Press releases are provided to Yellow Scene Magazine. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Media Contacts:

Patrick Dorion, Business Equity Project and Program Manager, dorionp@bouldercolorado.gov

City of Boulder’s 2026 Juneteenth Celebration to Feature Flag Raising, Community Remarks and Downtown Events

Event marks beginning of week-long Juneteenth festivities featuring “13 Fires” theater production and community panels

BOULDER, Colo. — The City of Boulder invites residents to join its Annual Juneteenth Flag Raising and Commemoration on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Penfield Tate II Municipal Building, located at 1777 Broadway. The free celebration will feature remarks from city and community leaders, live celebration music, and free ice cream.

This year’s commemoration kicks off an exceptional week of community-led Juneteenth events, highlighted by the powerful theatrical production “13 Fires: Displacement by Design,” an original stage play by Curtis K. Rogers exploring systemic injustice, racial violence and the displacement of communities of color through urban expansion and redlining.

“Juneteenth represents freedom, resilience, and the ongoing work toward justice and equity,” said Aimee Kane, Equity and Belonging Officer with the City of Boulder. “This year’s celebration connects us to our community partners who are doing critical work to examine our shared history and build a more equitable Boulder.”

Week of Events

Community partners, including the Executive Committee, African American Cultural Events (ECAACE) and local organizations, have coordinated an extensive calendar of Juneteenth programming.

Leading Up to June 17:

• Friday, June 5: Juneteenth BBQ featuring Live Poetry and Music – 5 p.m., Naropa University, Boulder
• Monday, June 8: “13 Fires: Displacement by Design” Panel and Discussion- 6 p.m., Second Baptist Church, 5300 Baseline Rd., Boulder
• Saturday, June 13: Chautauqua Juneteenth Hike – 10 a.m., Chautauqua Park, Boulder

June 17: City of Boulder Juneteenth Flag Raising & Commemoration

2:30 to 4:30 p.m.: City of Boulder Juneteenth Flag Raising and Commemoration, Penfield Tate II Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway – Free Event

Later in June:

• Thursday, June 19: Boulder County Juneteenth Kickoff! featuring “13 Fires” – 6 p.m., Longmont Theater, Longmont
• Sunday, June 22: “13 Fires: Displacement by Design” Panel and Discussion – 6 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder
• June 24 – 26: “13 Fires” Original Theater Production, 6 p.m., Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder

About “13 Fires: Displacement by Design”

The theatrical production traces systemic injustice from Indiana Avenue to Boulder and beyond, examining the systems of redlining, gentrification, and global displacement. The production and accompanying panel discussions bring together global justice advocate Taishya Adams, Indiana Avenue historian and writer David L. Williams, playwright and director Curtis K. Rogers, and eco-social justice educator Sabrina Sideris. For more information, visit https://ecaace.org/13fires/.

City of Boulder’s Commitment to Juneteenth

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, first learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The City of Boulder recognizes this historic occasion and the ongoing struggle for equity, justice, and freedom for all people.

— CITY—

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The post Attend City of Boulder’s 2026 Juneteenth Celebration appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Holly, Alaska! at Dairy Center

This new musical is a heartwarming tale of a local group of community theater players who have been creating an annual holiday pageant for more than 100 years in the tiny town of Holly, Alaska. When the town council decides the show will not go on, the actors pull out all the stops to ensure this tradition will continue. It’s a music-filled story full of love, connection and “holiday revelry in the goofiest kind.” Was playing at the Dairy Center for the Arts through December 31.

Festo Festo: Planina, Gora Gora Orkestar & Upsherin at Mercury Cafe

Part of an ongoing monthly series at the Mercury Cafe, Festo Festo celebrates the traditional Jewish sounds of raucous Klezmer and Balkan music with local groups Upsherin and Gora Gora Orkestar. This New Year’s Eve, they stepped it up another notch, adding Panina to the mix. Klezmer is based on the Hebrew words, k’lei zemer, which means “a vessel for sound.” And you couldn’t find a more fun, dance-friendly vessel in which to ring in the new year than the Mercury Cafe Ballroom in Denver on Dec. 31.

In My Body exhibit at Dairy Center

For fans of visual arts, The Dairy Center is a wonderful place to visit with a widely varying calendar filled with artists of all kinds. Right now you can catch In My Body, which combines two bodies of artwork for local artist Courtney Griffin. This series of paintings highlights several seasons of change for the artist, as she was recovering from major surgery and in the first weeks of her first pregnancy. As her body began to change so, too, did her art. This exhibit seeks to answer the question, “What ways can we celebrate the new shapes our bodies make?” Visit TheDairy.org for more information.

