16 JULY 23-29, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | to break out of Colorado, and people get re- ally anxious about it,” Young says. “But it’s also sort of a fertile model on how to truly do it differently and do it more equitably. Be- cause there is this we’re-all-just-hanging-out mentality of skepticism about all the other models, it’s not a fully passive rejection.” “I think your connections here matter so much,” Pasley adds, “so it helps us build something here that’s really strong. ... The island nature of [Colorado] makes it chal- lenging for bands. But it also really breeds creativity and community.” The team for Blucifer involves both musi- cians and people local music scene veterans with plenty of experience at Denver venues or hosting shows. The core crew, aside from Pasley, Young and Davis, includes LK Konkoli (booking team and media coordinator), Sam Seymour (booking team and artist relations), Lauren Borders (design and merch coordina- tor), Andrea Hoang (house show coordina- tor), Jamie Sieb (volunteer coordinator), Mitchell Gardner (backline coordinator) and Cole Helman (whose title shall be known as “Thunderhoof”). Young is a supernumerary of sorts, with a background in writing and creative economy development. Aside from developing the website, he wrote a business plan for Blu- cifer’s First Rodeo and met with venue and business owners on Broadway, including Bar 404, Skylark Lounge, Wax Trax and HQ. Bar 404 co-owner Jeannie O’Brien says she was “initially concerned” about the festival happening the same weekend as UMS. But, “as independent music venues, we still had to have shows that weekend. It eventually made the most sense to unite and celebrate this thriving scene as one,” she says, adding praise for the “amazing volunteer artists who put together this festival.” After several venues agreed to get on board, more were roped in, including DIY venues outside the neighborhood such as Seventh Circle, Squirm Gallery, Ante Up and D3. “In the span of less than a month, we got over 700 submissions from people who wanted to play or be part of it,” Young says. “We released all-access tickets at our fi rst lineup drop event on March 6 at Skylark, and sold out of all-access passes in just about two-and-a-half weeks.” The Lineup “The sanctity of fun, which is a term we apparently just coined, has been so em- powering for me to see,” Pasley says with a laugh, “especially in all these side quests that we’re doing.” The light-hearted mindset has included lineup drops and promotions, which began in March at Skylark Lounge, where “we car- ried our announcer in on a rocking horse,” she says. Then there was the next drop at the hi-dive, where a 40-foot scroll unveiled the next announcements. More shows followed, including a pre- view at Wax Trax for Record Store Day that included sidewalk performances by Blucifer bands Ritmo Cascabel, Fruta Brutal and Team Nonexistent, as well as a schedule drop at HQ that featured an enormous game of Twister. And then there was the “fuck-ass horse,” as Pasley calls the wonky-drawn cardboard horse that was carried around a Broadway venue crawl. The playful nature drew people in from the jump, with Blucifer quickly earning the stamp of approval from legendary local acts that signed on, such as Wheelchair Sports Camp, Bluebook, Colfax Speed Queen, 2MX2, Cheap Perfume, Dressy Bessy and more. Longtime local musician Julie Davis, who fronts Bluebook (winner of Best Band in the 2026 Best of Denver issue), was en- amored by the festival’s spirit. “We wanted to play Blucifer’s First Rodeo because we love the idea of a festival that grew out of a community collaboration,” she says. “It’s the kind of grassroots, homegrown event we love — a festival created by Denver musicians and artists showcasing the rich local music scene.” Newer Denver artists were also excited to take part in such a monumental event. Eman El Saied, who performs as sunstoney and recently got a shout-out from SZA, was also impressed by Blucifer’s collaborative nature, calling it “the most authentic thing happening on South Broadway.” “I applied to Blucifer because a festival started, built and supported by artists, mu- sicians and creatives felt like an interesting power being taken back,” says El Saied, an occasional Westword contributor. “Blucifer hasn’t even happened yet, and the amount of activations, collaborations and volunteer work happening within the indie ecosystem to execute this fest is genuinely impressive. Even as I look at the lineup, it is 100% an accurate representation of the music scene happening in real time.” The lineup showcases an array of genres from punk to folk to hip-hop, R&B, metal and more. There’s the indefi nable group Horse Bitch, which consistently puts on the most raucous and enigmatic shows in town; The Whimsies, a newer group that crushed it at the hi-dive recently and is as whimsical as its name implies; DVNEHPPY, one of the city’s best current hip-hop artists; Fruta Brutal, a Latin-infused indie group you never want to miss; Frail Talk, which effortlessly pulls you in with a shoegaze sound; and Cobranoid, a powerful metal trio that may break your neck. And that’s just a small handful. The event will be spread across the four days, two of which have their own unique offerings. It’ll all kick off on Thursday, July 23, with shows held at DIY