December 12, 2024 • 9 mins
DENVER'S OUTSIDE FESTIVAL HAS SOME GREAT BANDS COMING The Festival will take place for the second time this upcoming June and in addition to all sorts of things related to outdoor activities of all kinds, they've got some cool bands coming. Today I'll chat with CJ Gerard at 1 about who is playing and what else you can expect. Find out more about the Festival here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are being joined by a man who is a
part of the Denver Outside Festival.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
C J.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Gerard, is with us to talk about the festival overall,
because it's relatively new to the Denver scene. But they
had a great first year last year. I think it
was your first year last year, was it, CJ?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Last year was the inaugural and last year being June
of this year.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Okay, yeah, but last year's festival.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm already moved on to twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I don't know about you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I'm already in twenty twenty five. First of all, tell
me who what is the Outside Festival.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The Outside Festival is a summit for the outdoor industry
and a festival for the outdoor enthusiast or the outdoor curious.
It's a gathering of Colorado people. It's a gathering of
people who love music, and we really at Outside. We
believe that, you know, being outdoors is a fundamental part
(00:57):
of being human and it's great for your mental health.
And that's our mission is to get everyone outside. And
so this is like the physical manifestation of the Outside platform.
And Outside is of course home of thirty of your
favorite outdoor brands from Ski magazine and Outside Magazine to
mapping apps like map my Fitness and Guy and trail Fork.
(01:19):
So we bring all those things to life in the
park and bring last year's eighteen thousand people were hoping
to see twenty five plus thousand this year right downtown,
you know, in the shadow of the Capitol and you know,
activate in the midst of Denver, which is the perfect
place for it. You know, Colorado's an outdoor brand on
its own.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So how did this come about? I mean, how did
we decide to do this? I think it's a perfect
fit because we all know the Colorado's love being outside
pretty much more than anything else. Like that's we want
to get our dog, we want to go outside, that's
what we want to do. How did this come come
to be?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, great question, and it's it's been an idea that
has been kicked around. You know, it's not not my ideas,
it's different different folks. Our CEO, Robin Thurston, had this
vision and we teamed up with the Office the State
of Colorado's Office of Outdoor Recreation and the director there,
(02:23):
Connor Hall, is really instrumental in all of this and
had this vision of Hey, why don't we do a
south By Southwest type event in Denver?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And you know, I've spent a lot of time at events.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've been in the outdoor business for thirty years, and
I've been to a lot of a lot of events
in south By being one of them, and going to
south By and then like walking around there and actually
having a map of Denver and and realizing, wow, like,
you know, downtown Denver, there's dozens and dozens of theaters
(02:55):
within two miles. There's parks, there's Corsfield, there Sculpture Park,
and Denver Performing Arts Center. We really have everything you
need to create a really large scale gathering around music
and outdoor activity. And like you said, that's us in Colorado, right, Like,
it's not hard to imagine people wanting to show up
(03:17):
and celebrate all of these activities. So we took that idea,
you know, to effectively Governor Polis and Mayor Johnston, and
they loved it, and the Office of the Economic Development
Commission backed us last year a little bit. We're very
grateful for that, and visit Denver and we sort of
(03:40):
built a cohort of the willing, if you will, and
kicked it off. We didn't know what was going to
happen necessarily, but we estimated between five and ten thousand people,
and then eighteen thousand people showed up, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And really it was a beautiful weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know, we encourage families to attend with kids under
twelve are free access, so a lot of families came
during the day and hung out. It was really safe
and fun environment, which is great for downtown Denver.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You know, I think downtown's got a little bit of
a bad rap right now.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Versus the reality of actually spending time down there. You
go down there and and it was it was beautiful,
you know. It's just people having a great time, and
and then maybe the kids got put to bed and
they came back for music and until ten o'clock at night,
and the vibe was just really wonderful. Yoga, you know,
climbing walls, workshops on fly fishing, all of our favorite
(04:41):
outdoor things in one place. We also have a film
festival that was going on over at Denver Art Museum.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
We're gonna do that again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Speakers like Sean White and Diana and Naiad, Jimmy Chin,
