Best Free Entertainment Levitt Pavilion 1380 West Florida Avenue 303-578-0488 levittdenver.org Ah, Levitt Pavilion, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. We love that you put on fi fty free concerts a year, and that those shows take place on a lovely green hillside in Ruby Hill Park, where we can sit on our blankets and look out over the city as the sun sets behind us. We love that an amazing roster of local and national artists serenades us from a beautiful stage with a state-of-the-art sound system. It doesn’t get much better than this on a warm sum- mer night...and it’s all gratis, thanks to the forward-thinking Levitt Foundation. Best Free Fast Getaway Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge 6550 Gateway Road, Commerce City 303-289-0232 fws.gov/refuge/rocky-mountain-arsenal If city life has you feeling overwhelmed but with no time for a real getaway, head to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Once the site of a chemical weapons manufacturing center, the former federal facility is now an expansive nature reserve in the heart of metro Denver that’s open from sunrise to sunset. There are twenty miles of easy hiking trails, as well as trails for biking; along the way you’ll see bison, deer, prairie dogs and incredible birds of prey. For those who’d rather enjoy the great outdoors with- out getting out of the car, the refuge also has an eleven-mile wildlife drive. Best Place to People-Watch The Rally Bar 1600 20th Street 720-769-1409 therallybar.com Even outside of baseball season, McGregor Square is hopping. Now, with the Colorado Rockies back at Coors Field, the Rally Bar in the Rally Hotel is the perfect place to watch fans coming and going and deliver a play-by-play account of the action over a few beers. Just a few things we’ve seen out the big windows: a couple breaking up and immediately getting back together, a happily inebriated soul wearing a swimsuit but no shoes, and too many people wearing the colors of the opposing team. 40 Best New Festival Shine Music Festival shinemusicfestival.com While music festivals have become more accessible over the years, the overall level of inclusion for people with disabilities remains low. Shawn Satterfi eld, a lifelong music fan, set out to change that with the Shine Music Festival, which debuted on August 8, 2021, at Levitt Pavilion. To make the free festival work, she recruited vol- unteers and organizations involved with the disability community, bringing in in- clusive technology to help people with all disabilities feel comfortable while also keeping costs down. “Seventy percent of people with disabilities are unemployed,” she notes, “and music is expensive.” So is putting on a festival, but this one was such a hit that it will be back in August, this time in Civic Center Park. an orchestral piece. It’s where you can take a date to see Broadway plays such as Ham- ilton, or where a grandparent might take a grandchild to hear the Colorado Symphony score Harry Potter. The Colorado Ballet, Op- era Colorado, the Colorado Symphony and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which pushed for the creation of the facility fi fty years ago, all call the sprawling twelve- acre complex home. Welcome back. come Center not only creating a new en- trance, but providing a visual and physical link between the original museum build- ing and the Hamilton. The galleries were also refreshed, with the Western Ameri- can Art collection fi nally given its due on the seventh fl oor — right by the rooftop decks that are once again accessible to the public. We can’t wait to see what the DAM does to top this anniversary celebration fi fty years from now. Best Resurrection of a Colorado Legend Rattlesnake Kate denvercenter.org Neyla Pekarek, a cellist, singer and for- mer member of the Lumineers, has long been fascinated by Kate Slaughterback, who gained fame in the 1920s for killing 140 rattlesnakes that were attempting to slither toward her, her son and her horse on their homestead in northern Colorado; she made a fl apper dress of the snakes’ skins that is now a Greeley museum artifact. This year, the Denver Center for the Perform- ing Arts presented a much larger memorial to this colorful pioneer: a full production of the musical Rattlesnake Kate, based on Pekarek’s concept, scored by Pekarek, and written by playwright Karen Hartman. Best One-Stop Cultural Center Denver Performing Arts Complex 1400 Curtis Street 720-865-4220 artscomplex.com The Denver Performing Arts Complex isn’t so much a venue as it is an epicenter for the kind of arts activities that defi nes cities as cultural institutions. After staying closed through much of the pandemic, it’s the place where you can once again spot a secondary- school fi eld trip, or a music student analyzing Best Resurrection of a Colorado Building The Martin Building Denver Art Museum 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway 720-865-5000 denverartmuseum.org Just in time for the fi ftieth anniversary of the opening of the Denver Art Museum in October 1971, the renovation of the Gio Ponti-designed, tile-clad tower — now called the Martin Building — was revealed last fall. The makeover is a masterpiece both inside and out, with the new Sie Wel- Best Resurrection of an International Legend Malinalli on the Rocks Museo de las Americas 861 Santa Fe Drive 303-571-4401 museo.org This year, Denver has seen three exhibits devoted to La Malinche, a Nahua woman enslaved by Hernán Cortés and used as his interpreter during his conquest, who bore his son and is known as the mother of the Euro- pean/Indigenous mixed race. The Denver Art Museum’s Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche came fi rst, with works rang- ing from the sixteenth century to modern day; plans for that exhibit inspired Maruca Salazar, former director of the Museo de las Americas, to curate Malinalli on the Rocks, which uses the woman’s Indigenous name and showcases works by contemporary lo- cal Chicano and Latinx artists. The result is stunning, with pieces in myriad mediums that look at Malinche through a more sym- pathetic lens, after being seen as a traitor to her people for centuries. Rounding out the trio: Malintzin: Unraveled and Rewoven at the CU Denver Experience Gallery. Best Fiftieth Anniversary for a Theater Company Su Teatro 721 Santa Fe Drive 303-296-0219 suteatro.org Denver was the epicenter of the Chicano civil rights move- continued on page 42 APRIL 7-13, 2022 WESTWORD | BACKBEAT | MUSIC & VENUES | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | SHOPPING & SERVICES | CONTENTS | westword.com GETTY IMAGES
