Denver Fringe Festival turns 5
Thursday-June 9. Denver’s version of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival returns Thursday, June 6, with new and experimental shows ranging from one-person multimedia performances to improv, dance, juggling, and magic. National performers and some of Colorado’s most celebrated actors, singers and comics are on tap, including at free shows, street performances, and the two-day KidsFringe.
Colorado native Naomi Grossman, best known as Pepper from “American Horror Story,” is bringing her one-woman autobiographical show “American Whore Story” as this year’s headliner, June 6 and 9 at the Bug Theatre, producers said.
But with more than 150 performances and 60 productions spread across 20 venues in the River North Art District, the historic Five Points neighborhood, the Lower Highlands, Aurora and other locales, you’d do well to check out Denver Fringe Festival’s schedule at denverfringe.org. Tickets for the festival’s fifth outing are $15 per show, or $75 for a full-fest pass. Runs through June 9.
Denver Chalk Art Festival
Saturday-Sunday. Who knew a chalk-art event would become one of Denver’s sturdiest festivals? And yet, the Denver Chalk Art Festival has hung on for two decades through location changes (first LoDo, now the Golden Triangle) and lots of non-chalk-art competition.
The free event, taking place Saturday, June 1, and Sunday, June 2, runs 10 a.m.-8 p.m. both days. It features 200-plus chalk artists in competition, constant live music, all-ages activities, and food and drink. Events are roughly around 123 W. 12th Ave. in Denver, rain or shine (if rain, they’ll just start over when things dry out). Visit denverchalk.art for more, including a festival map.
Tesoro’s Indian Market & Powwow
Saturday-Sunday. For the past 23 years, the region’s Indigenous communities have come together at Tesoro Culture Center’s annual Indian Market & Powwow, where artists, performers and tribal leaders pay tribute “to the American Indian nations that shaped the cultural community of Bent’s Old Fort, an important international trading post operating along the famous Santa Fe Trail from 1833 until 1849,” organizers wrote.
The Saturday, June 1, and Sunday, June 2, events feature tribal ceremonies, celebrations of visual art, dance performances and drum groups, and cultural/artist demos for visitors. The event and artistic competition runs 10 a.m.-4 p.m. both days at The Fort restaurant, 19192 Highway 8 in Morrison. Tickets: $15, or $10 for kids 7-12: free for 6 and under. tesoroculturalcenter.org
Pride 2024 revs up
Through June. This weekend marks the official start of Pride month, the all-June celebration of LGBTQ culture that spans venues, bars, theaters, restaurants and Civic Center’s massive Denver PrideFest (June 22).
Get ready with Boulder’s Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance and their Saturday, June 1, Pride Cabaret (frequentflyers.org); the Playground Ensemble’s June 5 “Trans Voices. Trans Lives.” concert (playgroundensemble.org); and Arvada Center’s “Voices of Honor: LGBTQIA+ Trailblazers On Screen” double feature, organized by Colorado Rep. Brianna Titone, which features a pair of insightful documentaries on the political side of LGBTQ culture and panel discussion (arvadacenter.org).