all these kind of icons of the outdoor world. Gathering
in one place. So yeah, it was. It was amazing
and the vision and really came to life and we
can't can't wait to do it again this year.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, and you guys just made some announcements about the
about the entertainment. You guys have some really big bands
coming in and I you know what, here in Denver,
the only thing we love almost as much as being
outside is being outside and listening to music at the
same time. So who do we have coming to the
Outside Festival this year.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, we're really excited, Mandy about this announcement. We have
Krungbin Lurds here on Silvan Esso, Trampled by Turtles, Neil Francis, Waxahatchie,
Husband's Hazlit and then a bunch of local bands as
well that are great.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And that's you know, one.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
O'clock until ten o'clock is almost twenty hours of music
over the weekend. And like you said, I mean, you
know Denver loves its music, right, so we do. Yeah,
we're hoping these names and so far we you know,
we launched a pre cell yesterday and we're just seeing
the tickets fly off the shelf already.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
We've really priced it very competitively.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Again, the our mission to get everyone outside is we're
trying to make it accessible for folks.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
So the early bird tickets he was talking about are
for They're for a specific credit card company, and I
just went right away from that. So the Capitol one
card holder pre sales going on now. But when do
the regular sales start? Because the event itself isn't until
May thirty first, it's May thirty first in June first,
so two days over that weekend. You want to get
your tickets ahead of time, especially if you want to
(06:29):
do like the two day VIP. What is that two
day VIP? Because I got to tell you, I'm at
the age now where I don't like to be with
the great unwashed masses. I like to roll VIP wherever
I go. So what do you get for that?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Great question?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And you know the VIP ticket, the two day VIP
is is two hundred and seventy five dollars for both days.
And what that gets you is your own entrance. It
gets you a lot more space. I think that's what
a lot of people are willing to pay for is
you know you can you can get up closer and
you're not kind of packed in last year, certainly the
VIP area, it was just a lot more spacious. No
(07:07):
lines for food, no lines for drinks, you know, all
of those things are are expedited. You've got nicer bathrooms
and so you're viewing is kind of the number one thing, right,
You've got much better viewing from the VIP area. We
also have like a special gift for you know, you
got some some bonuses that we're still working out now,
(07:31):
but you know they and you got your own line
to get in as well, so you don't have to
wait and let you know, you skip all the lines
and you're you're among you know, folks who are really
like the die hards I think too, but really want
that space.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So general admission tickets for both days are early ninety
nine dollars. I think that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, that's the early bird and I would would emphasize
that for your listeners that you know there's a limited
amount of early bird tickets, so that once those are
gone and you know we're going to announce the public
sale goes on tomorrow at ten am, and once those
are gone, they're gone, and then the price will start
to go up.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Right right all the way to the U to the
events itself.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Right, So if you're if you want to take advantage
of a ninety nine dollars like I would definitely jump
on it.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And ninety nine dollars for a two day festival is
really very very very reasonable, just so across the board,
super reasonable at this stage of the game. So hats
off to you guys for keeping those ticket prices that
low for people, uh CJ.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Gerard.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
With the Outside Festival, it's shaping up to be something
magical and I'm sure it's going to be. So if
you want to get your early bird tickets, I put
a link to their website on my blog today so
you can go ahead and get those. CJ. Thanks for
making time for us today. And it sounds like you
are gearing up to have an absolutely spectacular festival this year.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, we hope, so thank you for having me, Mandy.
I think it's going to be an amazing gathering for
Colorado for the outdoor industry.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
We also have this on Friday.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
There's also another event I neglected to mention called the Summit,
which for those those listeners you've got out there who
are you know, curious about the outdoor industry or work
within it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
They We're going to have amazing speakers who are going
to come to.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
That, including some CEOs of some of the biggest brands.
