4 APRIL 24-30, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 8 PEAK PERFORMANCE Meet fi ve local adventurers who dared the impossible on Colorado’s fourteeners. BY ABIGAIL BLISS 6 THREE FOR THE ROAD Lawmakers propose a way to fund road-safety improvements without crashing into the budget. BY CATIE CHESHIRE 14 THE TULIPS HAVE POPPED! Head to the Denver Botanic Gardens to cure your seasonal depression with a sea of vibrant blooms. BY KRISTEN FIORE 17 EVERY SECOND COUNTS Becca Guevara is off Next Level Chef, but things are still cooking for the local social- media star. BY TONI TRESCA 21 MORE THAN A MOMENT The Stephen Lear Band commemorated a fi nal Mercury show with a live album. BY JUSTIN CRIADO 14 Culture 17 Cafe 21 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 22 30 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 28 ASK A STONER ......................................... 28 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 35 APRIL 24-30, 2025 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun News Editor Thomas Mitchell Food and Drink Editor Molly Martin Music Editor Emily Ferguson Culture Editor Kristen Fiore Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee Staff Writers Catie Cheshire, Bennito L. 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Peri- odicals postage paid in Denver. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $100/year or $50/six months. Postmaster: Send address changes to Westword, P.O. Box 5970, Denver CO 80217. Mailing address: P.O. Box 5970, Denver, CO 80217 Street address: 1278 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203 For general information, call: 303-296-7744 For Editorial, email: [email protected] ON THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY MONIKA SWIDERSKI LETTERS T O T H E E D I T O R YOU CAN COMMENT ON ANY STORY AT WESTWORD.COM; SEND LETTERS TO [email protected] Don’t miss a word! The stories in this print edition are just a fraction of the pieces we publish every week on westword.com. For a cheat sheet on all that content, subscribe to our daily newsletter at westword.com/profi le. You can also follow @denverwestword on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. And it’s all free! EVAN SEMÓN PHOTOGRAPHY “PICTURE PERFECT,” PATRICIA CALHOUN, APRIL 17 T R U M P E D ! I think Patricia Calhoun has come up with the perfect solution for where to put the portrait of Donald Trump that used to be in the Colorado State Capitol. Put it on a wall at History Colorado (unless it can be put in the trash on composting day). Meg Rogers Denver Doesn’t President Trump have anything better to do than complain about a six-year- old painting on the walls of the Colorado Capitol? Like impose some more tariffs and ruin the economy, for example? Jay Garcia Aurora “IS BOULDER REALLY AN ARTS TOWN?,” TONI TRESCA, APRIL 17 T H E A R T O F T H E D E A L Boulder ceased really encouraging creativity decades ago. Now art is just another example of conspicuous consumption in that town. Sundance could be the most conspicuous example yet. John Harris Denver The Boulder Arts Blueprint? Too little, too late. Tim Adams Longmont What was special about Boulder died a long time ago. Andy Reinhardt Denver Bringing more overprivileged people to Boulder will destroy Boulder? Have you been to Boulder in the last twenty years? That’s all it is already. Mark Stevens Denver Can’t wait to see Boulder deal with 10,000 Uber drivers, greedy AirBnB’rs, pop-up op- portunists and, of course, the scammers and petty criminals. This is “be careful what you wish for” times ten. Michael Lustig Denver Boulder is the root of my creative tree. I graduated from University of Colorado Boulder with a double degree in communications and theater. I did the audio mix and music tapes for the Shakespeare Festival 1977-’79. I worked as a mixing engineer for local bands, venues and recording studios in Boulder and Denver all through the ’80s and ’90s. So I am no stranger to the stage and artistic creation. I want Sundance to succeed. However, I want it to blend into the most important, sacred part of Boulder: its natural beauty. There are very few towns in America that have such a magical backdrop. All of the focus so far has concerned accomodations. Where are we going to put everyone? This is not a one-day event. And once people experience Boulder, they will want to come back. They will want to move there. They will want to stay. And this starts the cycle of explosive housing costs and loss of employee housing availability over time. In 2020 Sundance, attendance boasted 115,000 attendees and 215,000 tickets re- deemed. Of course, the pandemic cut it way down for a few years with mostly online viewing, but 2024 welcomed 70,000 attend- ees with 33 percent of those from out of state. What if Boulder welcomes 100,000 at- tendees over the week? Are we ready for that? We should be. We can be. I am extremely pleased that Govenor Polis has created an incentive and stimulus package through legislation to help create a successfi ul fi rst event and support the art of fi lmmaking. This is going to be a massive undertaking and will require an experienced planning team. Let’s stay focused on conquering all the obstacles and creating a great festival week while maintaining our Colorado values of sustainability, environmental protection, energy effi ciency and waste reduction. John Rock Pagosa Springs
