Beer, gin and coffee for women, global arts, Red Rocks season opener and much more
By the Thirst Team
Get Out of Town is our weekly roundup of recommended events across Colorado. For more happenings, check out our events calendar.
Red Rocks season begins
The temperature in Morrison is forecast to drop below freezing before the appropriately named Winter on the Rocks show opens the Red Rocks season on Saturday. This year’s headliner is Gramatik, a Slovenian MC, DJ and producer who has worked with Denver’s Pretty Lights. ZINGARA, The Funk Hunters, Chali 2na and The Sponges also are on the bill.
Crane festival in the San Luis Valley
The 42nd Annual Monte Vista Crane Festival runs Friday through Sunday at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, where thousands of sandhill cranes land during their biannual migration. An expected 18,000 to 21,000 Greater Sandhill Cranes and 5,000 to 6,000 Lesser Sandhill Cranes will arrive this month. Plenty of other birds also will be visible.
The festival includes special crane viewings, tours, films, workshops and talks, including keynote speaker Scott Weidensaul, a renowned author and researcher.
And save the date for the Rhythms on the Rio music festival, also in the San Luis Valley. Discount early bird tickets are available for a limited time. The festival comes to Del Norte July 31 to Aug. 3, and festival headliners are Andy Frasco & The U.N., Kitchen Dwellers and Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country.
African arts, breakdance and bears in Ouray (oh my!)
A busy weekend at the Wright Opera House in Ouray starts Friday with a film and conversation about bears in southwest Colorado in the era of climate change.
Saturday brings a full day of African arts classes, including breakdancing and acrobatics for kids; and Guinean dance and African drumming for adults. Register for classes here.
Finally, an African arts theater show starts at 5 p.m. Sunday. The event is choreographed by world renown West African artist Fara Tolno, and is titled "Wontanara," which means "we are together" in the traditional Susu language of Guinea. A full live orchestra of western and traditional African instruments will accompany dancers, acrobats, breakdancers and more.
Niwel Tsumbu
More world music in Lone Tree
The Lone Tree Arts Center also hosts diverse international entertainment. A few tickets remain for International Guitar Night on Saturday, with Latin Swing player Lulo Reinhardt, classical guitarist Alexandra Whittingham, Congolese percussive traditionalist Niwel Tsumbu and contemporary Fingerstyle master Soenke Meinen. The same lineup is also playing Friday at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen.
On Sunday, Irish traditional band Altan brings 35 years of experience to a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. A few tickets also remain for YAMATO, an energetic and athletic Japanese drumming group, on Wednesday.
Blarney in Lakewood
St. Patrick’s Day also is coming early to Lakewood. Blarney on Belmar is a free party all day Saturday, with Irish music and dancing, food trucks and vendors, kids’ activities, a handmade goods market and more.
Beer and coffee for International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is officially on Saturday, but Upslope Brewing in Boulder will celebrate early on Thursday by releasing “My Hazy, My Choice” a 7.2-percent hazy IPA brewed by women on staff with a hand-selected Pink Boots Society hop blend.
Upslope neighbors OZO Coffee also will sell bags of Rwanda Sholi Coffee during the release event. All proceeds from whole bean sales will be donated to the Rwanda Sholi Women’s Group coffee cooperative.
Women’s gin bottling in Lyons
Spirit Hound Distillers will also celebrate International Women’s Day on Thursday with a bottling party for Eleanor Gin. The special release uses a recipe created by in-house whisky group the Whisky Wenches using botanicals known to support women's health. The name is a tribute to 91-year-old Eleanor Suttle, the juniper berry-foraging force behind Spirit Hounds' gins for many years.
Timeslots are available here between 4 and 8 p.m. for bottling the gin, which will officially be released on March 20.
Firkins in Colorado Springs
Firkin is as fun to say as it is to sample. The small-batch cask ales are the focus of Bristol Brewing’s 18th annual Firkin Fest on Saturday at Ivywild School in Colorado Springs. A variety of Colorado breweries will pour beer styles ranging from traditional to eccentric.
Save the date for a saintly beer festival
Another beer festival is coming to Colorado Springs on Saturday, June 4, and tickets just went on sale this week.
The family-friendly Feast of Saint Arnold celebrates the patron saint of beer, who is quoted as saying ““from man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.”
As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar.