Denver, CO
6 music questions for Denver: What’s the fate of ticket bots, festivals and Red Rocks’ calendar? We have answers.
We already know that 2025 will be a huge concert year.
While acts like Coldplay, Chris Stapleton, Post Malone, Metallica and The Lumineers will headline the major arenas and amphitheaters around Denver, smaller venues along the Front Range and in the high country are growing their nationally headlining roster at an astonishing rate — even if they will never match the calendar at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (more on that below).
But there are also plenty of questions for music fans about the future. Here are 6 of those questions, along with some answers, for the 2025 concert season, which is just around the corner as shows start at Red Rocks on March 8 with Winter on the Rocks, featuring Gramatik.
1. Will promoters get bots under control?
Probably not. Malicious bots that snatch up large numbers of tickets the moment they go on sale — then drive up prices for the re-sale market — are like weeds, with new ones sprouting up the moment another disappears. Industry professionals are skeptical they can tame them, though they’re trying, said AEG Presents Rocky Mountains president Don Strasburg.
Ticket seller AXS — a spin-off of AEG that was also founded by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz — says it fights bots with its virtual waiting room, “where fans can join before an event goes on sale, allowing the platform to filter out automated bots and randomly select users to access tickets …” It’s a fairness issue, said the company, which sells most of the concert tickets at Red Rocks and all the tickets at city-owned venues.
The Federal Trade Commission and state lawmakers continue to investigate bots and re-sellers as well, leading to progress such as Colorado’s transparency-in-pricing bill, which as of August allows buyers to see fees before they click “purchase.”
2. Has country overtaken jam bands as Colorado’s hottest music?
Yes. With the proviso that country has always been more mainstream than jam bands in terms of ticket sales, radio play, industry profile, and booking. They may not always dominate Red Rocks’ calendar, for example, but the number and size of country concerts in metro Denver is growing, with major shows from Morgan Wade (Feb. 23 at Mission Ballroom), Post Malone and Jelly Roll (June 15 at Empower Field), Keith Urban (July 17 at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre), and Chris Stapleton (Aug. 22 at Ball Arena) and dozens more this year.
Grand Junction’s Country Jam also returns June 26-28 with Luke Bryan, Bailey Zimmerman, Cody Johnson, Tracy Lawrence and more. That’s not even mentioning the artists in the sweet spot of the country-jam-band crossover, from Americana and bluegrass to the twangy singer-songwriters populating theaters and clubs. We’re also likely getting a new country bar in LoDo, as plans have been filed for a mechanical bull in the space recently vacated by The Sports Column. And the TouchTunes digital jukebox company reports that many of the most popular songs played in Colorado are by artists like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Toby Kieth.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Nathaniel Riley performs with his band during the Outside Festival at Civic Center Park in Denver on June 2, 2024.
3. Have we reached full festival fatigue?
Yes. Promoters and artists have said there’s little room for new, multi-day events in the metro area, given that Colorado mountain towns are already bursting with them (see blues, folk and jazz fests through the summer in Telluride, Snowmass, Lyons, Vail, etc.).
Denver’s Underground Music Showcase, which returns July 26-28 along South Broadway, already features more than 100 local and national acts, while local mini-fests (see the excellent Ghost Canyon Fest) and packed bills have filled the demand for multi-performer events. That includes Civic Center’s returning Outside Festival (May 31-June 1), with Lord Huron, Khruangbin, Sylvan Esso, Trampled by Turtles and more.
On top of that, long-running fests that went on hiatus haven’t returned, such as the Westword Music Showcase, Arise Music Festival and Meow Wolf’s Vertex — not to mention the canceled Grandoozy, SnowBall, Velorama, and Mile High Music Festival of years past. The demand just isn’t there anymore.
“Festival fatigue is real,” said AEG’s Strasburg. “And one thing that’s been said before, but it’s true, is that Colorado already hosts the greatest festival in the world each year with its season of Red Rocks shows.”
4. Will Phish ever play Dick’s Sporting Goods Park again?
Maybe. The band this week confirmed a trio of dates at Folsom Field, July 3-5, marking its debut at the Boulder venue that typically hosts University of Colorado football games. Strasburg told The Denver Post that AEG Presents, which is handling the shows, works on a year-by-year basis and wouldn’t commit to a 2026 return.
So, it’s possible. But if the Folsom shows go well — and there’s every reason to believe they will, given Phish’s slick operations, constant sell-outs and fan loyalty — it would make sense for them to play a Colorado venue with fewer shows and more tickets than their annual Labor Day run at Dick’s in Commerce City, which has been going since 2011 (minus the 2020 off-year).
Phish is also well positioned to take over the regular Dead & Co. runs at Folsom, which ended in 2023, and make their multi-night stand a new summer tradition.
