Denver’s newest music festival, Blucifer’s First Rodeo, is set to take over South Broadway from July 23rd to July 26th. If you’ve been anywhere near the local Denver music scene for the past few months, you’ve heard the rumblings shaking the city streets. Something big is coming, something new, fresh, an opportunity for the Denver music and art community to shine as bright as the light that emanates from the eyes of the iconic statue that the festival takes its name from. Blucifer’s First Rodeo will be a celebration of the creative and driven minds that compose Denver’s ever-evolving music scene, a spotlight on a scene that is gaining more and more national attention with each passing year.
Formed by the people that keep the scene alive, the musicians and artists that serve at its lifeblood, the festival seeks to harness the DIY, community-minded ethos that makes Denver’s scene so unique and collaborative. While it’s sure to be a hell of a party, it will be so much more, a monument to the music and passion that holds us all together, reminds us that we are not alone in our creative endeavors, that there is a vast sea of likeminded human beings found in this beautiful city to catch us and hold us tightly when the world threatens to divide us. It’s a beautiful time to be alive in the city of Denver and Blucifer’s First Rodeo stands as a living, breathing testament to that fact.
Denver Dive recently spoke with Blucifer’s First Rodeo co-organizers Mike Young and Gillian Pasley about their time immersing themselves in Denver’s music scene, how they gained the confidence to undertake such a huge endeavor, the beauty of Denver’s community, putting together a festival with their friends and much more.
Young and Pasley moved to Denver in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Both wasted no time immersing themselves in the scene, hitting shows at places such as Hi-Dive and starting bands. Young — a poet who has lived in cities all over the country — fronts Clementine Was Right, a band that blends indie sensibilities with evocative storytelling. Pasley — who brings a background in event planning, has worked for Rocky Mountain PBS, for whom she’s also been involved with planning several festivals, and currently works at Wax Trax Records — leads Caspar Milquetoast who makes poetic indie rock with a sound reminiscent of Courtney Barnett mixed with Wednesday. Both bands have become local darlings, endeared to the scene based on how prevalent they are on the scene and the fact that they both make some damn good music. Both Young and Pasley have found a home within the scene, a community committed to collaboration rather than some of the more cutthroat scenes found in other cities across the US. “It’s just so friendly,” Young said. “It’s so collaborative. It’s so cross genre and so generous. It’s a really cool combination of people taking themselves seriously — which is not always the case in some cities I’ve lived — but not taking themselves too seriously.”
Though they found a home within Denver, their time in the scene wasn’t what instilled Young and Pasley with the confidence to attempt such a massive undertaking as Blucifer. The first inspiration came from a tribute to The Band’s The Last Waltz event at Hi-Dive featuring all local bands which, as is tradition, took place in November 2025 and featured Young taking a front and center role as Rockin’ Ronnie Hawkins singing “Who Do You Love?,” reenacting one of the best parts of the classic concert doc. Pasley put the event together with David Knodle from the beloved local chaos-folk band Horse Bitch. The event was a hit, serving as a fundraiser for Kaizen Food Rescue for whom they raised over $3,000. The event took around three weeks to put together and, while there were challenges encountered, the process went smoothly. “It was such an inspiring moment,” Pasley said. “It was like, ‘Wow, look what we can do together in just three weeks.’ That was specifically where we were realized we can just do things as long as we do them together.”
Young credits his long time experience putting on DIY shows at the house he shares with his partner with inspiring him to work on Blucifer. He said, “My partner and I throw house shows, and we get like 70 people in our backyard and invite all our neighbors and make a lot of food and that has been going really well.” It’s allowed him to know what putting on a good show for good people to have a good time at entails, imbuing him with this DIY spirit that has led him to believe everything is possible with the right people involved. This, coupled with his experience at the Last Waltz and the conversations he had that night, led him to think “What if we did this again but on a bigger scale?”
