If anything, much of the news this year reminds us to support our local creatives, museums, bookstores and more to ensure that our city maintains its independent charm. Keep reading for the biggest Denver culture stories of 2024:
Emily and Brennan (far right) with their fellow Married at First Sight cast members.
The DeLaCastros Wedding Photographers
"Menver" took on a whole new meaning when the reality show Married at First Sight came to town. The show is exactly what the title implies, chronicling the journey of multiple couples who marry each other without ever having met, after being matched by the show's "relationship experts." Either those experts are terrible at their job, or the city's dating scene is as dire as our readers have elucidated in their own dating-story submissions to Westword, because the Denver season of Married at First Sight was a historic one: It was the first in which every couple had broken up before the season reunion (and most broke up during the season), making ours the least successful city that Married at First Sight ever busted into.
Governor Jared Polis and Mayor Mike Johnston welcomed the inaugural Outside Festival in 2024.
Brad Kaminski/Outside Inc.
In 2017, the Outdoor Retailer Show moved from Salt Lake City to Denver, only to move back five years later. The loss of the country's largest outdoor-rec gathering left a gap, and Conor Hall, the new director of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, partnered with Outside Inc., which had moved to Colorado from New Mexico and was already planning to create an Outside Festival. The inaugural event took place the first weekend of June, generating $18 million for the local economy and filling Civic Center Park with outdoor activities, a stellar lineup of musicians, food trucks, family fun, vendors, seminars and film screenings. The lineup for the 2025 Outside Festival has already been announced, with headliners Khruangbin and Lord Huron and more excellent musicians, as well as plenty of additional programming.
Denver PrideFest Celebrates Fifty Years
Denver's PrideFest has become one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the country, thanks to the activists who forged the path to create it fifty years ago. Celebrating a milestone anniversary this year, PrideFest was as large, bright, festive and colorful as ever, with an art installation outside the Capitol by Lonnie Hanzon titled E Pluribus Unum ("Out of Many, One") referencing the unity of the LGBTQ+ community. It's a far cry from the first gathering at a park fifty years ago, which was billed as the "Gay-In" and included just fifty people. By the next year, that number had exploded to 500, and while the dark years of AIDS took a toll, the enormity of the festival now causes us to reflect on the amount of progress that's been made and look forward to the progress to come.
Tattered Cover's future as a book lover's paradise remains unwritten.
Evan Semón
We can no longer call Tattered Cover Denver's leading independent bookstore. This summer, Barnes & Noble bought the local chain out of bankruptcy for $1.8 million. The store, which was founded by Stephen Cogill in 1971, was bought by the legendary Joyce Meskis in 1974; she expanded it exponentially and earned a reputation as a staunch defender of the First Amendment. Ready to retire, Meskis sold Tattered in 2015 to Len Vlahos and Kristen Gilligan, whose neutral response to the George Floyd murder in 2020 outraged many customers, ultimately leading a group of local investors to buy the chain in December that year. But by the fall of 2023, Tattered Cover filed Chapter 11. While there were several bidders, B&N won, causing many to fear that their favorite bookstore would lose its musty charm as fifteen employees were let go. So far, Tattered has yet to change into a characterless B&N, and Denver still has several other independent bookstores to frequent if it does.
Fans wait to enter the Esquire Theatre ahead of the final showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Hannah Metzger
After nearly 100 years, the Esquire Theatre, at 590 Downing Street, closed on July 17 following the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission's unanimous vote to allow the theater to be redeveloped into an office, retail and restaurant space. Despite the formation of a group called Save the Esquire, which pushed a petition to show the theater's cultural significance, the Esquire never became a historic landmark, which could have protected it. (The only reason the Landmark Preservation Commission was involved is because the theater is in the Alamo Placita Historic District.)
Mutiny Information Cafe co-owners Matt Magyesi (left) and Jim Norris.
Brandon Johnson
Mutiny Information Cafe Moves
On August 7, Mutiny Information Cafe announced that it would be moving from its longtime home at 2 South Broadway and reopening in October at 3483 South Broadway in Englewood. "I always said they'd have to carry me out of here in a pine box," co-owner Jim Norris told us. "But the landlords put the building up for sale, and based on the numbers, there's just no way we could do it." Englewood, however, has been "a fantastic city to work with," he said. The new spot — now Mutiny Comics and Coffee — has Mutiny's legendary charm, and with a basement for concerts, to boot. There are still vinyl bins, a photo booth, a cereal bar, delicious coffee, pinball machines and, yes, more comics.
The BRDG Project will leave its current location at 3300 Tejon Street in the new year.
Courtesy of Brett Matarazzo and Amy Norton
Because of high rent, NKollectiv Gallery is relocating from its spot in the Art District on Santa Fe to 3485 South Broadway in Englewood, right above the new Mutiny location. The space, which will open in January, will be called EASEL (Englewood Art Studios, Events and Lessons), where artists from NKollectiv will practice and share classes with the community. Meanwhile, BRDG Project announced it would close its brick-and-mortar at 3300 Tejon Street in the new year, also citing increasing rent.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom: Gallery 1261 was able to celebrate its twentieth anniversary as a survivor in the once-upon-a-time bustling creative hub of the Golden Triangle. Luckily, owner David Uhl owns the gallery's building at 1261 Delaware Street. And Leon Gallery, at 1112 East 17th Avenue, was able to survive through community support after mounting a #LongLiveLeon campaign, fearing it wouldn't have enough money to retain its lease back in January. As rent continues to rise, however, this gallery and so many others still need support if they are to continue pushing the contemporary artists who make our city so vibrant.
"G Is for Genocide" was the reason Danielle SeeWalker's Vail residency was canceled.
Danielle SeeWalker
Native American artist Danielle SeeWalker was surprised when she received a three-minute phone call in early May telling her that her residency in Vail had been canceled. Just as surprising was the reason: The town took issue with a piece she'd created months prior, titled "G Is for Genocide," that drew parallels between the war in Gaza and the history of American Indians. On Indigenous People's Day, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a civil complaint against the Town of Vail on her behalf. As SeeWalker, an increasingly prevalent artist who had a blockbuster show at History Colorado this year, told us, "Vail and other local governments need to know that they can't deny constitutional rights of artists or humans in general."
Sol Tribe Closes
The Denver tattoo shop Sol Tribe suddenly closed on July 1 after fifteen years in business. But the tattoo and piercing spot at 56 Broadway had gone through a lot of grief in recent years, particularly following the death of its founder, Alicia Cardenas, and jewelry manager Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado in a shooting spree that began at Sol Tribe on December 27, 2021. According to manager Casey Hosch, she and other employees received an email from owner Kevin Strawbridge stating that the shop would be closing that day and to collect their things. While this beacon of the tattoo community is now gone, Hosch went on to open Cold Moon Piercing & Tattoo at 120 South Broadway, with several Sol Tribe piercers and tattooers joining her. Gunn-Maldonado's husband, Jimmy, also opened a shop worth supporting: Wolf and Goat Tattoo & Piercing, at 1221 Pecos Street, #160.
Nora Burnett Abrams Leaves the MCA
The Museum of Contemporary Art is one of our favorite places to visit in Denver, and Mark G. Falcone Director Nora Burnett Abrams has been a big reason for that, helping to bring monumental exhibitions to the state and expose us to some of the best contemporary artists — of local, national and international renown — as well as launch the museum's second space at the historic Holiday Theater. But on November 20, Abrams announced she would be stepping down from the role in April next year to join the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston as its Ellen Matilda Poss Director. We're grateful for all Abrams has done for the museum and Denver, and wish her the best in her next chapter.
