Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Forty years. That is how long the Great American Beer Festival has lived inside the Colorado Convention Center, under those fluorescent lights, in that sea of concrete and carpet. And this year, for the first time in the event's history, they are taking the whole thing outside. Into a park. In October. In Colorado.
That is the headline, but it is not the only thing happening between Oct. 9 and 11. This is the weekend the whole Front Range seems to wake up at once. Beer outdoors, pumpkins stacking up at Chatfield, the Avs dropping the puck, bluegrass on Larimer, punk rock at the Ogden. So let me walk you through it, because trying to do all of it is a good way to pull a hamstring.
Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11, noon to 4 p.m., at Levitt Pavilion in Ruby Hill Park, 1380 W. Florida Ave. in southwest Denver.
This is the big one. After decades inside the convention center, GABF is setting up in the grass at Ruby Hill, and the people running it are not shy about why. Ann Obenchain, the VP over at the Brewers Association, says the move opens the door to live music, open-air tasting zones and a brand new PAIRED chef event where food gets built around the beer instead of the other way around. Levitt Pavilion, run by executive director Meghan McNamara, already does summer concerts out there, so the bones are in place for a festival that feels more like a day in the park than a trade show.
Here is the part people need to hear before they show up. Parking is tight. Really tight. We are talking roughly 580 spaces for something like 7,500 people per session, and the nearest rail stop, Evans Station on the C Line, sits about 1.4 miles away. So do the math. If you drive and circle, you lose. Rideshare, bike, or hoof it from the train. Your future self, three beers deep and wanting to go home, will thank you.
Side note on the real estate angle, because I cannot help myself. Ruby Hill is one of those southwest Denver pockets people drove past for years on the way to somewhere else. Putting a 40-year national event in that park is exactly the kind of thing that puts a neighborhood on more people's maps. Worth watching if you ask me.
Friday through Sunday, Oct. 9 to 11, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms, 8500 West Deer Creek Canyon Road in Littleton.
This is peak pumpkin season, and Chatfield does it right. The patch out off Deer Creek Canyon turns into the whole fall picture, pumpkins by the thousands, the farm, the open sky with the foothills sitting right there behind everything. It is three full days, so you are not boxed into fighting the Saturday crowd if a Friday morning works better.
Most people treat this as a kids thing, and sure, bring the kids. But the real move is going early before the lots fill, grabbing your pumpkins while the light is still soft, and being gone before the afternoon rush rolls in. That is the part the frequent-flyers at Chatfield already know.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 2 to 6 p.m., at Larimer Square, 1430 Larimer St. Free.
If GABF is the loud, sprawling thing, this is the one I would send Hayley and me to if we only had a couple hours. Free admission, downtown, and a bluegrass lineup that actually runs deep. Michael Cec kicks it off at 2 p.m., the Jake Leg Band picks it up at 3:20, and Wood Belly closes it out at 4:45. In between you have got cider, craft workshops, and the inaugural Blue Book Festival put on by the bookstore Little Blue Pigeon.
That is a lot of good stuff packed onto one historic block for zero dollars. Larimer Square knows how to throw this kind of thing, and an afternoon of cider and bluegrass under those string lights is about as good as a Denver fall Saturday gets.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 5:00 p.m., at Ball Arena.
The Avs are home against Toronto, and a 5 o'clock puck drop is a gift. It means you can do an afternoon somewhere else, a beer or a pumpkin or a book, and still make it downtown for the game without blowing the whole night. Toronto always travels well, so expect a loud building and a real crowd. If you are stacking your Saturday, this one slots in cleanly on the back end.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m., at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park.
Soccer stays alive in Commerce City with the Rapids hosting San Jose at 7:30. And here is the thing, soccer is having a genuine moment in this town this weekend, which brings me to the next one.
Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10 and 11, at Denver Union Station.
The Premier League is setting up its Mornings Live Fan Fest right inside Union Station both days. Think big screens, the whole English soccer circus landing in the middle of one of Denver's best buildings. Between this and the Rapids match across town, if you are a soccer person, this is your weekend. And if you are not, Union Station on a fall morning with a coffee is a fine place to be regardless.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Bond Park in Estes Park. Free.
Want to get out of the city entirely? Drive up to Estes. Pumpkins and Pilsners takes over Bond Park, free admission, local craft beer, the mountains doing their October thing all around you. It is the small-town version of the big beer weekend happening down in Denver, and honestly, on the right fall day Estes Park is hard to beat. Combine it with the drive up through the canyon and you have got a whole day without even trying.
Friday, Oct. 9, 8:30 p.m., at the Ogden Theatre. 16 and over.
Yeah. The Sex Pistols. At the Ogden on Colfax, Friday night, to kick the whole weekend off. This is the loudest way to start three days, and the Ogden is exactly the right size of room for it, close, sweaty, no bad spot. If this is your thing, you already have your ticket. If it is not, you will still hear about it Monday.
Saturday, Oct. 10, 8:00 p.m., at the Mission Ballroom. 16+.
On the complete other end of the musical spectrum, Snarky Puppy brings their whole instrumental machine to the Mission Ballroom on Saturday night. The Mission is one of the best-sounding rooms in the city, and this is a band built for exactly that kind of space. A late Saturday landing spot if the beer-and-game combo has not worn you out.
Sunday, Oct. 11, 7:00 p.m., at Ball Arena.
And to close it all out, the Nuggets are home against the Bulls on Sunday night. Basketball is back downtown, Ball Arena lights up again, and it is the kind of low-key Sunday finish that lets you ease out of a weekend that honestly had too much in it.
So there is your map. The beer went outside for the first time in four decades, the pumpkins are stacked out at Chatfield, and there is a game or a show or a festival around basically every corner from Friday through Sunday. You are not going to hit all of it. Nobody is. But pick two or three, plan the parking (looking at you, Ruby Hill), and enjoy the single biggest Front Range weekend of the fall. Buckle up.