As UMS bids farewell, Denver artists wait for an encore
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DENVER — This weekend marked the 25th and final Underground Music Showcase — at least, in its current form.
This somewhat-cryptic caveat from the music festival’s organizers is vague for a reason. Jami Duffy, executive director of Youth on Record and one of the co-managers of UMS, said even she doesn’t know what the future holds for the South Broadway summer staple.
Staring down the barrel of inflated infrastructure costs, a higher cost of living and low ticket sales, the festival’s organizers decided they wouldn’t sacrifice the values of UMS — fair wages for artists and staff, harm reduction and accessibility — to cut costs.
Duffy said increasing ticket prices wasn’t an option. In 2017, a weekend pass to UMS cost about $55. This year, it cost about $150. Duffy said they seemed to have already reached the threshold that fans in Denver are willing to pay.
Instead, organizers announced July 1 that this would be the end of UMS as Denverites know it. Before making any decisions about the next iteration of the festival, Duffy said the organizers want to hear the community’s feedback about what they’d like to see.
On Saturday, July 26, before the day’s concerts kicked off, Duffy led a community discussion to answer questions about the future of UMS.
“We don't have an attachment to UMS as much as we do what UMS represents, which is all of us coming together, playing music together, spending time together,” Duffy said to about 100 people gathered at the town hall Saturday.
Rocky Mountain PBS spoke with Denver-based artists who played UMS this year or in years prior about the direction they’d like the festival to take in future iterations.
Hip-hop artist DNA Picasso summed up the most common suggestion voiced by the artists: “Just stop booking expensive national acts.”
“I feel like in general, being more intentional and not looking past what you have right in front of you. If the brand is about being underground, play more into that. You can save so much money,” DNA Picasso said.
Journalists from The Denver Post organized the first UMS in 2001. They booked artists based on an annual poll asking “who are the best underground artists in Colorado?”
The Bluebird Theater hosted the showcase its second year and the show’s promoter tried to convince its founders to book a national band. The organizers declined, on the basis that a national band would go against the mission to highlight underground, local artists. (DeVotchKa headlined that year and returned to headline the festival this year.)
As UMS grew from a one-night showcase to a multi-day festival, audiences came to expect a fair share of national acts on the line-up.
The events agency Two Parts took ownership of UMS in 2018, and music education non-profit Youth on Record joined as co-owner in 2022.
This year, headlining artists from outside Colorado include Nashville rock band All Them Witches, Los Angeles punk group FIDLAR and hip-hop duo Flyana Boss, whose song “You Wish” went viral on TikTok in 2023. About 85% of the artists playing UMS are from Colorado, Duffy said during the town hall Saturday.
DNA Picasso played UMS for the second time with a set on Saturday night at HQ Denver. He also worked as a talent buyer for the festival, bringing in both new and legacy hip-hop and R&B artists to perform.
“If I could control the talent, I would not book any more national acts unless they're from Colorado,” said DNA Picasso, co-founder of the Colorado Music Industry Alliance.
Harmony Rose is the vocalist and songwriter of The Milk Blossoms, a Denver-based pop group. She has performed at UMS 11 times, including this year.
Artists who perform receive wristbands to enjoy the rest of the festival, so Rose has just as much experience in the crowd at UMS as she does on stage.
“As much fun as it was to see bands like Amyl and the Sniffers, Shannon and the Clams, Remi Wolf, just incredible bands, we didn't need to do that,” Rose said. “I'm not sure how sustainable the fest would have been without the national acts, but I would love to see another festival in Denver where it only focuses on the local bands.”
Duffy noted FoCoMX, a music festival in Fort Collins, already offers a large-scale event featuring only Colorado bands. But it’s not in the heart of Denver.
Even as someone who has consistently played UMS for a decade, Rose suggested that the festival organizers cap the number of times artists can perform so different bands have a chance to take the stage each year.
Mike Young of the Denver-based country rock group, Clementine Was Right, agreed.
“You could do a model where you literally just have different bands every year, and I think that would be really healthy and great. The same way that any monoculture is going to make your soil unhealthy,” Young said.
Clementine Was Right, led by Young and Gion Davis, played UMS in 2023. The band entered the Denver music scene in 2021.
Sets at UMS are highly coveted. Young said waiting for the release of the year’s line-up after applying to perform is akin to checking for your name on the high school play’s cast list.
Davis said he’d like to see UMS use its platform as a curator and a tastemaker to promote local Denver venues and artists throughout the year.
“I think the idea of UMS being like the underground showcase for music in Denver is very cool and noble, and I wish that that's how it was,” Davis said.
With more than 200 bands across 12 venues, four stages and three days, UMS is a vibrant, jam-packed weekend. But Young and Davis are worried most people who attend UMS use the festival as their annual dose of local live music.
“There's nothing underground about scale. There's nothing underground about the goal just being endless growth and there being one festival to rule them all,” Young said.
As festival and concert tickets get more expensive, audiences must limit the number of performances they attend because they can’t afford to go to as many, Duffy said.
NPR dubbed 2024 “the year the music festival died” when a startling number of festivals — both in the U.S. and globally — shut down. It reported high ticket prices and rising production costs among the culprits.
DNA Picasso doesn’t believe the national decline is due to a lack of interest among audiences to attend concerts. But he does think promoters, artists, venues and organizers need to find a way to make community music events more sustainable.
“Now more than ever, people are craving a human connection. Live shows are going to just continue to get more and more popular, especially with the rise of AI and the rise of detachment from real life,” said DNA Picasso.
“It's a very sad time to hear this news, but it is a very beautiful time to be creative and to build something. Not necessarily in its place, but just around the need that is being talked about.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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