And that's a that's kind of a business to business.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And you can go on to the Outside Festival dot
com and learn more about that there too.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
All Right, c J. Gerard, thanks for your time today.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Thank you really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Man, all right, I have a great day. That is uh,
that's super cool.
We are being joined by a man who is a
part of the Denver Outside Festival.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
C J.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Gerard, is with us to talk about the festival overall,
because it's relatively new to the Denver scene. But they
had a great first year last year. I think it
was your first year last year, was it, CJ?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Last year was the inaugural and last year being June
of this year.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Okay, yeah, but last year's festival.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm already moved on to twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I don't know about you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I'm already in twenty twenty five. First of all, tell
me who what is the Outside Festival.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The Outside Festival is a summit for the outdoor industry
and a festival for the outdoor enthusiast or the outdoor curious.
It's a gathering of Colorado people. It's a gathering of
people who love music, and we really at Outside. We
believe that, you know, being outdoors is a fundamental part
(00:57):
of being human and it's great for your mental health.
And that's our mission is to get everyone outside. And
so this is like the physical manifestation of the Outside platform.
And Outside is of course home of thirty of your
favorite outdoor brands from Ski magazine and Outside Magazine to
mapping apps like map my Fitness and Guy and trail Fork.
(01:19):
So we bring all those things to life in the
park and bring last year's eighteen thousand people were hoping
to see twenty five plus thousand this year right downtown,
you know, in the shadow of the Capitol and you know,
activate in the midst of Denver, which is the perfect
place for it. You know, Colorado's an outdoor brand on
its own.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So how did this come about? I mean, how did
we decide to do this? I think it's a perfect
fit because we all know the Colorado's love being outside
pretty much more than anything else. Like that's we want
to get our dog, we want to go outside, that's
what we want to do. How did this come come
to be?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, great question, and it's it's been an idea that
has been kicked around. You know, it's not not my ideas,
it's different different folks. Our CEO, Robin Thurston, had this
vision and we teamed up with the Office the State
of Colorado's Office of Outdoor Recreation and the director there,
(02:23):
Connor Hall, is really instrumental in all of this and
had this vision of Hey, why don't we do a
south By Southwest type event in Denver?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And you know, I've spent a lot of time at events.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've been in the outdoor business for thirty years, and
I've been to a lot of a lot of events
in south By being one of them, and going to
south By and then like walking around there and actually
having a map of Denver and and realizing, wow, like,
you know, downtown Denver, there's dozens and dozens of theaters
(02:55):
within two miles. There's parks, there's Corsfield, there Sculpture Park,
and Denver Performing Arts Center. We really have everything you
need to create a really large scale gathering around music
and outdoor activity. And like you said, that's us in Colorado, right, Like,
it's not hard to imagine people wanting to show up
(03:17):
and celebrate all of these activities. So we took that idea,
you know, to effectively Governor Polis and Mayor Johnston, and
they loved it, and the Office of the Economic Development
Commission backed us last year a little bit. We're very
grateful for that, and visit Denver and we sort of
(03:40):
built a cohort of the willing, if you will, and
kicked it off. We didn't know what was going to
happen necessarily, but we estimated between five and ten thousand people,
and then eighteen thousand people showed up, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And really it was a beautiful weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know, we encourage families to attend with kids under
twelve are free access, so a lot of families came
during the day and hung out. It was really safe
and fun environment, which is great for downtown Denver.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You know, I think downtown's got a little bit of
a bad rap right now.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Versus the reality of actually spending time down there. You
go down there and and it was it was beautiful,
you know. It's just people having a great time, and
and then maybe the kids got put to bed and
they came back for music and until ten o'clock at night,
and the vibe was just really wonderful. Yoga, you know,
climbing walls, workshops on fly fishing, all of our favorite
(04:41):
outdoor things in one place. We also have a film
festival that was going on over at Denver Art Museum.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
We're gonna do that again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Speakers like Sean White and Diana and Naiad, Jimmy Chin,
all these kind of icons of the outdoor world. Gathering
in one place. So yeah, it was. It was amazing
and the vision and really came to life and we
