The inaugural Outside Festival in downtown Denver is only 17 days away and event organizers offered up some new insights on what’s what during a tour in Civic Center Park Tuesday morning.

The low-key tour did bring out the likes of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Vice President of Marketing at Outside Interactive and Executive Director of the Outside Festival Chris Jerard, and filmmaker and rock climber Malik Martin.

Invoking the stoke of the upcoming festival, Jerard said the Outside Festival started out as an idea but quickly became a reality, with organizers envisioning it as a unique outdoor experience and summit for all outdoor lovers, vendors and business leaders over time, adding: “People feeling and seeing the vision, saying we can see this very easily becoming something that is very meaningful to Denver.”

But it had to start somehow.

“More than a year ago Outside and Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (ORIC) brought a vision to the state’s economic development commission. An idea to launch a summit for the outdoor industry and a festival for the outdoor enthusiast,” Jerard said.

Gov. Polis also expressed his enthusiasm about the upcoming festival: “We are so excited to highlight all the great products and services that go into helping people enjoy the outdoors every day of the year..” and “…we know the outdoors are such a critical part not only of our identity as Coloradans, but as Coloradans we love to to live our lives outside and that’s exactly what Outside Festival is all about.”

Martin talked about the value in how the two-day Outside Festival will be representative of diversity.

“There’s different ways of diversifying things, and one way of pushing the (outdoor) industry forward is having this event. The cross connectivity that we are able to have music, a trade show, panels and minds meeting all mixing together in order to get outside here in Denver is an amazing feat.” 

Martin also thinks the festival is forward thinking and represents “a future” to him, meaning he wants people to be brave enough to do something that has never been done before, like what Outside Festival is doing with Denver.

“When I think about 10 or 20 years from now, I would like this festival to set the grounds for filmmakers to premiere their films here, if you are an artist you can headline here, and if you are an athlete you can compete here.”

No accident Civic Center Park chosen as OF site

Jerard said they looked at other world-class venues that have been around for decades like SXSW (South by Southwest), but ultimately hosting an outdoor festival in downtown Denver fit multiple criteria best from public transportation access to hotels to theaters in the area, all equaling the ideal spot.

“We hope to see this grow north,” Jerard said. “We continue to see the Convention Center come in as this grows from tens-of-thousands to maybe hundreds-of-thousands if you pull this out over five to 10 years.”

The Outside Festival is spread out over the entirety of Civic Center Park and Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, and includes space inside the Denver Art Museum where the Film x Ideas sessions will be held.

Not replacing Outdoor Retailer, but doing something different

Jerard said he and others at Outside felt there was a hole in the outdoor industry as far as a “true annual gathering” goes, and especially one that brought together both business interests and outdoor enthusiasts. The Outside Festival isn’t fully filling in the hole left behind by Outdoor Retailer, which left Denver in 2022 for Salt Lake City, Utah.

When Outdoor Retailer was at its peak in 2019, and January 2020, it would draw more than 26,000 visitors. The show in January 2021 drew only 5,300 attendees and 1,400 retailers. Before the pandemic, the Outdoor Retailer show had an estimated $57 million impact on Denver’s economy and more than 25,000 registrants, according to Visit Denver. 

Outside Festival had over 9,000 tickets sold as of Tuesday, Jerard said.

But he did say it was important to have a “cultural-leaning event” that brings in consumers with showcases like film and music, something that OR didn’t have, making Outside Festival unique in that regard.

Having the Film x Ideas sessions at the Denver Art Museum sets apart Outside Festival from Outdoor Retailer alone, and as Jerard also said, growing the summit sessions from a business-to-business approach will draw in outdoor industry business leaders perhaps accustomed to the trade show approach like they experienced at OR.

“When we look at 2025, I would like to see some expansion particularly around the summit side of what we are doing and the business-to-business side,” he said. “This year we’re getting Senator (John) Hickenlooper and many other business leaders coming in for that (summit sessions) and I could see that becoming a pitch competition for up and coming businesses.”

Outside Festival areas map:

Download PDF

• The north side of the park features: The North Face ‘Climbers Corner’, The Incredible Dog Experience and Kids’ areas

• The middle of the park features: The Music stage, VIP spot, Adventure and Wellness areas, including Cold Plunge Alley

• The south side of the park features: Travel and Bike areas, and outdoor industry brands (over 90) and vendors

• In Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, west of the State Capitol building, features: (E)revolution and The Big Gear Show.

Headlining musical acts include:

• Thundercat, Lettuce and Say She She – Saturday, June 1
• Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird and The Heavy Heavy – Sunday, June 2
• Outside Festival runs June 1-2 at 101 14th Ave. in Denver, Colorado.

The Outside Festival is a partnership between the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, tourism agency Visit Denver and Boulder-based outdoor media company Outside Interactive.