I Hate Hamlet at Longmont Theatre Company

What happens when an actor has to perform in a play he is terrified to do? And what happens when that play is one of the most legendary plays of all time? This is explored in the hilarious comedy I Hate Hamlet opening Jan. 26 at Longmont Theatre Company. I Hate Hamlet is the story of a television actor, Andrew Rally, who is unsure about starting rehearsals for the titular show. He is visited by the ghost of the legendary actor John Barrymore, who introduces him to a grand tradition of previous Hamlets before him. Tickets are $32.50 online at longmonttheatre.org. 513 Main Street, Longmont. 303.772.5200

MediaLive: Technology as Healing at BMOCA

Man’s connection to technology is explored in this new exhibit titled MediaLive: Technology as Healing, now open at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibit features the work of eight different artists who use a variety of mediums to explore the complex global challenges of our time through technology. MediaLive presents, in various interpretations, how humans can transform their art practices into sustainable action. See MediaLive through Jan. 14 at 1750 13th Street in Boulder. Admission to the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts is now pay-what-you-can. Visit www.bmoca.org for more information.

Lewis Black at Boulder Theater

Few comedians in the world can deliver an absolutely thundering rant on nearly any topic with as much fury and hilarity as longtime maestro Lewis Black, and it appears this may be one of your very last chances to see it all happen in person. The two-time Grammy Award winner for comedic albums The Carnegie Hall Performance (Comedy Central Records, 2007) and  Stark Raving Black (Comedy Central Records, 2011) stops in at the Boulder Theater on Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. on the Colorado leg of his Goodbye Yeller Brick Road tour — being billed as his “final” tour. Tickets start at $45, get more information at BoulderTheater.com.

The post Scene Stealers | December 2023 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

From left: David Weingarden, Ian Steele, Daniela Acosta, Marc Gitlin, Stacy Gitlin, Rita Valente-Quinn, Steve Long, Kenzie Rosen-Stone, Armando Peniche, Mark Oberholzer. Photo credit: Paul Wedlake

Keeping performance and music alive in our communities

As we continue our Heroes series, we turn this month to our stages. These rooms are sacred places, the places we go to get lost in a crowd, to share a story, to learn and love and dance and cry. These are rooms bathed in cool light, filled with exalted souls, the hearts of strangers intertwined and filled with moments that will never again exist in quite the same way but live on because they were shared. They are the places we spend nights with our friends and lovers. They exist for us, the audience, clapping hands, raised voices, full hearts. No matter how heavy life can get, we have our stages to go to to let the worries of the rest of the world fall away for a few hours so we can breathe and laugh and remember what it is to be weightless. The people that run these venues do so for that reason, because they themselves know the power of performance and how important it is for people to have places to go to get a little lost. 

We spoke to 9 representatives from vastly different kinds of venues. Some are solely for music, some for theater and opera, some for comedy, some a mix of it all. While the purposes of these spaces might be quite disparate, each person we spoke with truly believes in the importance of music and performance in their communities.

David Weingarden spoke to this idea quite beautifully. Weingarden is the booking manager for z2 Entertainment, Colorado’s largest independent music promotion company which is responsible for the management of Boulder’s Fox Theater and Boulder Theater as well as Fort Collins’ historic Aggie Theater, among many others. Also a member of the Colorado Independent Venue Association, Weingarden told me, “Art, music and culture, that’s the most important thing to a community. I think that not only because it just makes it different and less homogenized, but it really brings communities together. There’s not much better than hanging out with your friends and going to see live music, especially with a band that you love.” He went on to highlight the importance of venues from an economic perspective, describing a study done in Chicago that found that, for every dollar spent on concert tickets, 12 dollars are given to the community. Before a concert, people tend to get drinks and food. We take Ubers and hire babysitters. This all serves to support the community as a whole.

“Art, music and culture, that’s the most important thing to a community. I think that not only because it just makes it different and less homogenized, but it really brings communities together. There’s not much better than hanging out with your friends and going to see live music, especially with a band that you love.”

Grace Barrett, the communications director for Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, echoed this idea. She told me, “Planet Bluegrass is somewhere that people can come and escape and be their best selves. Philosophically, it is so important for people to have that outlet.” She also spoke about how the venue brings in attention and business for Lyons, feeding the soul of the community while also supporting it financially.

“Planet Bluegrass is somewhere that people can come and escape and be their best selves. Philosophically, it is so important for people to have that outlet.”

This theme of community support recurred throughout all of the conversations I had. Kenny Vasko, who runs the practice and recording studio Dog House Music in Lafayette with his wife, Liz, recently threw the first ever Lafayette Music Festival. This was a massive boon for the town as it took place across 6 different venues and featured local acts, shining a light on the incredible musicians that call Boulder County home. This was the culmination of years of work for the Vaskos. Kenny told me, “I always want to be in the business of making people happy” before telling me how Liz, who has a degree in community development, was the first to truly recognize Dog House’s potential. Kenny told me, “When she first saw Dog House, the first thing she thought was ‘wow, this is a community.’” They then put their efforts into using their business to support their home and the musicians they share it with as much as possible.

“I always want to be in the business of making people happy.”

Boulder’s Roots Music Project is a non-profit that dedicates itself to this idea. Run by musicians and music lovers from Boulder County, Roots is a music incubator that advocates for social justice while providing a platform for local musicians. I spoke with Ian Steele, the sound and stage manager for the organization. A life-long musician himself and a truly cool guy, he told me:

“Our philosophy is to foster and grow the music community in Boulder and the whole Front Range. To do that is to connect fans to artists and music professionals, and venues to clients. We are very lucky to have the family that we do and the connections that we have.”

