Updated at 10:32 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026
Turns out the Underground Music Showcase didn’t die last year.
Instead, organizers have announced Denver’s longstanding festival will be reborn in 2026 at a new location: the River North Art District.
The music festival’s most recent organizers — the youth music nonprofit Youth on Record and the event company Two Parts — hinted UMS was over in 2025. It would certainly, they said, be the last festival anytime soon on South Broadway – and maybe even the last time UMS would be a festival.
“Truly, it was a coin toss after the last one if this was ever going to happen again,” Two Parts CEO Keanan Stoner said in a Friday interview.
In 2018, Two Parts and Youth on Record bought UMS and committed to paying artists higher wages. Over the years, they invested money in monitoring for climate change, preparing for emergencies, instituting new safety programs and being ready for potential fentanyl overdoses, Youth on Record CEO Jami Duffy told Denverite last year.
Running a festival ethically and safely simply cost more than the organizations were bringing in. Duffy needed her nonprofit to refocus on its work with youth and get out of the festival business.
“UMS was a critical part of Youth on Record’s story, but ultimately young creatives are our North Star,” Duffy wrote in a recent statement. “The transition out of the co-ownership and management of UMS allows us to meet this moment in our city and in our nation. Young people and families urgently need more support, access to meaningful work and creative spaces, and protection at a time when their basic freedoms and lives are on the line.”
Youth on Record plans to partner with the state's music and sports industries to build new job opportunities for young people.
"We will also work with community organizations, mutual aid networks, immigrant rights organizations, and young leaders to respond to direct threats to our work, our students, and our freedoms. This will require our full focus for the foreseeable future," Duffy wrote.
A new owner
Across town, the RiNo Business Improvement District saw the festival’s departure from South Broadway as an opportunity. The board of directors asked the festival owners if they would be interested in moving the festival to the struggling art district – once home to a thriving DIY arts scene, but now known best for a freshly developed string of vacant office buildings and spendy apartments.
Two Parts had identified in internal discussions what was needed to save UMS: money, a partner with creative juice and marketing power. The RiNo offer checked those boxes, Stoner said. The district signed up to take a 50 percent stake in the festival.
UMS will now take place in all-new venues, at all-new stages and with new experiences in a new neighborhood, Stoner said. But which venues, which artists and how the festival will collaborate with the RiNo Arts District (now a separate entity from the BID) are all still up in the air.
“We really want to carry forward a UMS that people can recognize the experience of even if the scene and setting looks entirely different,” Stoner said. “We still plan on multiple outdoor stages, a dozen plus venues spread throughout the district.”
Throwing a music festival in RiNo comes with challenges
Compared to South Broadway, venues are spread far apart throughout the sprawling district. Train tracks divide the neighborhood. And some areas aren’t exactly walkable.
But Terry Madeksza, the BID’s new head, says making transportation between venues efficient is a top priority. Organizers are working on a mix of micromobility solutions and shuttles.
RiNo’s music scene is dominated by Mission Ballroom, AEG’s signature venue. UMS is unsure whether it will be collaborating with the entertainment giant that has an outsized role in the city’s music scene.
In the past, UMS has largely operated independently from AEG and Live Nation, the two international entertainment companies that dominate venues and city contracts. This year, the festival is open to a conversation with the group, though Stoner also maintains the festival will continue to be independent.
“I think we want everybody to know that this is not the commercialization or corporatization of UMS,” he said. “This is still a festival for the artists, and this is a festival for Denver.”
Madeksza says she hopes the festival brings fresh energy to RiNo. She expects bands to play in traditional venues, but also in surprising spaces that don’t normally host music. The idea is to introduce audiences to both local artists and local businesses.
“It is absolutely about the festival,” she said. “It is also about highlighting some of the incredible things going on in RiNo.”
UMS plans to bring 10,000 guests to see more than 200 performers, July 24-26, 2026, across RiNo.
For more information, go to the festival website.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional commentary from Youth on Record head Jami Duffy.
