Overview:
After 25 years of platforming emerging local and national artists, the Underground Music Showcase will end "as we know it" in July.
The Underground Music Showcase (UMS) has been a staple of the Colorado music scene for years, highlighting hundreds of artists each year from a wide array of genres. Though many fans of the local event were saddened by the recent announcement that “UMS as we know it is taking the stage for the last time.”
“It’s a loss for artists. It’s a loss for music lovers. It’s a huge loss for the South Broadway businesses that depended on the UMS for their highest revenue weekend of the year,” said its founder, John Moore. “I have loved the UMS and its evolution, but given the economic realities, I don’t think it has to continue to exist as a big, national showcase in order to have continuing local relevance.”
Due to a decline in ticket sales and the rising cost of producing the festival, organizers decided that after this year the way the festival was conducted needed to be changed. Cass Braido, the guitarist for the band The Losers Club, which has played the festival twice, is going to miss it.
“I think I was a little taken aback, as everybody else was, because it’s just such a fixture in Denver,” Braido said. “I mean, 25 years is a long time. Nothing lasts forever, but you just sort of assume things like that keep going.”
One of the original bands that played in the first year of UMS back in 2002 at the Bluebird Theater was Devotchka. In a serendipitous full-circle moment, the band is once again headlining the festival 25 years later.
“I think there’s something beautiful and lovely about the symmetry of the band that played our first showcase coming back for year 25,” Moore said. “[They are] a part of the fabric of Colorado.”
This year, the festival takes place from July 25 to July 27. Performances will take place on four outdoor stages and eight indoor venues along South Broadway between 6th Avenue and Alameda Avenue. The schedule is packed with artists playing the entire duration. If that sounds overwhelming, Jami Duffy, executive director of Youth on Record (YOR) and co-director of UMS, recommends taking advantage of the festival’s location.Â
”This is a festival in an urban setting, so you can come and go as you please,” she said. “You don’t necessarily have to be on the festival grounds for 10 hours a day.”
Artists have to apply in order to be selected to play in the Underground Music Showcase. “We have 200 spots and we had over 1,500 bands apply,” Duffy said.
One of the local bands to make it through that application process was Horse Bitch. The eclectic group has played UMS since 2023. Riley Merino plays guitar and provides vocals for the band.
“I feel like [UMS is] a time that I get to catch up with all my friends’ bands because everybody’s kind of playing at the same time and you just kind of wander around and you go and you see all your buddies play, which is really hard other times of the year,” Merino said. “It feels like Christmas every year.”
The early iterations of UMS embodied an idea that is still woven into the fabric of the festival even today, which Moore says “was about loving the local music scene.” There was not one specific genre that was represented at these shows. Moore described it as a “sampler” of what music was being made in Denver.
After running the event solo in 2001, John Moore approached Ricardo Baca in 2002, then a music reporter at The Denver Post, with an opportunity to run the festival together. Despite moving into a different role at The Denver Post, Moore wanted to continue producing the festival.
He recalls telling Baca, “I did this thing in the music community here, and it’s become something really important to me. I love it so much, so I’m going to keep doing that.” Following their conversation, Baca agreed to collaborate, and Moore credits him with helping grow the event into what it looks like today.
“Ricardo was really mindful of realizing that we were going to grow in scope and become even more significant over the years,” Moore said. “They [the festival organizers] were going from two days to three days to four days. It’s back to three now, but at its height it was four days.”
Since 2010, Greg Moore, editor of The Denver Post, told John Moore and Baca to leave the project to focus on being reporters and the festival changed ownership. Its most recent owners, YOR, purchased the Underground Music Showcase in 2022 and now co-own the event along with creative agency, Two Parts.Â
“We have been working in the Colorado music scene and in the advancement of young creatives for about 12 to 13 years,” Duffy said. “I saw an opportunity for us to advance what had been happening at UMS. We love this festival, but we also saw some opportunities for deeper impact.”
One of the ways that impact shows up at UMS currently is the emphasis on harm reduction during the festival.
“People are at a music festival,” Duffy said. “They’re going to be drinking and or possibly using drugs recreationally, and it’s our job as festival organizers to make sure that in the event that there’s an emergency, we’re ready for it.”
Staff are trained on overdose prevention and response. Additionally, the Underground Music Showcase offers sober bars where non-alcoholic drinks are served.
“I myself am a sober person of almost 10 years, and I like to feel like I’m part of the party, too,” Duffy said. “I don’t want to just drink water for three days.”
Duffy also recommended stopping into some shops to see what South Broadway has to offer and to cool off in the air conditioning. “Make sure you stay hydrated,” Duffy said. “We have sunscreen available there for you, but also load up your sunscreen. You know, just check in with yourself.”
The last piece of advice she has is, “Don’t drive. There’s no parking for you.” Duffy recommends using rideshare apps, public transit, or scooters for transportation to the event.
If you’re curious to see what music Denver has to offer, Moore advises that the “best way to establish yourself in a community is to show up.” Tickets are still available for the entire weekend, but if you don’t feel like going to all three days of the festival, day passes are also available for purchase.
Duffy notes that the announcement about the continuing evolution of UMS “isn’t just an operational shift; this is an emotional and cultural shift.” As for what UMS will look like in the future, Duffy said, “Everything is on the table.”
“I think certainly UMS, as we know it—being on South Broadway for three days during the last weekend of July under its current ownership structure next year—is very unlikely,” Duffy added. “Will UMS evolve into something else? I think that remains to be seen and really that’s going to be that’s why we’re going to start having these community conversations.”