The Underground Music Showcase, a summertime staple of South Broadway in Denver, is moving to RiNo.
The mile-long music festival has shown up every summer for more than 20 years in the cleared out parking lots, lounges and dive bars along a six-block stretch. Last year, after the Denver-grown indie band DeVotchKa wrapped their set, festival staff came onstage and delivered something like a eulogy.
“It was an emotional time for sure, it was a stressful year,” said Keanan Stoner, former CEO of Two Parts, which co-owns the festival.
By then, the announcement had circulated: Youth on Record, a nonprofit that owned the other half of the festival, was out — ditching the fest to focus on their mission of providing music education to Denver youth. No one had stepped up to keep the festival going alongside Two Parts.
As far as Stoner could tell, that was that. “But we were very careful about the language, saying this is ‘the end of the festival as you know it’ and ‘the last in its current form,’” he said. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t being buried.”
A couple of months later, the RiNo Business Improvement District approached Two Parts with interest in moving the festival to RiNo. This summer, after taking zero years off, the festival will reemerge in the northwest Denver neighborhood.
Something bold, something new
The Underground Music Showcase bubbled up in 2001 at the Bluebird Theater on Colfax: four bands, one night, $5. The showcase bounced back and forth between the Bluebird and the Gothic Theater in Englewood until 2006, when it settled into a strip of South Broadway.
Over its 25-year run, the festival grew to a three-day extravaganza with more than 200 bands across a dozen stages.
During that time, the festival changed hands from former Denver Post reporter John Moore to the Post’s then-music critic Ricardo Baca, to The Denver Post itself through the paper’s community foundation, and finally, in 2018, to Two Parts, which ran the festival for four years before bringing Youth on Record onboard in 2022 as co-owner.
Despite an unrestricted $1 million grant by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott which Youth on Record pushed toward the festival, the nonprofit couldn’t make the books work. Production costs and safety measures were up and ticket sales were down, executive director Jami Duffy told Denverite last year.
South Broadway’s infrastructure also limited the festival’s growth, said Stoner, who is transitioning to a new role as UMS festival director. “It was 1 mile up and down one road, with residentials on both sides.” RiNo is more of a “blob of roads,” he said. “With a bunch of nooks and crannies” to expand into.
But what does growth look like, or even mean, to a festival whose reputation was built on tossing local bands into dive bars and letting them do their thing?
The short answer is: No one knows. But they have some ideas.
What they do know is the RiNo BID is a very different entity than Youth On Record. Youth on Record is a nonprofit that relies largely on grants and contributions. The BID is a special tax district funded by commercial property taxes.
Commercial properties within the BID’s boundary pay 4 mills — or 0.4% — of their assessed property values to the BID’s revenue stream. That mill levy is approved every year, and cannot exceed 4 mills, but it can drop below it. Last year, the BID collected almost $3 million in revenue from taxes and fees. It has committed $250,000 annually for three years to the festival.
Their secure financial stream is one of the reasons the BID was poised to pick up the festival. It also has close ties to the RiNo arts district, known for its murals, lively alleyways and galleries.
Last year, the RiNo BID peeled off from the RiNo Art District, under which it had operated for 10 years, following criticism by property owners that too many business district dollars were being sucked into art district projects and priorities.
In October, the BID named Terry Madeksza as its first executive director.
Madeksza, perhaps sensitive to this former entanglement, was careful to emphasize how important hosting the music festival is for business all over the neighborhood.
“It is our desire to see people moving throughout our district,” Madeksza said. “It’s not just come to this one spot and listen to this music. It’s, let’s circulate people around, let’s reacquaint them with the entirety of the district.”
Maybe that means painting a community mural during the festival, or adding other performing arts to the mix, she said. Maybe they’ll host a monthly music series tied to UMS.
“On Broadway we had a playbook, and we liked it,” Stoner said. “But in RiNo there is way more opportunity to grow and expand and change each year.”
Keeping the vibe, and the pay
The festival’s vibe won’t change from what it’s been for the past few years, Stoner said. The majority of the bands are what they consider “discovery artists,” local musicians in the early stages of their career. Some acts, like Nathaniel Rateliff and DeVotchKa, go on to national success.
“Eventually some of (the bands) outgrow us,” Stoner said. “Pink Fuzz now goes on national tours. There’s a lot of Denver headliners we can’t get anymore. Tennis is a great example. We love being part of that story too.”
They’ll keep the same pay structure as before. All artists are guaranteed a minimum rate — in 2024, that was $200 for solo artists and $400 for bands — which can increase based on the band’s popularity and reach.
While new and local bands will take up the lion’s share of stage time, Stoner said, “you do need some bigger moments to create exposure.” Bring in a national headliner, then release the crowds into RiNo to find something new.
Any musician interested in performing can submit an application. A local talent team combs through the pile and makes the final lineup call. Stoner said he hopes to have the application posted this week.
“I’m anticipating that some people will assume that this was the secret plan behind the plan, but it just truly wasn’t,” Stoner said. “It was just a funky thing. I think it’s great to be bringing it back the following year, I don’t know if anyone thought it could happen.”