Every June Concert at Red Rocks Has Been Canceled or Postponed

COVID-19 has obliterated every June concert at Red Rocks.

May 8, 2020

Image: The fate of summer at Red Rocks looks bleak.

The fate of summer at Red Rocks looks bleak. Jacqueline Collins

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The Red Rocks spring season 2020 never happened, and now the summer schedule is looking bleak, too.

Every June concert at Denver's legendary venue has been canceled or rescheduled, and Red Rocks Park remains closed. Most of the shows that are being postponed have been pushed into 2021.

While many concerts are still on the Red Rocks schedule for July, String Cheese Incident scrapped its three-night stand, and Above & Beyond's acoustic concert with the Colorado Symphony has also been canceled.

Even though stay-at-home orders have been lifted, clubs and other venues are still closed, and gatherings of more than ten people are still prohibited. Neither city nor state officials have offered a date when concerts can be held, or when Red Rocks can even reopen.

Polis has suggested that big concerts will not return until there is a vaccine, a cure or sufficient herd immunity. Many in the music industry fear that big shows may not resume until fall 2021.

TempleLive, a music venue in Fort Smith, Arkansas, plans to host a concert with Travis McCready on May 15, which could be the first large live show to take place in the United States since the shutdowns ravaged the live-music industry. The 1,000-person venue will only sell 229 tickets, however.

In the meantime, drive-in concerts are being offered in Denmark, and Mark Rebillet is embarking on the first drive-in tour in the United States.

For a full list of cancellations and new dates, go to the Red Rocks website.

Kyle Harris has been Westword’s Culture Editor since 2016, writing about the arts, music and film.

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