5. Has Red Rocks hit full calendar capacity?
Yes. For the first time, promoter AEG Presents, which books most Red Rocks shows, said the venue cannot fit any more events, minus the occasional rescheduled show or yet-to-be-announced booking. That bucks years of growth at the venue, which now hosts about 150 concerts each year through October and early November.
That’s a good thing for music fans seeing their favorite artist at arguably the world’s best venue. The revenue it generates for the city of Denver, which owns the historic amphitheater, ensures its upkeep and improvements, according to Denver Arts & Venues. But even as its calendar has expanded to winter months in recent years, there’s still a hard, seasonal wall that prevents most shows from reaching into December or February, promoters said.
There’s warm-weather room to grow at other amphitheaters, however, with bookings increasing in stature and number at Dillon Amphitheater, Buena Vista’s Meadow Creek, Ford Amphitheater, Levitt Pavilion Denver, and various high-country outdoor stages.
6. Will Ford Amphitheater and its neighbors ever come to terms?
Likely, but there’s no guarantee. Disagreements over noise levels at the luxury outdoor venue in Colorado Springs have pitted some neighbors against Venu, which owns the amphitheater that debuted in a big way just last year. But despite contentious city council meetings, constant emails from the Ford Hurts Families group, and public appeals, its owner, as well as promoter AEG Presents, are optimistic about putting a lid on it with new sound retention walls, tunnels, neighborhood noise-sensors, and other negotiated efforts.
“We recognized that we needed to bring this to a conclusion, and we have worked diligently with the city and residence of Colorado Springs to come to a resolution,” Venu owner JW Roth said via email this week. “We are jazzed about the upcoming season, and we feel great about the resolution that we accomplished!”
“We hope to see Venu make good on their promises …” critics wrote in the latest Ford Hurts Families newsletter, while noting that their current agreement could allow mitigations promised for 2025 not to be built until after the coming season, and attendant disruption, as they put it, has already occurred.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.
.jpg?w=400&resize=400,240&ssl=1 "On Virginia’s Crooked Road, the Hills Are Alive—With Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Jams")
.jpg?w=80&resize=80,80&ssl=1 "On Virginia’s Crooked Road, the Hills Are Alive—With Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Jams")
The return of Denver Broncos football is getting closer.
In addition to facing their AFC West rivals at home and on the road, the Broncos will also face the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, conference rival Buffalo Bills and the title-contending Los Angeles Rams at home in 2026. On the road, Denver’s opponents include the contending San Francisco 49ers and conference-rival New England Patriots.
The NFL has given Denver three prime-time games this season, with national spotlights on Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football in 2026. SNF and MNF will be available to stream on FuboTV, and TNF is available to stream on Prime. In addition to those prime-time slots, the Broncos will also play in standalone windows on Black Friday and Christmas Day.
View the team’s complete schedule with dates and times below. Note that networks for nationally televised/streamed games are in bold.
- Week 1: Monday, Sept. 14, at Chiefs (MNF), 6:15 p.m. MT, ESPN
- Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 20, at Jaguars, 2:05 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 27, vs. Rams (SNF), 6:20 p.m. MT, NBC
- Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 4, at 49ers, 2:25 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 11, at Chargers, 2:05 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 6: Thursday, Oct. 15, vs. Seahawks (TNF), 6:15 p.m. MT, Prime
- Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 25, at Cardinals, 2:05 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 8: Sunday, Nov. 1, vs. Chiefs, 2:25 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 8, at Panthers, 11:00 a.m. MT, CBS
- Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 15, Bye Week
- Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 22, vs. Raiders, 2:25 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 12: Friday, Nov. 27, vs. Steelers (Black Friday), 1:00 p.m. MT, Prime
- Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 6, vs. Dolphins, 2:05 p.m. MT, Fox
- Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 13, at Jets, 11:00 a.m. MT, CBS
- Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 20, at Raiders, 2:25 p.m. MT, CBS
- Week 16: Friday, Dec. 25, vs. Bills (Christmas), 2:30 p.m. MT, Netflix
- Week 17: Sat/Sun, Jan. 2/3, at Patriots, TBD, TBD
- Week 18: Sat/Sun, Jan. 9/10, vs. Chargers, TBD, TBD
The team’s Week 17 showdown in New England is one of four candidates to be played in a Saturday window. Additionally, dates, times and TV networks for Week 18 will be announced following Week 17. The league will schedule two Saturday games and a Sunday Night Football matchup for the final week of the regular season.
Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.
Legend has it that there are space aliens and lizard people living in the underground tunnels at Denver International Airport (DEN). But if it’s true (and why not?), the reptilian and otherworldly beings will soon need to find a new place to hang out.
That’s because DEN airport is planning to repurpose some of its subterranean real estate into pedestrian walkways that can serve as alternatives to, and backups for, the airport’s troubled train system.
At DEN airport, trains connect the main Jeppesen Terminal to concourses A, B and C.
17 new security lanes open in Denver, the A bridge officially reopens
Passengers may skip the train and instead stroll or ride moving walkways from the main terminal to Concourse A. But the train — officially called the Automated Guideway Transit System — is the only transportation option for getting between concourses A and B and between concourses B and C.
