Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Here is the math problem the last weekend of August hands you. Four days. One Grand Tasting with more than 50 Colorado restaurants. Three amphitheater headliners. A Broncos game. A Rapids match. And you, one person, with one Friday night and one liver.
So let me sort it out before the tickets vanish, because they will.
This is the part people miss about late August on the Front Range. It is not a slow drift into fall. It is a pileup. Everybody who runs an event in this town looks at the calendar, sees Labor Day coming, and decides to go now. All at once. Same weekend. Buckle up.
August 26 through 29, at the Tivoli Quad on the Auraria Campus, 1000 Larimer Street.
This is the big one, and it runs four full days, hosted by the Colorado Restaurant Foundation. But the event you circle on the calendar is the Grand Tasting on Saturday, August 29, noon to 4 p.m. More than 50 Colorado restaurants putting out bites, and more than 700 beverage options pouring from Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits. Seven hundred. I mean, do the honest thing and pace yourself, because four hours goes fast when there are that many glasses in front of you.
Tickets start at $75, and here is why I do not feel bad about that price. The proceeds go somewhere real. The Colorado Restaurant Foundation puts the money into culinary scholarships, workforce training, and the Angel Relief Fund, which helps hospitality workers who hit hardship. So the ticket is a plate of the best food in the state and a scholarship for somebody trying to break into a brutal industry. Not a bad trade.
The Tivoli itself is the right call for this, by the way. Auraria sits at the edge of downtown, walking distance to Larimer and the light rail, so you are not fighting for a parking spot after four hours of wine. That matters more than people plan for.
Friday, August 28, 7:30 p.m., Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in Englewood.
This is where the Friday pileup starts. Dave Matthews Band is playing Fiddler's, and it is part of a two-day pass, which is the classic DMB move. They do not roll through for one night. They set up camp. If you are a fan you already know this and you already have the pass. If you are on the fence, the two-night thing is what makes the drive down to Arapahoe Road worth it. You commit to a weekend, not an evening.
Friday, August 28, 7:30 p.m., Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison.
Same night. Same start time, basically. The jam band Goose headlines Red Rocks, which means you now have two of the biggest touring acts in the state playing at 7:30 on the exact same Friday, twenty-something miles apart. This is what I mean about the pileup.
And look, Goose at Red Rocks is the pairing that makes sense on paper. A jam band, in a bowl of 300-million-year-old sandstone, with the sun going down over the plains. That is the whole pitch. You do not need me to sell Red Rocks. You need me to tell you it is happening this night so you do not book something dumb over it.
Friday, August 28, 7 p.m., Ball Arena downtown.
Chicago and Styx are bringing what they are calling the Windy Cities Tour to Ball Arena, and yes, this is also Friday. Three of the four Friday shows kick off within thirty minutes of each other, which is either a scheduling accident or somebody's idea of a joke.
Here is the thing about this one. It is indoors, it is downtown, and it is greatest hits from two bands that have been at this for fifty years. If your Friday people are not the amphitheater-in-the-dirt crowd, this is the comfortable, air-conditioned, sing-every-word answer. And it is a short walk from a lot of downtown dinner spots, which never hurts.
Friday, August 28, 7 p.m., Empower Field at Mile High.
I am not done with Friday yet. The Broncos host the Minnesota Vikings, preseason, 7 p.m. at Empower Field. Preseason, so temper the expectations, this is roster math and backups getting reps. But it is football at Mile High in August, and for a lot of people that is the actual start of fall regardless of what the calendar says.
So now count it up. Dave Matthews, Goose, Chicago and Styx, and the Broncos. All Friday. All within about half an hour of each other on the clock. This is the single most congested night of the whole weekend, and if you are trying to do two of these things, understand you are picking one. The traffic alone will make that decision for you.
Saturday, August 29, Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City.
Saturday is the day the calendar finally spreads out a little. The Rapids host Real Salt Lake up in Commerce City, and this is a rivalry that has actual heat to it. Colorado and Utah do not like each other on a soccer pitch, and that is the fun of it.
Here is how I would run Saturday if you are ambitious. Grand Tasting at the Tivoli from noon to four. Then you have a window to get up to Dick's for the Rapids. Is it aggressive? Yes. Is it doable? Also yes, if Hayley drives, because I will not be in any state to after 700 pours are on the table.
Saturday, August 29, the Denver Firefighters Museum.
Quieter note, and a good one. The Denver Firefighters Museum is offering free admission Saturday for Denver First Responders Day. If you have got kids, or you just want a low-key downtown thing that is not a $75 ticket, this is the move. Free, and it honors the people who run toward the fire. Easy yes.
Monday, August 31, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison.
Once the Friday chaos clears, Red Rocks resets for the man himself. John Fogerty, the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman, plays his greatest hits at Red Rocks on Monday, August 31. And I mean the actual catalog. This is the guy who wrote the songs you already know every word to whether you meant to learn them or not. A Monday night at Red Rocks with Fogerty running through the hits is about as clean a way to close out August as this state offers.
Now, if you survived all that and you still have gas in the tank, two things are already lined up for the week after.
The Boulder Art Festival is back, free, on the Pearl Street Mall, September 5 and 6, with more than 90 artists and makers. Pearl Street on a September weekend is one of the better free afternoons on the Front Range, and adding 90-plus makers to it does not hurt. Bring a wallet anyway, which is dangerous for me, because I never leave those things empty-handed.
And down south, Colorado Springs runs its Labor Day Lift Off at Memorial Park, September 5 through 7. Dawn hot-air-balloon flights and twilight glows, where they light the balloons up after dark. Park entry is free. Honestly, if you have never seen fifty balloons go up over Colorado Springs at sunrise, that is worth the early alarm and the drive down I-25.
So there it is. The whole board. The one thing I will actually push you on is the Grand Tasting, because tickets start at $75 and they do not sit around, and the money goes to hospitality workers who need it. Everything else you can pick and choose. That Friday, though. That Friday is a fistfight. Choose one, and let the rest go.
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