venues Seventh Circle, Ante Up, D3 Arts and Squirm Gallery. (These venues are pretty spread out, so it may be best to post up at one for the evening unless you spring for a rideshare, have a designated driver or stay sober.) “The DIY stuff is really important to us,” Young says, “like, all these sober spaces in the ecosystem. Not to be all wonky, but it’s like prefi gurative politics: What if the world as it is just didn’t exist, and the world that we want did, and we just do it as though it exists? That’s so fucking cool and empowering.” Concerts on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, will be held at the various 17 venues and businesses along Broadway, which in- clude Adrift Tiki Bar, Bar 404, Chaos Bloom, Dougherty’s Pub, FM, Goldmine Vintage, hi-dive, HQ, Illegal Pete’s, Import Mechan- ics, Irish Rover, Li’l Devils, Skylark Lounge, The L, The Saint Mary, Voodoo Donut, and Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar. Then, on Sun- day, July 26, the festival will conclude with house shows around the Baker neighbor- hood, with addresses exclusively revealed to ticket holders, as well as three shows at TrashHawk Tavern beginning at 9:30 p.m. that will showcase Davis, Pasley and Young’s bands (Gion Davis & the Designated Strang- ers, Caspar Milquetoast and Clementine Was Right, respectively). All profi ts from the house shows will be donated to Holy Fool, a musician-run nonprofi t that aims to raise money to give artists living wages and provide resources, which will then pay out bands. Holy Fool founder Ben Sooy says that he jumped at the opportunity to partner with Blucifer. “We’re volunteer-run and funded by a community of donors, most of whom are musicians and artists themselves,” he says. “I hit up Mike when I saw he and his friends were starting Blucifer and offered to help in any way we could. One of the main things Holy Fool does is help organize house shows where we can showcase Colorado songwrit- ers and bands — the nonprofi t pays each artist a $500 guarantee to play one of our house shows — so when Mike told me about the house-show day in Baker, I was really excited to partner in helping make sure the bands are paid!” Blucifer’s First Rodeo revolves around discovering new music; considering it’s sold out, the co-founders advise people to keep their plans open. Anyone who attended UMS knows that low-capacity venues such as the hi-dive fi ll up quickly, and you can’t just walk in when it’s time to see your favorite band. “We’re encouraging attendees to em- brace a spirit of discovery and to not be too married to any one vision of the weekend,” Pasley says. “I’ll say it now: Venues will be packed, and there will be some waiting in line; this has been the case with festivals in this neighborhood in the past and is the nature of hosting all indoor events in venues. Admittance to shows is fi rst-come, fi rst- served, and entry to any specifi c show is not guaranteed. If there’s a band you absolutely can’t miss, we’d recommend getting to that venue a few sets ahead of time, but otherwise we’d recommend exploring the neighbor- hood and stumbling across something you never thought you’d love. Your new favorite band might be your neigh-bor!” The co-founders even say they’ve gotten word that Blucifer has inspired other scenes across the country to found their own festi- vals, with people spotted in Blucifer shirts around the country. So it’s easy to see that this festival is so much more than making art for its own sake. The Denver music scene deserves to be celebrated, and local creatives have earned the spotlight. It’s been strenuous work, but it was done all for the love of the community — and to create something sustainable that pays artists well and equitably, and brings business to independent venues working to do the same. “We said from the beginning that we have two big goals, and one of them is to get folks not just out to, but inside of live local music year-round,” Young says. “That fi rst goal is bound up in this idea of [how] live music doesn’t just happen at the football stadium with Taylor Swift, right? Live music can happen and does happen in beautiful ways every single night, at hi-dive and Skylark and independently owned venues.” The second goal, he says, is to uplift Den- ver’s creatives: “We want to empower artists. We want artists to have more power in the music ecosystem, and we want to see more respect and value for creative labor.” It was a scary feat at fi rst. Would their friends be on board? Would the community go for it? Those were the questions Pasley was asking herself. Watching the support pour in has been overwhelming, and under- scores that this is just the type of event the Mile High City needs. “It’s not like anyone is more qualifi ed than anyone else to be at the center of this thing; somebody just had to do it,” she says. “And to see the community rally around it and make it their own in this way, and to come together? ... When you are brave like this, we’ve started to see that we don’t have to be begging the industry for scraps. We can be that. We can do it ourselves. And that’s DIY on a pretty large scale.” Blucifer’s First Rodeo single-day passes for Thursday, July 23, and Sunday, July 26, are still available at bluciferfest.com. Music continued from page 15 Gillian Pasley and her “fuck-ass horse.” PHOTO BY GARAGE CRYCORE
