Denver Pride will take over swaths of Capitol Hill and downtown while Usher and Chris Brown play Empower Field this weekend.
In short: People will have fun, some will get wasted, and traffic will be a mess.
Trains, bikes, scooters, rideshares, feet and wheelchairs will be well used. Drivers will have a good chance of getting caught in a jam.
So RTD is encouraging people to plan their trips on the NextRide tool to find the lines that are running. The district also suggests you sign up for service alerts for any changes.
Getting around the Usher and Chris Brown crowd
If you want to avoid the nightmare of downtown parking, consider leaving your car at a lot and taking a bus or train into the city. Here's a list of Park-N-Rides.
On Friday night, Usher fans can head to Empower Field from Union Station on the C, E and W lines. The C, E, W and N lines will all have extra cars running on Friday.
Here’s when the last trains leave Union Station on Friday:
Commuter rail platform:
- A Line: 12:30 a.m.
- B Line: 11:09 p.m.
- G Line: 12:01 a.m.
- N Line: 11:26 p.m.
Light rail platform:
- C Line: 1:48 a.m.
- E Line: 1:56 a.m.
- W Line: 1:53 a.m.
Also, know that the Auraria West Station will be closed Friday night, so passengers will have to head to the Empower Field stop.
RTD cautions riders to be patient. We caution you to leave your claustrophobia at home, if you can, because trains to Empower Field concerts make sardine tins look as wide open as the Eastern Plains.
Plenty of buses go near Empower Field. Those include Route 30 (South Federal Boulevard) and Route 31 (North Federal Boulevard), as well as Routes 1, 15L, and 16.
The Flatiron Flyer and local routes 0, 9, 10, 15, 20 and 32 take you to Union Station where you can catch a very crowded train.
Closures and route changes for Pride
PrideFest isn’t happening in its usual Civic Center Park location. Instead, it will take over 16th Street, from Lawrence Street to Broadway.
There will also be changes for road closures throughout Pride weekend, so check schedules carefully.
Routes 8, 19, 32, 48, ART, and 16th Street FreeRide will all be impacted.
Roads will be closed from 7 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Sunday to make way for the festival. The 16th Street FreeRide will detour to 15th and 17th streets between Lawrence and Broadway and will operate, per usual, between Union Station and Lawrence.
Sunday’s Pride Parade starts at 9:30 a.m. at Franklin Street and 17th Avenue, heading down 17th to Lincoln Street.
The following routes will be impacted: Routes 0, 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 15L, 16, 19, 20, 48 and 52
Civic Center Station will be closed. You can board the eastbound 83L on Broadway at 13th Avenue.
The 16th Street FreeRide shuttle will detour to 15th and 17th streets between Lawrence Street and Broadway. Board the FreeRide at 15th Street and Tremont Place.