can't can't wait to do it again this year.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, and you guys just made some announcements about the
about the entertainment. You guys have some really big bands
coming in and I you know what, here in Denver,
the only thing we love almost as much as being
outside is being outside and listening to music at the
same time. So who do we have coming to the
Outside Festival this year.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, we're really excited, Mandy about this announcement. We have
Krungbin Lurds here on Silvan Esso, Trampled by Turtles, Neil Francis, Waxahatchie,
Husband's Hazlit and then a bunch of local bands as
well that are great.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And that's you know, one.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
O'clock until ten o'clock is almost twenty hours of music
over the weekend. And like you said, I mean, you
know Denver loves its music, right, so we do. Yeah,
we're hoping these names and so far we you know,
we launched a pre cell yesterday and we're just seeing
the tickets fly off the shelf already.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
We've really priced it very competitively.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Again, the our mission to get everyone outside is we're
trying to make it accessible for folks.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
So the early bird tickets he was talking about are
for They're for a specific credit card company, and I
just went right away from that. So the Capitol one
card holder pre sales going on now. But when do
the regular sales start? Because the event itself isn't until
May thirty first, it's May thirty first in June first,
so two days over that weekend. You want to get
your tickets ahead of time, especially if you want to
(06:29):
do like the two day VIP. What is that two
day VIP? Because I got to tell you, I'm at
the age now where I don't like to be with
the great unwashed masses. I like to roll VIP wherever
I go. So what do you get for that?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Great question?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And you know the VIP ticket, the two day VIP
is is two hundred and seventy five dollars for both days.
And what that gets you is your own entrance. It
gets you a lot more space. I think that's what
a lot of people are willing to pay for is
you know you can you can get up closer and
you're not kind of packed in last year, certainly the
VIP area, it was just a lot more spacious. No
(07:07):
lines for food, no lines for drinks, you know, all
of those things are are expedited. You've got nicer bathrooms
and so you're viewing is kind of the number one thing, right,
You've got much better viewing from the VIP area. We
also have like a special gift for you know, you
got some some bonuses that we're still working out now,
(07:31):
but you know they and you got your own line
to get in as well, so you don't have to
wait and let you know, you skip all the lines
and you're you're among you know, folks who are really
like the die hards I think too, but really want
that space.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So general admission tickets for both days are early ninety
nine dollars. I think that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, that's the early bird and I would would emphasize
that for your listeners that you know there's a limited
amount of early bird tickets, so that once those are
gone and you know we're going to announce the public
sale goes on tomorrow at ten am, and once those
are gone, they're gone, and then the price will start
to go up.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Right right all the way to the U to the
events itself.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Right, So if you're if you want to take advantage
of a ninety nine dollars like I would definitely jump
on it.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And ninety nine dollars for a two day festival is
really very very very reasonable, just so across the board,
super reasonable at this stage of the game. So hats
off to you guys for keeping those ticket prices that
low for people, uh CJ.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Gerard.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
With the Outside Festival, it's shaping up to be something
magical and I'm sure it's going to be. So if
you want to get your early bird tickets, I put
a link to their website on my blog today so
you can go ahead and get those. CJ. Thanks for
making time for us today. And it sounds like you
are gearing up to have an absolutely spectacular festival this year.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, we hope, so thank you for having me, Mandy.
I think it's going to be an amazing gathering for
Colorado for the outdoor industry.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
We also have this on Friday.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
There's also another event I neglected to mention called the Summit,
which for those those listeners you've got out there who
are you know, curious about the outdoor industry or work
within it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
They We're going to have amazing speakers who are going
to come to.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
That, including some CEOs of some of the biggest brands.
And that's a that's kind of a business to business.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And you can go on to the Outside Festival dot
com and learn more about that there too.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
All Right, c J. Gerard, thanks for your time today.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Thank you really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Man, all right, I have a great day. That is uh,
that's super cool.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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