Now keep reading for a dozen events around town all worth the price of admission:
RiNo Showcase Music & Arts Festival
Saturday, June 11, noon to 11 p.m.
4400 Fox Street
The RiNo Showcase, returning for its biggest year yet, gets going with the first of three events on June 11, with live music by up-and-coming local bands all day, more than 100 booths helmed by artists, small businesses and vendors, and fire dancers, live painting and food trucks to keep things swinging in between sets. Vendors keep 100 percent of their profits, and a portion of every $20 ticket, a deal in itself, will go to the Harmony & Hue Foundation, a fund for artists and entrepreneurs needing help getting established. Put on a sun hat and your party shoes for the marathon event; get tickets and info at Eventbrite.
Challenge Cup of the Americas International Rugby Competition
Saturday, June 11: American Raptors vs. Jaguares XV (Argentina), 1 p.m.; UBCOB (Vancouver) Ravens vs. Peñarol (Uruguay), 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 18: UBCOB (Vancouver) Ravens vs. Jaguares XV (Argentina), 1 p.m.; American Raptors vs. Peñarol (Uruguay), 3:30 p.m.
Infinity Park, 4400 East Kentucky Avenue, Glendale
If you haven’t had a proper introduction to rugby and want to understand the game, here’s a chance to catch some international matches at Glendale’s Infinity Park over two Saturday afternoons. Four teams —two from North America and two from South America — will meet in a tournament as the Denver-based Raptors and Vancouver’s Ravens take on Argentina’s Jaguares XV and Uruguay’s Peñarol (named for a Montevideo neighborhood), switching adversaries in second Saturday matches. Tickets are $10 and free for children 12 and under; snatch them up here.
Phil Goodstein, “Moving With Forney: From Streetcars to RiNo”
Saturday, June 11, 1 to 2 p.m.
Forney Museum of Transportation, 4303 Brighton Boulevard
Maverick Denver historian Phil Goodstein keeps churning out books — more than thirty of ’em — about our city’s past, present and future, so he’s more than qualified to opine about the history of the Forney, a place that seems to be haunted no matter where it moves. That subject includes more than you’d think, from the aftermath of the 1965 flood of the South Platte River to more up-to-date musings on the rise of New Denver in the Central Platte Valley. Hear Goodstein’s opinions about anything and everything, including the Forney; admission is $10. Details here.
The Grim Mountain Legends Treasure Hunt
Saturday, June 11, 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. (repeats next weekend)
Old Town Fort Collins, near the Foundry (exact address revealed with reservation)
Fort Collins multimedia troupe LunASeas will be floating its new immersive project, The Grim Mountain Legends Treasure Hunt, around the Front Range this summer, beginning at home in the Fort with a run of eight hunts over two weekends. Groups will tour the nooks and crannies of old buildings, encountering dance-based performances of a historical bent along the way. Future hunts will turn up in Denver at the Mercury Cafe and the Bug Theatre and at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville later in June and early July. Learn more and get tickets, $20 to $30, here.
Are you on the bus?
Lizzie Goldsmith
Saturday, June 11, and Sunday, June 12, 7 p.m.
Enigma Bazaar, 4923 West 38th Avenue
Run continues Thursdays through Sundays through July 31, locations change weekly
Things have changed for the performers of Control Group Productions since 2020, when the world — and their plans to mount a performative apocalyptic bus tour through the worst possible fate faced by humanity — suddenly shut down. The product that emerged in 2022 takes a gentler, yet still urgent, path, hauling audiences by bus from site to site, visiting green spaces and water sources in the Denver area in a contemplation of the future of the Earth. Performances start at a different location every weekend (this round, it’s Enigma Bazaar), through June 31. Find information and tickets, ranging from $48 to $95, here.
Chicanos Sing the Blues
Saturday, June 11, 7:30 p.m.; run continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Sunday, June 26 (matinee that day at 2 p.m.)
Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, 721 Santa Fe Drive
Su Teatro is reviving Chicanos Sing the Blues, an old favorite from its cache of go-to original plays with music, for a summer bump as its fiftieth-anniversary celebration continues. The musical runs down the roots of Chicano corridos for a revue powered by the voices of Su Teatro veterans Yolanda Ortega, Manuel R. Roybal Sr. and many others, on tunes that range from traditional to rock. Admission is $17 to $20; snap up tickets here.
