SEPTEMBER 1-3: A Taste of Colorado – Civic Center Park Mark your calendars for the launch of an exciting new A Taste of Colorado! With a larger main stage, bigger national entertainment, VIP experience with private main stage viewing platforms and VIP food and beverage options, an expanded KidZone and of course ALL the great Food that you’ve come to enjoy! 11am – 8pm
SEPTEMBER 3-9: Crush Walls 2018 – RiNo The CRUSH WALLS festival has been taking art to the streets from its inception, spotlighting local and international makers and acting as a catalyst for creative expression and collective gatherings. This year’s edition will once again embody ‘Where Art is Made’, embracing more than ever the groundbreaking spirit of Denver’s RiNo Art District. CRUSH WALLS 2018 will be connecting both east and west sides of this unique art district, curating immersive experiences, showcasing awe-inspiring talent, uniting people through creativity, and offering a standout opportunity for everyone to experience the arts.
SEPTEMBER 7: First Friday – Space Gallery Ever-changing exhibitions showcase painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and print work from emerging, mid-career, and established regional and national artists. – 400 Santa Fe Drive. 303-993-3321 www.spacegallery.org
SEPTEMBER 13: Lizzy Plotkin & Natalie Spears Swallow Hill Cafe
SEPTEMBER 14-16: Grandoozy Music Festival – Overland Golf Course The debut of Denver’s Grandoozy music festival is living up to its name with an outstanding lineup of stars. The three-day event at Overland Park is headlined by Kendrick Lamar, Florence and the Machine, and Stevie Wonder. Other popular acts like the Chainsmokers, Logic, Sturgill Simpson, Miguel Phoenix, Young the Giant and more, play throughout the weekend.
SEPTEMBER 14 – 16: Firefly Handmade – Pearl Street Mall Firefly Handmade is beyond excited to once again join a cherished Boulder tradition, the 31st Annual Downtown Boulder Fall Fest on the world famous Pearl Street Mall! (Pets are NOT permitted on Pearl Street Mall per the City of Boulder.) FREE ADMISSION! Downtown Boulder Fall Fest draws 80,000 local, national and international weekend visitors, combining live music, a beer garden, children’s activities and the fabulous Firefly Handmade artisan market! Firefly Handmade is the Front Range’s premier marketplace for exclusively handmade artisan goods. Each market is carefully and creatively curated to feature returning and emerging artisans with home goods & décor; jewelry & accessories; adult & children’s fashion; skin care; ceramics; art; artisanal food; paper goods; and more. Learn more: http://www.fireflyhandmade.com/ Sept. 14 (5-9pm), 15 (10am-7pm) & 16 (10am-5pm)
SEPTEMBER 15: Denver-DRiNk RiNo Oktoberfest – Rackhouse Pub Strap on your lederhosen and dirndls, it’s time to bring Munich to RiNo. Oktoberfest is NOT a bier tasting event, it’s a bier drinking event! So bring your thirst and join the breweries, cideries, and wineries of DRiNk RiNo as we serve up our best Oktoberfest and fall seasonal offerings. What else? Classic German style fare and plenty of live music and games! Ticket includes a 0.5 litre mug and 1 litre of beer! 12pm – 10pm
THRU SEPTEMBER 16: New Territory Landscape Photography Today – Denver Art Museum New Territory: Landscape Photography Today is a survey of contemporary landscape photography from around the world. The exhibition of more than 100 photographs will explore how artists stretch the boundaries of traditional landscape photography to reflect the environmental attitudes, perceptions, and values of our time. The works revive historic photographic processes as well as use innovative techniques and unconventional equipment and chemistry to depict landscapes in surprising ways. Taken individually and as a whole, the photographs will show how about 40 artists have manipulated materials and processes for expressive purposes, blurring the distinction between “observed” and “constructed” imagery. The exhibition challenges us to see photography differently, and contemplate our complex relationship with the landscapE
SEPTEMBER 21 – OCTOBER 21: The Constant Wife – Space Theatre Constance Middleton cheerfully plays her traditional role, but she knows far more than she’s willing to let on. This cheeky satire pokes holes in the expectations of relationships, fidelity and social roles that were just as relevant in the 1920s as they are today. Featuring an infectiously plucky heroine at the helm who Variety calls “an antecedent to the women of Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City,” The Constant Wife takes joy in the imperfections of life and applauds those who elude the strict confines of society to discover true happiness. DCPA alum Shelley Butler (Human Error, The Most Deserving) returns to direct this contagious classic comedy.
