When Christine Alonzo decided to throw a Latin and blues festival at Red Rocks, many mocked her audacity. Not just anyone can book a date there, they said, especially someone organizing a brand-new event.
“I said, 'I want to do a show at Red Rocks,' and 100, 200 people said, ‘That’s not going to happen. It’s impossible,’’’ she recalls.
But Alonzo proved she isn’t a dreamer but a doer, and the impossible is very much possible: The first-ever Tequila Blues Festival is slated for Sunday, April 13, at Red Rocks. The inaugural lineup includes Los Lonely Boys, Eric Gales, Rick Lewis Music Project, Harper O’Neill, Levi Platero and Jack Hadley; longtime Denver singer and entertainer Erica Brown will serve as host.
Joining the lineup was a no-brainer, says blues guitarist Eric Gales, who couldn’t be more electrified to play Red Rocks for the first time. “I think I may be the most excited artist to ever come to Red Rocks for the first time,” the prolific guitarist admits. “I got goosebumps thinking about it.”
It’s long overdue: Gales is one of the most decorated and celebrated blues players of modern times, having released nineteen studio albums, including 2022’s Grammy-nominated Crown, and collaborated with pretty much everyone you could think of, like when he jammed with Carlos Santana during Woodstock ’94. Hip-hop heads might know Gales as Lil E from his Three 6 Mafia contributions, too.
So it's a little surprising that he never had the chance to headline the top Colorado venue until Alonzo reached out. “I was like, ‘Oh, snap, are you kidding me?’ Of course, my answer was yes. It didn’t take half a second for me to give an answer,” Gales recalls.
“Then finding out the details — co-headlining bill with Los Lonely Boys and it’s a blues and Latin festival. I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s finally here. I get to play Red Rocks,’" he continues. "I can’t be more ecstatic than I am now, just knowing the fact that I have a Red Rocks date on the calendar. It’s going to be an explosive show. Hopefully, this will be the first of many to come.”
Co-headliner Los Lonely Boys is excited to be part of the brand-new Latin and blues event, too.
Courtesy Los Lonely Boys
Los Lonely Boys bassist Jojo Garza considers the amphitheater “one of the wonders of the world.” He and his brothers — vocalist-guitarist Henry and drummer Ringo — have played Red Rocks several times before and always welcome the opportunity. “It’s all about: Let’s have a great time, let’s enjoy some music, let’s enjoy some time together," he says, "because you never know if it’s the last time."
Plus, the Texican rockers — best known for the hit song “Heaven” — recently returned from a “sabbatical,” as Jojo calls it, releasing a new album, Resurrection, last summer; it was trio’s first album in eleven years.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to be until we put something else out, either,” he says with a laugh.
He credits Alonzo for having the vision and determination to bring a festival like this to life. “That shows purpose," he says. "That’s grand design, especially at such an amazing place."
Of course, booking musicians wasn’t a hard sell. “A lot of the artists were like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s my dream. That’s what I’ve been working toward my whole life,’” Alonzo says. “We all know that Red Rocks is the ultimate venue that people want to play and have on their resume, right?”
It was more difficult to secure a date at the legendary venue. Given her background in nonprofit and union-organizing work, she started by reaching out to city connections she’s made throughout the years, but to no avail.
when Alonzo sets her mind on something, though, she possesses an uncanny ability to find a way to bring her ideas to life. Finally, a rep from Denver Arts & Venues provided her with two dates at the beginning of this year — one in April and the other during November.
“We thought about doing an event in November for Día de los Muertos, which ideally will be our next," she says. But the consensus with the Tequila Blues team was, “Let’s just go for it. Let’s do April,” Alonzo recalls.
“We did everything that we needed to do…and here we are,” she continues. “It was very much a challenge. But there have been times where I’ve had to face a very difficult decision or challenge in front of me, a barrier, so to speak, but then I say, ‘God or universe, why did you get me this far if I’m not going to get to the finish line?’ We’ve gotten past all of those challenges.”
Alonzo, who ran for Denver City Council’s District 11 seat in 2019, initially poured her lifelong love of blues into her bar, also named Tequila Blues, which was known for hosting live music and signature cocktails such as the “Buddy Guy” house margarita with cognac. After that two-year endeavor ended last year, she shifted focus to organizing a festival under the same banner — and with the same ethos of creating community.
“I think music just brings people together," Alonzo says. "Honestly, I think that the last couple of months have been really difficult for all communities, and diversity and inclusion and equity have essentially gone out the window.
“But the one thing I believe always brings people together from all walks of life is music. That is part of our mission," she adds. "We want to make sure that when we give back, we give back to those who are the most vulnerable and where we see the biggest needs.”
Adrian Covarrubias, who is part of the event's promo team, met Alonzo when he helped organize a water drive for the unhoused at Tequila Blues. The two immediately clicked over their shared passion for giving back. “Having not met him in person, he brought 200 people into my bar on a two-day notice,” Alonzo recalls. “When I saw him, I said, ‘You know, Adrian, if you stick by me, we can go some places together.’”
As the Denver Public Schools citywide event coordinator, Covarrubias had previously tried to book Red Rocks but ran into red tape. He wrote a thesis on exclusivity at Red Rocks, including how most dates are bought up by Live Nation and AEG, often leaving indie organizers such as Alonzo on the outside looking in.
“There’s a very, very small percentage of window of opportunity for independent promoters to throw shows at Red Rocks,” he says. “So all kudos to Christine for making it in that very, very, very tiny minority.”
“All we want is our fair share from the Denver community," Alonzo responds. "That’s a community venue."
“We’ve always just seen the need for people to have access to a stage and people to throw events centered around community,” Covarrubias says.
Centering around community calls for making events such as the Tequila Blues Festival more affordable than most day-long music happenings, which is something Alonzo is proud of. Future plans will depend on how this first year goes, but Alonzo is ready to take on whatever comes next.
“I have been told time and time again that it is huge to land Red Rocks,” she says. “In the future, I want to establish Tequila Blues as the little train that could, because we’re facing a couple of monsters that we will never have as much money as. But we definitely want to, through community, for community and by community, at least have some dates where everybody is welcomed, and they don’t have to pay, like, $3,000 for a ticket.
“We’re not going to give up,” she continues. “If we were going to give up, we would have given up when we were told, ‘You can’t get Red Rocks.’”
That was merely a bump in the road, as she sees it. “Now, our challenge is to sell it out,” Alonzo concludes. “Get people in those seats and make this a huge, successful event so we can begin planning our next event.”
