BY ZACH TIMBERLAKE AND AMANDA HOODAK

If you’ve been around the Denver music scene at all in the last 20 years, then the Underground Music Showcase, commonly referred to as UMS, is definitely a name you’ve heard. For one fateful weekend in July, the historic music venues and dive bars across the street of South Broadway, open their doors to the scrappy vibrant local music scene of Denver. For a quarter of a century this has been a summer staple for the community in Denver, however last year they closed down shop as the financial realities of running the largest music festival in Denver became unsustainable.

Fans were shocked, and what seemed to be the final iteration of UMS was a bittersweet affair. Throughout the whole final weekend, rumors were circulating that this wasn’t actually the end of UMS, but rather the closing chapter of that version of the festival, and that a different UMS might eventually return to Denver.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2026, the RiNo Business District announced UMS would be returning to the streets of Denver, but not South Broadway. This time, taking over Larimer Street.

Initial fears immediately surfaced. Many locals assumed that with the move to a more yuppie area of Denver, combined with their recent trend toward focusing on bigger national acts, that the festival would lose its identity. With its deep connection to Denver’s music community, UMS has always been seen as a champion of the independent musician. This massive change was largely seen as a corporate debasement of something that was deeply grassroots in nature.

Not long after the initial UMS announcement, a completely separate new music festival named “Blucifer’s First Rodeo” was born from a group of pillars of the Denver music community. Slated to be the same weekend as the UMS, Blucifer’s dropped with a massive lineup of exclusively Denver talent, and was set to take place along South Broadway.

Sound familiar?

With all of this discourse on the top of everybody’s mind, I walked into UMS weekend this year, with only one lingering question. Would it be able to recapture the same magic that helped cement UMS as the music festival of Denver.

After experiencing the first day of the weekend from open until midnight, I’d have to say for the most part, the Underground Music Showcase is back.

There was a clear goal from the new management to focus on the local music scene and the vendors and businesses in the immediate area, over attempting to create a massive festival with national acts at the forefront. The lineup was filled to the brim with great Denver acts like Poor Maxi, Mae Hunniford, May Be Fern, and Rootbeer Richie.

While it was a little weird experiencing all of this away from the UMS familiar venues like Hi-Dive and HQ on Broadway, the newly affiliated spots on Larimer street have plenty of character. Ratio Beerworks hosted their stage inside the actual brewery room, and the classic Larimer Lounge proved as always to be a fantastic place to catch some live music.

The return to their roots was such a breath of fresh air from the past few iterations of UMS, which at times felt more like a diet Lollapalooza with an outsized emphasis on the headliners. However the one caveat to that sentiment in my experience, was the downgrade to the outdoor stage areas.

The multiple different stages in past years were all so charming in their placement and overall vibe. Tucked away parking lots that were decorated with vendors and tents, and tons of room for the crowd to pile in. The two stages that were on display this year were much more low-key than previous years, and felt somewhat underwhelming in scale and ambience. That however did not prevent the headliners that UMS did bring out from putting on such a fun show. 54 Ultra in particular played a phenomenal set with his iconic retro-soul sound and incredible vibes to the festival.

Once the stages close up and the sun goes down, UMS always kicks it up a notch, and that was no different this year.

The night scene on Larimer was electric. People pouring out of every street corner, live music bouncing out of each venue as you walked by, and food vendors lined the streets. The type of scene you would expect to see on Larimer on any given weekend night but cranked up to 110%. I caught multiple DJ sets and the overall energy from festival goers was fantastic. Whatever reservations people may have had walking into the day seemed to be completely absent by this point in the night. Everyone was just there to experience the live music, and the community that has always made UMS such a one-of-a-kind event.

I’m genuinely excited to see what the future of the UMS has in store for next year. The festival may have moved locations, but the spirit that made UMS such an important part of Denver’s music scene also made the trip with it.