OPENS SEPTEMBER 21: Tara Donovan: Fieldwork – MCA Denver Tara Donovan: Fieldwork celebrates American artist Tara Donovan’s distinct and varied practice, which includes sculpture, drawings, works on paper, and site-responsive installations. Often known for her transformation of neutral or mundane materials into elaborate, mind-bending objects that evoke the natural world or other organic material, Donovan’s work in many ways is about work. She manipulates a material over and over again, to see what it is capable of becoming, where it might lead, and how it will migrate from an object of practical use to something surreal or sublime. In some instances, she reworks a material into both two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, engaging with space and light in nuanced and unexpected ways. This exhibition, occupying MCA Denver’s entire building, will be the first time that Donovan’s wall-based and freestanding objects will be installed together, in order to understand fully how the artist re-imagines everyday materials like plastic straws, index cards, rubber bands, Slinkys, and Mylar. A remix of older and recent works will open up new areas of dialogue within her practice and enable viewers to make connections across time and subject matter. The exhibition is about how, through labor (especially repetitive action), order and structure can give way to the unpredictable, where reason yields to faith, and the mundane cedes to the marvelous—truly employing the creative act to seduce visually and, in doing so, override what we know to be factual.
SEPTEMBER 22: Iron & Wine – Paramount Theatre Iron & Wine continue to be in the spotlight of the burgeoning indie-folk/Americana scene. Beast Epic their sixth proper full-length record was nominated for Best Americana record at the 2018 Grammy Awards and was included on many year-end lists.
THRU SEPTEMBER 22: Hard Lines: An Exploration or Geometry – Space Gallery Featuring new work by Anthony Falcetta, Jodie Roth Cooper, Frank T. Martinez, Howard Hersh and Ramon Bonilla. Space Gallery – 400 Santa Fe Drive. 303-993-3321 www.spacegallery.org
THRU SEPTEMBER 23: Pixelated: Sculpture by Mike Whiting – Denver Botanic Gardens Sculptures created within the pixelated aesthetic of vintage video games are featured throughout the Gardens’ natural landscapes. Pixelated explores the relationships between the natural world and the artificial world of digital media. Mike Whiting says “Gardens are in their own way virtual spaces—carefully created environments. The contrast of the sculptures’ geometric and manmade materials can seem at odds with the gardens, but they are connected in the dialogue about the re-presentation of nature.”
SEPTEMBER 29: Denver/Thornton Water Lantern Festival – Carpenter Park Water Lantern Festival is an amazing experience where you’ll witness the magic of lanterns as they light up the water while enjoying food trucks, music, and festivities. This event will be coming to Denver / Thornton on Sept 29, 2018. – Tickets are on sale for the Denver Water Lantern Festival presented by One World. Get your tickets at www.WaterLanternFestival.com Don’t miss it! 3:30-9PM
SEPTEMBER 29: Elitch Gardens – RiNo The Night Nation Run is the World’s 1st Running Music Festival, an ultimate blend of a Music Festival and a Fun Run. Experience a music filled course with Live DJs, Light Shows, Bubble Zones, Neon and Black Lights. Cross the finish line into an Epic Main Stage After Party featuring Top Headliner DJs. Celebrate Life. Celebrate friends and family. Celebrate Music. Run with the Night Nation! 7-10:30pm
SEPTEMBER 29: Farm to Bottle – Old South Gaylord Street Get out your flannel and favorite pair of boots! It’s time for Old South Gaylord Street’s 3rd Annual Farm To Bottle Festival organized by our friends at Bottle Shop 33. Farm to Bottle is South Gaylord Street’s toast to local breweries, distilleries and wineries, offering tastings from over 40 Colorado establishments! Buy some tasty fare from one of the local food vendors and then stroll to the stage to enjoy some of Denver’s best musicians! We can’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall Saturday! Hate waiting in line for a drink? Check out the VIP package for early festival access, complimentary bites, and exclusive VIP tastings! 3-7pm
SEPTEMBER 29 & 30: Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee – Ogden Theatre Ms. Barnett, 30, is stubbornly grounded in hand-played, not overly processed rock. It’s retro but still vital, a style that has lately been rekindled largely through bands led by women.
SEPTEMBER 29 & 30: Bill Burr – Ellie Caulkins Opera House Never one afraid to speak his mind, Bill Burr can deliver an elegant rant on just about anything. He’s an unapologetic and animated performer whose diatribes quickly descend from simmering frivolity to manic hilarity.
THRU SEPTEMBER: Eyes On: Shimabuku – Denver Art Museum Eyes On: Shimabuku will showcase a video by Japan-based artist Shimabuku titled Do snow monkeys remember snow mountains? This video illustrates the adaptation of a group of Japanese snow monkeys living in a Texas desert sanctuary since they were brought to the U.S. in 1972. Initially featured at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, this film analyzes the displacement of the monkeys from their natural habitat in the snow-capped mountains of Japan. The film also symbolically explores human migration and reconnection with environment through genetic memory and ancestral history.