IllFooMinati #6
Saturday, June 11, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., party concludes at 2 a.m.
The Savoy @ Curtis Park, 2700 Arapahoe Street
Now in its sixth year, IllFooMinati, the public celebration of event-maker and former Black Actors Guild member Ryan Foo’s birthday, will sweep party-goers back to the wild 1920s for A Night in Radio City. Without giving too much away, it’s a game and it’s a show; yes, it’s immersive, too. You can go all the way, or just as far as you like. And when it’s over, there’s still a party to savor until let-out in the beautifully renovated Savoy building. Admission is $33 (or $60 for two) at Eventbrite.
Benchmark Theatre, An Octoroon
Saturday, June 11, 8 p.m.; run continues Thursdays through Sundays through July 9; industry night: Monday, June 27, 8 p.m.
Benchmark Theatre, 1560 Teller Street
Benchmark presents a regional premiere production of Octoroon, a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that updates Dion Boucicault’s 1859 anti-slavery work of the same title with Brechtian distancing effects and deconstructions to evoke unexpected audience reactions to racial issues. Male actors hide their ethnicity behind painted faces, but the women are allowed roles true to their skin color in this version, and Jacobs-Jenkins is a character in his own play. In the hands of director donnie l. betts, it’s territory that will rewire everything we’ve come to believe about exacting social justice, and that’s going to be frightening and fun. Admission is $15 to $30 here.
Sunday Sundae
Sunday, June 12, 1 to 4 p.m.
Art Students League of Denver, 200 Grant Street
Kids would say that Sunday Sundae at the Art Students League of Denver is one of the funnest fundraisers around, simply because it involves ice cream, fresh from the freezers at Sweet Action. And adults would agree — not only because of ice cream, but also because they get to keep the one-of-a-kind bowl it’s served in. The quality bowls were created by ceramics artists in April during the ASLD’s annual Bowl-a-thon, making every single one of them a beautiful keepsake. Tickets for adults is $35; kids, who get the ice cream but not the bowl, gain entry for $10. Find tickets and info here.
Adulting With the Animals
Sunday, June 12, 7:30-9:30 p.m., and five more select Thursdays and Sundays through October 27
Denver Zoo, 2300 Steele Street
You’re not the only adult in town who secretly wishes you could go to the exemplary Denver Zoo without kids grabbing at your ankles and whining for snacks and bathroom breaks all day long. That’s why the zoo offers Adulting With the Animals, a series of themed adult nights, where mature folks can commune with nature and appropriate refreshments free of parental duties. The kickoff theme on June 12 is Grape Outdoors, with local wine flights and craft workshops in addition to special animal encounters. Find details and tickets, $35, here.
Plan ahead:
Outer Space | Inner Spaces Film Series
Tuesday, June 14, 7 p.m.
MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater, 2644 West 32nd Avenue
MCA is testing the versatility of its Northside event venue with a new sci-fi June/July film series conceived in conjunction with the museum’s spacey new exhibition, Clarissa Tossin: Falling From Earth, which questions the colonial implications of the 21st-century space race. The opening salvo is Andrei Tarkovsky’s confounding cult film Solaris; Time Masters; The Brain From Planet Arous and Lifeforce round out the series on consecutive Tuesdays. Purchase tickets, $15 per film, here.
Ongoing:
Members of United Steelworkers Locals 2102 and 3267 and their community and labor allies rally to put economic pressure on Oregon Steel and one of its financiers, Norwest Bank.
Photo courtesy of Kitty Mikatich
Opens Friday, June 10, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
El Pueblo History Museum, 301 North Union Boulevard, Pueblo
Driving through Pueblo on I-25, you can’t help but see the behemoth smokestacks of the old CF&I Steel Mill looming over the south side of town. The industrial site, some of it still in use by a Russian corporation, carries a major piece of Pueblo history inside its metal hull. Labor conflicts at the mill might be Pueblo’s longest-running story, including the more recent chapter of the seven-year United Steel Workers strike from 1997 to 2004 that bankrupted dozens of union workers who were replaced by the mill bosses. Steel City, a new exhibit at the El Pueblo History Museum, examines the plant’s role in the lives of Pueblo’s blue-collar families and the life of the city, as well. It’s a must for anyone interested in Colorado history. Ready for a road trip? Learn more here.
Know of a great event in Denver? We'll be updating this list through the weekend; send information to [email protected]
