Photo Credit: Brandon Johnson (@bjohnsonxar)
Audio By Carbonatix
While plotting and planning your summer concert calendar, don’t forget to check out what’s going on in Boulder, particularly at the University of Colorado’s Folsom Field.
The 50,000-plus capacity football stadium is hosting a trio of big acts — Mumford & Sons with Sierra Ferrell (June 6), Tyler Childers (July 18) and Rüfüs Du Sol (August 22) — courtesy of a powerful partnership between the university and AEG Presents Rocky Mountains. Boulder-born DJ and Buffs alum Thadeus Labuszewski, aka Disco Lines, is also headlining two on-campus shows at Farrand Field (April 17-18).
The upcoming slate is part of a concerted effort to make Boulder more of an entertainment destination, especially since the city is now the new home of the Sundance Film Festival, with Folsom Field serving as its concert crown jewel.
“My job is to try and create an experience and atmosphere that is special. We take into account a myriad of factors to try to determine what’s the best for the fan and the artist. Where that artist is going to resonate,” says AEG Rocky Mountains Presents President Don Strasburg. “When we’re looking at Folsom, Boulder is such a beautiful town, and when a concert of this magnitude happens there, it’s an event. You have a few really neat things that can happen. One, the artist and the fans feel a little bit more enveloped in a town like Boulder. There’s a bit of a town takeover. We walk through Pearl Street during the day, and you see a huge percentage of people who are like-minded fans of the artist.
“You have a quintessential Colorado town that’s both an amazing place to live for the people in the community, it’s really accessible from Denver and the other Front Range cities, and it’s also a destination for people nationally and internationally who love the artists and might want to participate in concert tourism,” Strasburg adds.
Boulder, particularly Folsom Field, is certainly no stranger to hosting mega acts, as the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney have made their mark there in the past, but the recent resurgence of heavy-hitting headliners can be traced back to Dead & Company’s sold-out run in 2023.
“Since we started doing concerts at Folsom Field with Dead & Company, we really recognized the opportunities for other artists and fans to enjoy the space,” Strasburg shares, adding that the university saw the subsequent boon firsthand.
“For a long time, the university was reticent on doing concerts. That reticence, based upon the success of Dead & Company, turned into an amazing partnership. That’s really been the critical change that’s enabled us to do this,” he continues. “Those experiences helped the university get comfortable with what concerts looked like and saw the cultural benefit for campus and the community. We’re doing everything we can to be great partners.”
In 2024, Childers and ODESZA packed out the venue. “Both shows went phenomenally well,” Strasburg adds.
Last year, Phish and John Summit took turns filling Folsom, further proving Boulder can draw just as well as Red Rocks and Denver venues. Although Phish is returning to its usual three nights at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City over Labor Day weekend this year, CU and AEG proved they’d tapped into something special.
“We’re incredibly proud of the momentum we’ve built with our partners at AEG to bring a variety of artists across multiple genres to the Boulder community. There is simply nothing better than live music at Folsom Field, which is an iconic venue nestled against the Flatirons in one of most beautiful towns in the nation,” says Ryan Gottlieb, CU senior associate athletic director and revenue generating officer.
“We’re proud that we’re able to bring the highest caliber of entertainment to one of the best outdoor concert venues in the country, which attracts fans from all over the world,” he continues. “Thanks to our strong relationship with AEG, we look forward to continuing to bring amazing artists to the Boulder community for years to come.”
Strasburg, who stepped into his current role in 2024, agrees. After all, he has a long history of bringing music to Boulder, starting with his efforts to open the Fox Theatre in 1992.
Photo Credit: Brandon Johnson (@bjohnsonxar)
“It seems like our choices, so far, knock on wood, have been pretty good,” he says.
Plus, AEG has shown it has the Midas touch when it comes to curating one-of-a-kind live-music experiences recently, including having FISHER headline 16th Street and the debut of Project 70 with Turnstile last year.
“It’s not rocket science. We’re just doing the best job we can to try and create really compelling experiences that appeal to the fanbase of the specific artists,” Strasburg explains. “We can take everything we can possibly think of into account to advise an artist what we think their fans would most enjoy.”
In that sense, Boulder is more mountain town than metropolitan Denver, adding to its own unique energy as a college town.
“My job is to try and create experiences for people who work their butts off all day long and want to forget about their jobs,” Strasburg says. “It’s the opportunity to curate. We’re just thrilled and honored to have a partner like CU and Folsom and be able to have that opportunity for the artists and fans and make that part of our curation. The uniqueness of it and the warmth of the building, we’re trying to place artists who are going to resonate on those factors.”
In case you’re considering making a trip to the People’s Republic of Boulder for one of the shows, Strasburg outlines what a day in the mountains could look like: “A couple times a year, take a little road trip up to Boulder, go for a hike over by the Flatirons in the morning or take a nice little hike up Chautauqua, come back and have a delicious meal on Pearl Street Mall, go to an amazing venue, maybe even spend the night in Boulder or take a 35-minute drive home. It’s a different experience.”
So what Folsom gig is Strasburg most excited for? Short answer: All of them.
“No one has a favorite child,” he says with a laugh. “They’re all amazing, and they’re all different. We know especially nowadays our musical tastes is very varied from one day to the next, one moment to the next. I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there like me who love all of these acts, even though they’re not all really the same. Rüfüs is significantly different than Mumford & Sons and Sierra Ferrell, nonetheless Tyler Childers.”
Tickets for all three shows, as well as the Disco Lines dates, are still available, but don’t wait too long to grab them.
“We felt, and ticket sales, fan reaction for the three shows we have this year and the ones we’ve done in the past have indicated that we’ve directed people to a place that they are enthusiastic about,” Strasburg says. “We’re really lucky that a diverse retinue of amazing acts were interested in coming and playing.”
So Boulder is not just becoming a mecca for film fans, but music fans.
“It’s really an impressive and such a clear signal of the quality of our music community and the experiences that we have that people from all around the country flying here to see music. Concert tourism is really strong in Colorado, and that says a lot about the kind of offerings we have,” Strasburg says.
“AEG takes live music seriously, we as an overall community take it really seriously. That’s what people have come to expect here, and that’s what they deserve.”
