meyer

Josiah Hesse’s “On Fire”

Tuesday. Denver journalist and author Josiah Hesse, who’s written about topics ranging from cannabis in exercise to conservative politics, has a new book called “On Fire for God” that traces his personal history with evangelical Christianity while growing up in Mason City, Iowa. “One part ‘Educated,’ one part rebuttal to ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ ‘On Fire for God’ explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right,” according to a statement.

Hesse will celebrate the incendiary tome’s Denver release with an all-ages event at the Tattered Cover Colfax from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 2526 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver. A $7.25 ticket is required and includes a signed hardcover copy of the book, or a $5 Tattered Cover gift certificate (in addition to event admission). Visit for tickets or for more details. — John Wenzel

A legend in the making

Friday-Saturday. Texas native Charley Crockett is a modern-day troubadour cut from the same cloth as Outlaw Country greats but also the poignant folk-rock of Bob Dylan and the raw Americana of Lucinda Williams. The tireless touring artist and songwriter finds his true calling on stage, typically performing more than 20 songs from his dozen-plus albums over the past decade, including “One Trick Pony” and “Alamosa.”

Crockett will headline RiNo’s Mission Ballroom on Friday, Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 10. Tickets for the 16-and-up shows at 4242 Wynkoop St. in Denver are $78.84-$182.07 via . — John Wenzel

International Sportsmen’s Expo

Through Sunday. The massive International Sportsmen’s Expo returns to the Colorado Convention Center this weekend for all things hunting, fishing and traversing the land. New this year for the trade show: pontoon boats and an expanded RV section, along with the usual seminars and workshops features, a kid-friendly catch-and-release trout pond, live birds from the Raptor Education Foundation, and Stay the Trail’s RC off-road test track.

Tickets are $18 for ages 16 and up. Active military with ID and those 15 and under can get in for free. Noon-7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. The event takes place at 700 14th St. in downtown Denver. Visit for tickets and more information. — John Wenzel