The Beacon Celebrates One Year as the Coolest Club in RiNo

The Beacon has made quite a splash in its first year. The highly anticipated club opened on December 18, 2021, at 2854 Larimer Street to plenty of fanfare; word quickly spread about an immersive art-filled bar that promotes local creators and hosts sought-after DJs and area legends, with surprise sets from the likes of GRiZ.

The RiNo club's uniqueness comes courtesy of Mario Nocifera and Robert Champion, who endeavored to capture the spirit of Burning Man while supporting locals. "I don't think we realized how powerful it would be to Denver," Nocifera says. "But I think whenever you create a place where you would want to be, inevitably you're gonna love it no matter what."

On a recent Thursday afternoon before opening, the Beacon was quiet — the calm before the storm of its nighttime scene, when the dance floor is densely packed with pulsating bodies under a diaphanous, cloudlike installation. Other interactive installations including a bright, golden honeycomb room called "Enter the Hive Mind," by Aleesha Anderson, and a glowing lounge with a rounded, low ceiling called "The Stardust Wagon," by Sidney Connell, are among the one-of-a-kind elements that have helped popularize the Beacon, but neither Champion nor Nocifera could have guessed just how successful the venue would become. 
"Selfishly, we were creating a place for ourselves, with all our experiences," Champion says, "and we had an inkling that other people would love it, too."

That inkling panned out: According to Champion, the Beacon has "scanned 73,000 unique IDs from January through November a total of 110,000 times."

And that number will only shoot up on Sunday, December 18, at the Beacon's anniversary party, which will mark Colombian DJ Larry OZ's first U.S. performance, as well as sets from ADIL, Garretson Streit, Andy Immerman and Joey Burton.

As the owners told us back in March 2021, they named the place for its status as a light signaling the end of the pandemic, as well as a beacon where "people can find their people." Nocifera told us he hoped the Beacon would become "an oasis" — and that's certainly the case.

The duo met through mutual friends, and Champion says that within 48 hours of that encounter, they decided to create the Beacon. Champion, who had worked in the music festival scene, had an idea for creating a Burner-style dance club, and Nocifera had experience from a long career in the food and beverage industry to help make it happen. "After our first coffee, we were looking at locations within a week," Champion recalls. "And then, of course, the pandemic started to pick up and cause some delay. But we signed a lease on this place in October of 2020."

And that's when Champion became the "senior vice chairman of vices and comfy chairs," and Nocifera was named "senior executive director of high vibes and big smiles." Both had "the desire to actually create more intimate spaces," says Champion. "We've felt people have been more likely to talk to each other. And in a city full of vague buildings and broad and tall ceilings, we wanted to go the other way, which is what you see a lot in coastal cities. And then the other thing that we acknowledged was that, thanks to our experience at festivals, private parties and attending Burning Man ourselves, we just recognized that we were having access to a lot of artful experiences that bar-goers don't necessarily have that same access to."
After raising $60,000 through an Indiegogo campaign, the venue slowly became a reality. Because it was built during the pandemic, Champion and Nocifera were able to employ friends who would normally be on the festival circuit building stages or installing immersive experiences. Everything came about organically, which is exactly how the owners hoped it would.

"Construction took the bulk of 2021," says Champion. "It started in late winter, and then we didn't open until December. It was, at the time, seemingly very daring to be talking about opening up, because it involves rubbing shoulders during the pandemic. But we also knew that it wasn't going to be forever. ... I don't think we really even remember very specific moments after we opened our doors, which was the week before Christmas. But once the holidays had passed, I do recall being absolutely blown away at the traffic."

The two say they consider Beacon to be Denver's first and only immersive art and dance bar. "What inspires me about art — and you'll see throughout the spaces — is it's very organic, and it's very much personal," Nocifera says. In fact, an installation Nocifera made for the venue is displayed on a wall at the entrance, in a spot intended for rotating art, which cascades found objects as well as a photograph of his grandparents across the space in a narrative about a shipwreck.