The original circa-1995 train system is currently undergoing a much-needed $75 million upgrade as part of the DEN’s “Vision 100” strategic plan to serve 100 million annual passengers in the next several years.
Improvements include 16 new train cars and the replacement of aging infrastructure that is prone to malfunctions. The glitches sometimes last just a few minutes, but as recently as May 2026, mechanical problems with trains forced the airport to deploy shuttle buses to move passengers between concourses.
Train to the Gates Updates: Crews have repaired the mechanical issue and trains are now fully operational. Shuttle buses from Concourse A to Concourses C are also running to help move passengers while the train operation returns to normal service. https://t.co/BZRJheqi7V
— Denver Int’l Airport (@DENAirport) May 6, 2026
Although DEN’s records show that the airport trains run glitch-free more than 99% of the time, even short outages create stress, platform gridlock and missed flights “simply because we have so many people going through our airport,” Jim Starling, DEN’s chief construction and infrastructure officer, told TPG.
Finding an alternative to DEN’s trains
Installing ziplines between concourses as alternatives to the train sounds fun but is sadly impractical. Connecting all the concourses with bridges was considered but rejected due to time and cost.
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
Instead, during planning workshops, airline and DEN officials determined that the best solution was to repurpose portions of the airport’s existing underground baggage tunnels into pedestrian walkways. Those tunnels were originally built for the airport’s ill-fated automated baggage system, whose technical failures delayed DEN’s planned 1993 opening by 16 months and left sections of the tunnel network largely unused for decades.
United adds new Turks and Caicos flight from Denver hub as stunning points hotels open on island
In a statement announcing the underground walkway plan, Denver mayor Mike Johnston called it “a big win for Denver’s travelers.” The tunnel transformation also got thumbs up from United Airlines (Denver’s largest airline customer), American Airlines and Southwest Airlines (which counts DEN as its largest operation in terms of flights).
“The addition of pedestrian walkways at DEN is a significant investment and will give our customers more options for their connecting flights,” Jonna McGrath, United’s vice president of airport operations, said.
Lisa Hingson, vice president of customer experience and innovation at Southwest, said the new pedestrian walkways would be “a tremendous addition” to recent enhancements such as TSA PreCheck Touchless ID and Touchless ID self-bag drop. “The addition of pedestrian walkways adds flexibility and reliability for our customers and improves operational resilience,” Amanda Zhang, American Airlines’ vice president of corporate real estate, said.
Making it happen
The tunnels to be converted are wide enough for two-way pedestrian traffic and currently contain some of the equipment from the old, abandoned baggage system. So that will need to come out.
“If you go down there today, what you’ll see is a lot of concrete,” Starling said. “And that’s not the environment we’d want to have for people to walk through.”
Delta unveils major Denver Sky Club expansion — and an even bigger upgrade is coming
Making pedestrian walkways out of tunnels built to move baggage would entail upgrading the floors, adding walls and appropriate HVAC systems, and possibly installing moving walkways, Starling added.
And then there’s the challenge of what Starling termed “vertical circulation” — the tricky job of getting passengers down to the tunnels from one concourse and then back up at another.
Timeline and budget
DEN airport estimates the cost of creating pedestrian tunnels at DEN to be between $300 and $700 million.
“That’s a wide range,” Starling said, “but it reflects the fact that we are at the concept level.” Once design plans are finalized, construction of the tunnels could begin as early as 2027.
And what about the lizard people?
Over the years, DEN has neither confirmed nor denied rumors of secret Illuminati, outer space aliens and, yes, lizard people making their homes in the airport’s underground tunnels. Instead, the airport has good-naturedly leaned into the mysteries and conspiracy theories with exhibitions such as “Conspiracy Theories Uncovered.”
Johnston is happy to play along. In the announcement of plans for the pedestrian walkways at DEN, he said: “And who knows… maybe along the way, travelers will finally get a closer look at the underground tunnels and decide for themselves what’s fact and what’s fiction.”
-
Lifestyle5 minutes ago‘Alice and Steve’ might be a mess — but it’s also too fun to stop watching
-
Technology13 minutes agoAmerica’s greatest idea is still under threat
-
World20 minutes agoZelenskyy pressures US and Europe for more ‘air defense’ assistance amid ongoing war with Russia
-
Politics23 minutes agoICE renews hunt for El Chapo’s last two fugitive sons with massive reward
-
Health35 minutes agoBiohacker hoping to live to 160 reveals alarming diagnosis: ‘My stomach is eating itself’
-
Sports38 minutes agoFIFA president addresses Trump call amid scrutiny over decision on USA World Cup star
-
Technology43 minutes agoFake Booking.com travel credit scam targets travelers
-
Business50 minutes agoMany indie festival films struggle to get distribution. Alamo Drafthouse is trying to change that
