Square State Colorado

Outside Days 2026 Conference and Festival Review

At the end of last week and over the weekend I was at the Outside Days Conference and Festival. This year I was a volunteer and a regular attendee, this was also my third time attending. I left this event thinking that Denver FINALLY has an event that makes sense for the city that is exciting and fun at the same time. I left Outside Days looking forward to 2027’s event and wanting to share my experience with people that I thought would enjoy attending both locals and from out of state. I thought I would share my review of this year’s event and what to consider for 2027

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The New Auraria Campus Location

Previously, Outside Days was hosted at Civic Center Park and it worked ok. The footprint for what I imagine the team envisioned did what it needed to do. Civic Center Park is the home for many fun festival experiences and I had a good time when Outside Days was hosted there. So imagine my surprise as I walked through the new Outside Days footprint on the Auraria Campus.

WOW!!!

I couldn’t believe how big the festival was, all of the different activation spaces and how the team utilized the campus. It was phenomenal.

• Rooted

• Main Stage

• Ultimate Basecamp

• Brooks Activation

• The North Face Activation

• Visit Costa Rica

• Camp Jeep

There were several other areas and activations that were there and I really enjoyed spending time in each of the different parts of the Outside Days experience. It was very clear that they needed more space to realize the full vision of the overall festival experience.

Industry Conference and Sessions

If you’re someone who is a Creator Entrepreneur in the Outdoors, and or, adventure space-this is an event that you should be at. I actually think there’s a lot of room for clearer messaging around the Industry Conference piece for people who would be a great fit to attend the industry experience.

I had the opportunity to watch a few of the panels and several of the the short films. During the festival experience I also attended a few small panel discussions and talks.

My Favorites:

• Boyz in the Wood–A short film about Black men experiencing peace while in the Redwoods. I also briefly met the Director/Producer who happened to be attending the event.

• No Hands: The Wild Ride of the Schwinn Bicycle Company-Many of us grew up with a Schwinn bicycle. Mine was pink with a banana seat and tassels. I loved learning about what happened behind the scenes at Schwinn and how different external and internal things impacted the bike industry’s growth and downsizing depending on the period of time.

• Right to Risk and Best Day Ever-Two different shorts both touching on adaptive outdoors experiences. The Best Day Ever also made me cry. More importantly, I felt that these two films humanized the people in the films in such a way that you didn’t feel sorry for them-it felt like you were with friends.

• Bringing Joy and Belonging to the Outdoors with Parker McMullen Bushman and Gabbi Thomas-One of my favorite moments was when Gabbi said “To forage you kneel)

• Campfire Conversations: Access, Inclusion + Building Community in the Outdoors with Nelson Holland Fat Black and Gettin It and the Colorado Creator Collective. Steve Starks and Jenn Brown of Campfire Cuisine joined him in this conversation.

• José Andrés: Citizen of the World-I am a huge fan of his work and he was exactly how I imagined him to be but even more fun than I expected! He had jamón ibérico taped to the inside of frisbees and tossed them into the crowd. He also enjoyed ham while drinking wine from a porrón. He was compassionate, kind and wildly entertaining. His new book “Spain My Way: How to Eat, Drink and Cook Like a Spaniard” is on sale now.

Best Activations

There were so many that were fantastic. Here’s a short list of experiences that I enjoyed.

• Visit Costa Rica-They had a ropes course! It was fun and a little scary for me because I’m not a climber.
• Brooks-They had a GIANT SHOE as a Mechanical bull. It was hilarious.
• All the Live Music!!!-That Main Stage was perfectly set up and it had enough space and random seating to enjoy comforably.

What About the Food

I felt like there was a good number of food vendors but that there was room for some snack vendors too. I do think that the Mediterranean booth doesn’t need the chicken option. Just serve the falafels. Snack and drink vendors I would love to see:

• Strawberry Iced Matchas

• Regular Cold Brew with a Foam Cream on it

• Deserts!!
  • Cookies

• PopCorn vendor

Something that’s spicy. I found the food to not be spicy enough LOL!

Suggestions for 2027

I loved this event, but every event has things that it could do even better than the year before. Here are some of my suggestions as someone who has experienced all 3 Outside Days events.

• Utilize the public transit infrastructure that flanks the Auraria Campus-It’s an environmentally forward experience, not leaning into using public transit was so confusing to me given then sheer number of attendees coming to the event. There are three stations within one or two blocks of the event:
  • Auraria West* Was closed due to a big concert at Empower Field
  • Empower Field Station
  • Ball Arena
  • Colfax at Auraria Station-No easy access from the South side of the event.
    • I do want to point out that many people road their bikes or used micro-mobility devices to get there.

• A Backpacking Experience-A few weeks before the event. Maybe for a small group of the volunteers and the staff?

Bands/Musicians

Here are some bands/musicians that I think would be great additions to the experience.

• Rüfüs Du Sol

• Shaboozey

• Hayley Williams (Paramour)

• JiNKS

• Doja Cat

• Snow Tha Product

• Cypress Hill

• Doechii

• Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

• Infinity Song

• Sunstoney

• The Cure

• Jhené Aiko

And, here me out, a whole set of a DJ playing songs about Denver and Colorado such as Next Stop Denver.

Should You Attend Outside Days

YES! For me it was an outstanding success and the organizers should feel incredibly proud of all of the hard work that they did to put together a wonderful experience. I spoke to a number of people who I already knew and folks who I met over the weekend and we were impressed. It was an all-ages family experience that finally got the essence of a Denver focused festival right.

It makes sense to me to create a space where people who care about experiencing and being good stewards of our planet can come together, break bread, learn from one another and have a good time.