Denver’s new Outside Festival showcasing state's outdoor recreation industry set for June

A new, large outdoor recreation festival is coming to Denver in June, Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday.

The two-day Outside Festival highlighting Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry will be hosted at Civic Center Park from June 1-2. It's the city's newest event for outdoor recreation after the industry’s largest trade show, Outdoor Retailer, left Denver in 2022 to go back to Salt Lake City. Outside Festival is set to feature new outdoor gear, live music, adventure films, speakers, activities and exhibits.

“The Outside Festival will be a celebration of outdoor recreation and help grow this important part of our economy and lifestyle, while introducing more Coloradans to the benefits of spending time outside,” Polis said in the news release.

The festival is in partnership with the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, tourism agency Visit Denver and media company Outside Inc. The Denver Economic Development Council approved $440,000 for the event, according to the governor's office.

Outdoor recreation generates $62 billion and 18% of the workforce for the state economy, according to Conor Hall, the director of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.

“For the first time, the Outside Festival will bring together industry professionals and thought leaders with the general public to showcase Colorado’s unparalleled outdoor recreation industry and our commitment to making it accessible to everyone,” Hall said in the release.

Hall has been working on the Outside Festival after the Outdoor Retailer's five-year stint in Denver ended.

He told the Denver Gazette in November that the event will be like a “South by Southwest for the outdoor industry.” It’s set to mix the business aspect of the Outdoor Retailer with more entertainment and education.

"It’s not a necessarily a direct replacement," Hall said in an interview.

When the trade show left, Hall said it was a chance to reimagine ways to highlight the state's leadership in the outdoor recreation space from scratch. Rather than having a business-to-business event, this one would focus more on letting the public and industry leaders talk about improving sustainability and diversity initiatives together, he said.

"I want them to hear from the leaders in the outdoor industry and have a better sense of the issues we face and if we can do better together," Hall said.

This "soft launch" of Outside Festival could attract between 20,000 and 25,000 attendees, Hall said, and help reinvigorate downtown Denver.

“Outside Festival helps cement Denver’s status as the outdoor capital of the country,” Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver, said in an emailed statement to The Denver Gazette. “This experience aims to activate Civic Center Park to celebrate the outdoors."

The Outside Festival will also have showcases and activities in the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The art museum will host films and speakers which include Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White, Diana Nyad — who was portrayed by Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening in a movie detailing her historic swim from Cuba to Florida — and Native advocate Jody Potts-Joseph.

The festival will have concerts featuring Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, Lettuce, Say She She and The Heavy Heavy.

Tickets will go live on Thursday, according to the event's website festival.outsideonline.com. Early bird tickets start at $39 for a single day and $59 for both days. Final prices have not been announced, but children under 12 years old will be free.

"The city is simply the perfect location for this festival,” Scharf said in the release.

Colorado Springs Gazette features writer Seth Boster contributed to this report.