"A lot of our inspiration does come from Burning Man, as well," he adds, gesturing to a glass box on the wall filled with gritty sand and a bottle. "So this is actually playa; this is the dirt that's in Black Rock City [where Burning Man is held]. The story follows this old, seafaring man who finds his way onto the beach. There's a message in the bottle that the guests pull out and read some sort of awesome affirmation, or they can give an affirmation to the person to their left or right."

That artful natural energy, coupled with detailed presentations, represents the Burner nature of the Beacon. It's witnessed in every corner in the venue, particularly through Beacon creative director Jon Medina's installation "Willow Weave Bar," in which artfully woven branches flow up from one wall onto the ceiling and down the back of the bar.
The Beacon's ethos embraces local creators, and that's just one of the reasons performers aren't always revealed ahead of time: Nocifera and Champion would rather people come for the art rather than the hype that can surround certain DJs. The Beacon also hosts art gatherings and workshops, and sees a big turnout with its First Friday events. "I think one of my most personally proud moments at Beacon was our first First Friday," says Nocifera. "One of our artists in one of our art rooms had this big, cool, organic moonlike thing, and I was like, 'That's really cool.'"

At the time, Nocifera was hoping to get an installation for a wall next to the bar, so he reached out to the artist, Jordan Forge, to ask for help. "I went back to him and I said, 'Hey, man, how would you feel about figuring this wall out?' And he was like, 'I'm not an artist,'" Nocifera recalls with a laugh. "I said, 'Well, if you choose this challenge, you'll be more of an artist than you already are now, because that's freakin' awesome.' And my encouraging him to think a little bit bigger, and really home in on something that he's done on a smaller scale, and give him the platform to execute something that he didn't even know he wanted — that's a favorite memory." Forge wound up creating a sculpture out of foam, but it looks exactly like wood coated in resin and appears to be growing out of the wall and climbing up to the ceiling.
Nocifera notes that First Fridays have also helped bolster other artists' confidence. "There was a handful of stuffed animals that this girl would make," he says, "and now she's got this whole website, and it's really helped launch her career and give her not just encouragement, but the confidence to do more of what she loves. Something that really inspires me is to watch people, like, start with a little twinkle and then all of a sudden they're a ball of fire."

The owners' support for local artists extends to musicians, as well. While the venue has hosted some big-name DJs with surprise sets every now and then, "the Beacon is really about supporting the local artists," says Champion. "We actually rarely engage with any big-name artists. We did ticketed events in the spring, but mostly it's been about tapping into Denver's endless amount of talented DJs."

Nocifera adds that they also try to respond to feedback as best as they can. For instance, he says the Beacon has had multiple requests recently for a VIP lounge area, where there could be bottle service, so Champion and Nocifera are hoping to transform one of the few corners of the venue that isn't already covered in art into that space. "Knowing the culture, I couldn't really wrap my head around bottle service," says Nocifera. "And so it wasn't until people were like, 'We want this. We want this. We want this.' And then we talked about it and were like, 'Well, let's try it. What's the worst that can happen?'"
Champion and Nocifera are up for anything, and that open-minded spirit is found in those who go to the venue, too. "When you talk about north of 70,000 people, obviously there's gonna be a few clowns in there," says Champion. "But we are very lucky in that, because we put our culture so forward, it just kind of creates an accountability system. It's like, no one wants to be a butthead in a place that treats you with such high respect. Every room this entire place is also really well lit. There's no dark corners. I don't know why anyone would want a dark corner — that's a safe haven for sketchballs. On the flip side of that coin is creating a place where people can show up safely and boldly and be safe."

"We have a zero tolerance policy for jerks," Nocifera adds. "And we will spend hours of researching who this jerk is, and then we'll ban him."

However, not all jerks and buttheads stay banned: One person stole a dildo from a wall, but not only did they immediately return it the next morning, they brought it with a note of "sincerest apologies."

Champion and Nocifera agree that the people are the true foundation of the Beacon. "We're so blessed to have the people around us that we do, and we want others to be able to experience that," says Champion. "And that's, literally, the underlying why."

Beacon Anniversary, 2854 Larimer Street, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, December 18. Tickets are $20-$25.