Motus Theater is another group that combines performance with social issues. I had the opportunity to speak with producing director Rita Valente-Quinn and program director and performer Armando Peniche. Both immigrants and incredibly warm people, they told me about Motus’s mission. Valente-Quinn said, “Our mission is to create original theater, conversation about critical issues of our time, and build alliances across segments of our community and country.” Motus uses monologues to tell the stories of immigrants and the effects of colonialism in America. Peniche discovered Motus by participating in a currently ongoing series titled “UndocuAmerica,” an autobiographical monologue project in which young leaders with DACA status collaborate with Motus’ Artistic Director, Kirsten Wilson, to write and perform their stories. Motus and visual artist Edica Pacha collaborated in a mural project that featured the “UndocuAmerica” monologists in murals put up around Denver and Boulder in the summer of 2022.

“Our mission is to create original theater, conversation about critical issues of our time, and build alliances across segments of our community and country.”

This sense of liberation through performance was another recurring theme in these conversations. Melissa McGowan, executive director of Lafayette’s multimedia space the Arts Hub, described having performance in her blood, saying “[her] family started a summer theater for children” that she worked at as a youth. Since, she’s worked in performance spaces from a young age and has brushed with just about every type of performance there is in her career, including haunted houses and renaissance fairs. McGowan incorporates her extensive experience into the Arts Hub as it is home to dance troupes, community plays, educational shows for kids, and much more.

Faye Lamb, president of the Longmont Theater, and Daniela Acosta, founder of the Boulder Opera Company, also hold performance deep in their souls and have for quite some time. Each of them spoke about their illustrious careers with humility and a kind of reverence. Lamb told me she has “a tremendous passion for the creation of art. I look at these as art. I don’t use the word entertainment, but people need a place to go and then tap their toe or be happy.”

“I look at these as art. I don’t use the word entertainment, but people need a place to go and then tap their toe or be happy.”

Acosta grew up in Spain where she discovered her love of opera but didn’t start performing professionally until moving to New York. She now uses her company to share that love with people who otherwise may not have been exposed to the art form, striving to make it accessible for the curious but not fully sold. She told me:

“I love to tell a story through singing and acting and emceeing and moving people in a way that no other art can do.”

Steve Long, who owns Louisville Underground, and Marc Gitlin, owner of Nissi’s in Lafayette, understand a simple truth about owning venues: they are places for people to go and just have a good time. Louisville Underground features a wide variety of acts. They host comedy nights, open mics, improv, local bands, Halloween silent discos, and much more. Long told me:

“We’re a small intimate venue. How many friendships and connections are made through people attending events?”

Gitlin furthered this sentiment. Nissi’s just moved from it’s previous location to a new one and revamped itself in the process. A big room ready to be filled with music, Nissi’s features local music acts, comedians, as well as speakers and activists that raise money for social causes. Gitlin spoke to me about the need for variety in a more suburban place such as Lafayette, saying:

“I have to be eclectic, because we’re not in an urban area. I reach different demographics that enjoy different things. I noticed venues that were mostly rock bars would be limited to 50 or 60 people. I found early on about a location that you can’t depend on one kind of thing.” 

These people keep light alive when things get dark. They provide us joy and inspiration, stories and music, that which defines a person, that shapes character. Give it up for them.

STANDING (from left): Kenzie Rosen-Stone, Mark Oberholzer, Rita Valente-Quinn, Armando Peniche, Daniela Acosta, Marc Gitlin, Stacy Gitlin. KNEELING (from left): Ian Steele, Steve Long, David Weingarden. Photo credit: Paul Wedlake

The post The Heroes: Stages of Boulder County appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

What a gorgeous week we have had, so let’s top it off with more sunshine and fun over the weekend! Here’s the top happenings for this awesome weekend ahead of us, but be sure to check out our calender for the full listing.

Happy St. Patty’s, everyone! Make sure to head to Mike O’Shays in Longmont or Conor O’Neill’s in Boulder and let the Irish inside you shine. Plus, don’t forget, the big St. Patty’s Day Parade hits Denver from 10am–2pm starting at 20th and Blake.

The Empire is hosting a St. Patty’s day party
When? Saturday, March 17
Where? 816 Main St., Louisville

The Denver National Western Complex is having the 25th Annual Denver Home Show
When? Friday, March 16,–Sunday, March 18. Doors open at 10am daily
Where? 4655 Humboldt St., Denver

Longmont Theater Company is showing “The Man Who Came to Dinner”
When? Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through March 31
Where? 13 Main St., Longmont

Sun Rose Cafe is having an evening of Celtic original and traditional music with Lough Key
When? Friday, March 16, 6–8pm
Where? 379 Main St., Longmont

The Laughing Goat is proud to have Ramaya perform
When? Friday, March 16, 8pm
Where? 1709 Pearl St.,  Boulder

The post BoCo’s top happenings for the weekend appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The post BoCo’s top happenings for the weekend appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.