Eight Things to Do for Free in Denver (and Beyond) Today

There’s a flurry of free activities today, including events commemorating both Black History Month and Lunar New Year. You can also see art devoted to Casa Bonita and watch fencing competitions. Get the point?

Keep reading for eight of the best free events in Denver today:

Ruby Hill Rail Yard
Daily 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. (lights on until 9 p.m.)
Ruby Hill Park, South Platte Drive at West Florida Avenue
Denver Parks & Recreation and Winter Park Resort have again teamed up to offer free skiing and snowboarding at the urban terrain park at Ruby Hill, complete with rails, snow features and boxes of varying configurations and skill levels. Admission is always free, but on Thursdays (4 to 9 p.m.) and Saturdays (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.), equipment is free, too. Find out more here.

Fencing Junior Olympics
Through Monday, February 20
Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th Street
The Junior Olympics come to town for a championship series. It’s free to watch the action, which starts with playoffs at 8 a.m. today and continues through the finals on February 20. Get the details here.

Cripple Creek Ice Festival
Sunday, February 19, and Monday, February 20, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cripple Creek
The Cripple Creek Ice Festival has returned, with head-to-head carving challenges today at noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m. Between displays, the carvers will continue their work, displaying icy sculptures; there will also be games, vendors and other activities. The festival returns next weekend; admission is free.

2023 Casa Bonita Art Show
Sunday, February 19, noon to 5 p.m.
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
One of the biggest, most high-profile annual gallery shows in the Denver area is not what you’d expect -but now history is on its side. Every year, Next Gallery celebrates Casa Bonita, the beloved pink place that towers over the 40 West Arts District; it’s slated to reopen in May with better food and a blinding bubble-gum paint job. The kitschy indoor circus known for its sopaipillas, cliff divers, puppet shows, grimy grottos and other tawdry entertainments closed in 2020 and was eventually bought by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Can you imagine the frenzy? Show juror and Casa Bonita aficionado Andrew Novick says that this is the largest-ever Casa Bonita exhibition, with more than seventy works by local and national artists. It will be on display weekends through March 5.

NAACP Annual Freedom Fund Celebration: Nashville African American Wind Symphony
Sunday, February 19, 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, CU Boulder campus, 1595 Pleasant Street, Boulder
Help the NAACP Boulder County celebrate the Freedom Fund at a free NAAWS concert of classical music and compositions with African-American folklore themes. More than fifty classically trained musicians of color make up the symphony, which is built from the bottom up through a youth music-education program. The all-ages concert is free, but a reservation is required in advance at Eventbrite.

Japanese American Citizens League Day of Remembrance
Sunday, February 19, 1 to 4 p.m.
History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway
February 19, 1942, was an ironic date of infamy for tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans, whose lives changed drastically after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered whole families to report to internment camps across the nation; 8,000 of them ended up at Camp Amache in southeastern Colorado. Join the Mile High Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League in commemorating Japanese-American hardships at History Colorado during a talk by activist and journalist David Monkawa about discrimination in health care and the recent closing of the Keiro senior care facility in Los Angeles. Learn more and RSVP for the free program here.

Ongoing and anytime:

“Reclaiming Denver’s Chinatown”
Online 24/7
To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Denver’s Agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships has released the #IAmDenver documentary “Reclaiming Denver’s Chinatown,” produced by the Denver Office of Storytelling. The documentary premiered to a sold-out audience at the Denver Film Festival in November, and plans are in the works for community screenings and talkback events. In the meantime, watch it online.

Dr. King Jr. and the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice
Online 24/7
Motus Theater is sharing the Martin Luther King Jr. performance from January 16, which featured nationally acclaimed and regionally loved singers The ReMINDers; Dr. Reiland Rabaka, director of the CU Boulder Center for African and African American Studies; and Motus monologist Colette Payne, director at the Women’s Justice Institute. You can watch the full event here for free in February here

Do you know of a great free event in Denver? Send information to editorial@westword.com.