Blucifer will be taking over South Broadway for its duration. This was famously the part of town that hosted the Underground Music Showcase, which held its final iteration in the area last year. Since UMS will now be taking place in RiNo, South Broadway felt like the perfect place to host something new that can further help define Denver’s scene. Young and Pasley don’t believe in competing with the long standing festival, insisting that Blucifer is meant to celebrate Denver’s collaborative nature rather than instill some kind of perceived animosity. Young said, “That narrative is not important or not relevant because cultural participation is what makes a community. People coming together. That shit is older than Denver. It’s older than anyone. It’s older than us. That’s just humanity.” Pasley continued the sentiment, saying “Let’s just help Denver be a cooler city. You’re allowed to have multiple things happening.” There is space for both to exist and thrive and that’s a beautiful thing.
Blucifer is now all put together, boasting a myriad of local sponsors and an impressively extensive lineup that continues to grow. Young and Pasley have not done it alone. The full Blucifer team is composed of seven people: Young and Pasley, who share the title of co-organizers; LK Konkoli (of Pillow Princess Press) as media and booking coordinator; Sam Seymour who handles talent outreach and booking; Lauren Borders taking care of branding and merchandise; Gion Davis who handles social media and marketing; with Andrea Hoang rounding out the team as house show coordinator. Every member of the team is deeply entrenched in the Denver scene and is giving their entire hearts and souls to making this festival the best it can be. Young said they hope to grow the team in the future but, in the interest of budget and not going overboard the first time around and potentially digging themselves into a hole, they decided to keep the team small but dedicated.
The team’s efforts are paying off. They have amassed a huge lineup thus far, over 200 artists, announcing each new addition as “drops” supported by shows held at places such as The Skylark Lounge and Hi-Dive where people have been able to gather and connect and watch each new name be announced. So far, there have been three of these events with more to come. The lineup is insane, featuring almost every cool band and artist in this city. It includes Boot Gun, Rugburn, Ritmo Cascabel, Bitchflower, A Place for Owls, Sunstoney, Moonlight Bloom, Los Mocochetes, Spells, Sour Magic, Tiny Tomboy, Wheelchair Sports Camp and so many more, too many to list here. See the end of this article for the full announced lineup. The sheer number of bands playing speaks to how much of an impact this festival is going to make, how community-minded and dedicated to highlighting all the people and artists that make this scene so damn cool it will be.
Both Young and Pasley described Denver as having a distinct sound they want to stay true to, a sound that has yet to be as nationally recognized as the sounds of cities like Philadelphia and Nashville. Pasley said, “Nationwide, I don’t think that that’s really true of Denver yet. It feels like a really exciting time to be bringing that sound to the forefront together.” She feels that this city is just on the cusp of being the widely recognized music town it deserves to be.
Blucifer also wants to stay true to the spirit of South Broadway, hosting the festival at over 15 indoor venues, stores and restaurants found in the area, including The Skylark Lounge, HI-Dive, HQ, Bar 404, Sputnik and many more. They feel they owe a certain reverence to the storied neighborhood and are also hosting all ages shows at the DIY venues D3 Arts Center, Seventh Circle, Squirm and Ante Up to make sure everyone’s included.
In addition to making sure the entirety of South Broadway is celebrated, the Blucifer team are also dedicated to making ticket purchasing as easy and affordable as possible. To accomplish this, they built an entirely new ticketing software from the ground up. Young hopes this model will be adopted by other venues who may be struggling in order to cut out the middle man and the fees that entail from such previously established services, saying that it’s not as hard as some may think and can simultaneously help attendees spend less while also cutting costs for the venues themselves. Two-day passes to Blucifer are only $59 and the team behind the fest hope that this further incentivizes even more people to come out. There will also be a $5 discount for any residents of the Baker neighborhood.
Blucifer’s First Rodeo is one of the most exciting events that has hit Denver in recent memory. It’s sure to be a celebration of all that we who call this place home know and love, a vibrant display of music, creativity and the people at the heart of it all. It’s going to be a beautiful weekend in July. Don’t miss it.
Get tickets to Blucifer’s First Rodeo here!
Full announced lineup:
