Though the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) is set to bring three fun-filled days of live music to the South Broadway neighborhood, the event organizers know that potential drug overdoses are always a possibility.

“Obviously, we do not permit drugs on our premises, but we’re also realists,” Jami Duffy, co-manager of UMS, said.

In order to prepare for the influx of nearly 10,000 people-per-day hitting the mile-long concert corridor every day, UMS teamed up with Keep the Party Safe and the Denver Department of Public Health to train staff and security on overdose prevention Wednesday evening.

Keep the Party Safe — a Colorado campaign working to reduce fentanyl overdose deaths through education — and the Denver Department of Public Health showed concert workers how to administer naloxone to those experiencing an overdose and how to perform rescue breathing. Doses of naloxone were also distributed to all of the workers. 

“It’s so important,” Julianne Collins, a representative of Keep the Party Safe, said of Coloradoans knowing what to do when they see an overdose. “A lot of people will say they don’t need it when we offer them naloxone. We like to remind them that it’s not just about you. It’s about the person next to you.”

Though drugs are prohibited at the music festival, the event’s organizers — non-profit organization Youth on Record and for-profit marketing agency Two Parts — know that fentanyl usage is possible due to the overwhelming statistics that have struck both the country and state over the past few years.

“This is an American crisis and catastrophe,” Duffy said of the opioid epidemic. “Our work at UMS is really about ensuring that all of our festgoers have the best time and that, when they’re here in our festival footprint, they’re safe.”

In 2023 in Colorado, there were 1,865 overdose deaths, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. 1,097, or nearly 59%, of those deaths involved fentanyl.

Drug Enforcement Administration lab testing shows seven of every ten pills contain a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl.

Nationwide, roughly 150 people die each day from fentanyl overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We want to ensure that if somebody does find themselves in a situation where they’re overdosing, or somebody finds their friend in a situation where they’re overdosing, we’re able to intervene and save lives so that they can come to UMS next year and hopefully get the help that they need to be on a path to recovery,” Duffy concluded.

Keep the Party Safe shared signs of an overdose all people should know, including:

• Person is unconscious or unresponsive 
• Slow or stopped breathing
• Limp body
• Vomiting
• Weak or no pulse
• Bluish-purple lips or skin tones in lighter-skinned people
• Grayish or ashen tones in darker-skinned people