OPENS IN SEPTEMBER: Skate Kitchen – Esquire Theatre In the first narrative feature from The Wolfpack director Crystal Moselle, Camille, an introverted teenage skateboarder from suburban Long Island (newcomer Rachelle Vinberg) with an on-line following for her viral skateboard videos, meets and befriends an all-girl, multi-ethnic New York City-based skateboarding crew called Skate Kitchen. She falls in with the in-crowd, has a falling-out with her mother, and falls for a mysterious skateboarder guy (Jaden Smith, The Karate Kid, The Pursuit of Happyness), but a relationship with him proves to be trickier to navigate than a kickflip. Filmmaker Moselle immersed herself in the lives of the skater girls and worked closely with them, resulting in the film’s convincing authenticity, which combines poetic, atmospheric filmmaking and hypnotic skating sequences. Skate Kitchen precisely captures the experience of women in male-dominated spaces and tells an empowering story of a girl who learns the importance of camaraderie and self-discovery.
OPENS IN SEPTEMBER: We Are The Animals – In Select Theatres Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable. Three boys tear through their childhood, in the midst of their young parents’ volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over. While Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable father, Ma seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, in the cocoon of home. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world all his own. With a screenplay by Dan Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar based on the national bestselling novel by Justin Torres, We the Animals is a visceral coming-of-age story propelled by layered performances from its astounding cast – including Raul Castillo (Looking), Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) and three talented, young first-time actors. Drawing from his documentary background, director Jeremiah Zagar creates an immersive portrait of working class family life and brotherhood, featuring stunning animated sequences which bring Jonah’s torn inner world to life.
OPENS IN SEPTEMBER: Miseducation of Cameron Post – Mayan Theatre Based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post follows the titular character (Chloë Grace Moretz, Let Me In, Kick-Ass) as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl in the back seat of a car on prom night. Run by the strict and severe Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.)—himself an example of how those in the program can be “cured”—the center is built upon repenting for “same sex attraction.” In the face of intolerance and denial, Cameron meets a group of fellow “sinners,” including the amputee stoner Jane (Sasha Lane, American Honey), and her friend, the Lakota Two-Spirit, Adam (Forrest Goodluck, The Revenant). Together, this group of teenagers form an unlikely family and fight to survive. Directed and co-written by Desiree Akhaven (Appropriate Behavior, “The Slope”).
OPENS IN SEPTEMBER: Juliet Naked – Mayan Theatre Annie (Rose Byrne) is stuck in a long-term relationship with Duncan (Chris O’Dowd)—an obsessive fan of obscure rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). When the acoustic demo of Tucker’s hit record from 25 years ago surfaces, its release leads to a life-changing encounter with the elusive rocker himself. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy), Juliet, Naked is a smart and charming romantic comedy about life’s second chances. Featuring new music written by Ryan Adams, Robyn Hitchcock, Nathan Larson and Conor Oberst. Directed by Jesse Peretz (Our Idiot Brother, “Girls”).
OCTOBER 3: CPR’s OpenAir presents Ezra Furman Lost Lake
OCTOBER 7: All Day I Dream in the mile high city – Sculpture Park All Day I Dream parties began on a baking Brooklyn rooftop back in 2011 and have since become an international sensation, spurred on by Lee Burridge’s emotive soundscapes and sets. The sort that are all too rare in the current electronic music scene. The event and it’s cornucopia of artists explore beautiful, hypnotic and melancholic shades of House & Techno. Denver’s event also promises other immersive experiences including art, yoga as well as culinary treats. All Day I Dream currently takes place in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dubai, Ibiza, Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Mykonos amongst others . After the dust settles join us on October 7 under the mile high blue sky of Denver, Colorado. Dance through the day and into the dusk . This is sure to be one of the most unique events that Denver has ever hosted! www.LIVENATION.com. Noon-10PM
OCTOBER 9: The National w/ Sharon Van Etten Red Rocks
OCTOBER 13: One Epic Night – Swallow Hill Music One Epic Night, an evening of music, dancing, food and fun. Performances will feature Swallow Hill-centric bands including ATOMGA, David Burchfield & the Fire Guild, The Clay Kirkland Band, and Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore. Wander and enjoy all that Swallow Hill has to offer! All proceeds from this event benefit Swallow Hill’s Community Outreach Fund, which provides musical experiences through Little Swallows early childhood education, school assemblies, after-school lessons, and music therapy. 6-11pm
OCTOBER 15: Neil DeGrasse Tyson – Bellco Theatre “An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies”- From Star Wars to Frozen to The Martian. An entertaining and enlightening review of all the science that our favorite movies got wrong, combined with some of the stuff they got right. Incorporates the latest films as well as some classics that you may not have known had any science in them at all. 7:30-10:30pm