Welcome back to this monthly meeting of the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us and the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee starting now.

There we are. Now we're live. Good morning, everyone.

Laura Alvidrez, Chair of Parks, Arts and Culture Committee.

Happy to be here today.

We'll start with an I'm the Councilwoman also for District 7.

Lucky District 7.

We can start with introductions here on my right with the lovely Councilwoman to my right.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Lewis, Council District 8.

Councilwoman Torres, Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.

Good morning, Amanda Sandoval, Northwest Denver District 1.

Good morning, Darryl Watson, Fine District 9.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Wonderful. Today we have some guests from Denver Arts and Venues to talk about our park,

some exciting systems. So if you can take it away. Gretchen, introduce yourself and

your colleague. That would be great. Great. Thanks, committee chairwoman and members of

city council. I'm Gretchen Hallra. I'm the executive director of Denver Arts and Venues,

and I'm joined at the table right now by Rose Watts. She's going to lead our conversation

first about the consolidation of Denver Arts and Venues with the Office of Special Events.

Her current role now at Arts and Venues is the Director of Administration, and she was

the Deputy Director of the Office of Special Events.

And after that, we also have Tad Bowman, who will join us as the Venue Director of our

Arenas Division of Red Rocks and Coliseum.

And then he and I will switch topics and talk about a quick overview of Arts and Venues

and read into all of the things that are happening at Red Rocks.

So with that, I will hand off to Rose.

If I could just interject one moment to welcome Councilwoman Parity, who is joining us online.

Thank you for joining us, Councilwoman. Okay, take it away, Rose.

Okay, very good. Thank you all for having us.

So the action we are requesting today will be the repeal of the ordinance specific to the Office of Special Events

and transferring these authorities over to Denver Arts and Venues.

We'll be consolidating them in ordinance.

The intention for consolidation to agencies is to save costs to the general fund

approximately 1.1 million annually

create efficiencies and improve our delivery

We believe the transfer of duties and slight change to the ordinance language will improve our service delivery and give discretion is needed

This change was presented to us in the budget process earlier this year as a as a response to

our efforts to resize the budget.

Missed my slide.

Okay, before we go into the details, we just want to point out that this isn't the first merger that we've been through.

In 2011, the merger of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs with the Division of Theaters and Arenas

has resulted in the formation of Denver Arts and Venues, aimed at enhancing the city's cultural landscape,

improving operational efficiency, creating cost savings to the general fund.

You guys have any questions before I move?

We'll just go through the presentation and have questions at the end if you don't mind.

Yeah, of course.

So at a glance, the public event and film permitting team supports 700 permitted event days on public property.

We do additional event consultations for our private property events in the city.

We support city-hosted events like Lights, the annual forum that we produce,

the state of the city and inaugurations, things of that nature.

We issue approximately 350 event permits annually and 250 film permits annually.

We coordinate with 20 different city agencies and other city stakeholders, both internal and external.

and again the annual budget was previously 1.1 million from the general fund.

So this is largely an administrative change. The Office of Special Events will be dissolved

as a standalone agency. All of the permitting authorities will be consolidated within Denver

Arts and Venues. Any language removed from the repealed ordinance will either be moved into

arts and venues ordinance or already exists within our rules and regulations some were redundant so

we were cleaning it up as we went um we have some details in the appendix at the end if you guys are

curious where things went the changes to staffing will not affect our program delivery all of our

permitting staff remains intact within the revised ordinance we are changing the one thing we are

changing is the definition of special event. We're going to revise that to enable better discretion

based on event risk and impact. So since this is the one change we want to call it out, so changing

the term special event to public permanent event for specificity and updating the language to

clarify the definition and enable discretion. Essentially the previous definition was two or

more city agencies. It was fairly prescriptive and didn't allow for discretion when either an

event was complex enough to need oversight or simple enough to not. So in revising that,

we have this definition. So for the purpose of this division, the term public permitted event

means a temporary pre-planned gathering held on public property owned by the city and county,

open to the public, involving permitting by and coordination of multiple city agencies.

The term public permitted event used herein hereby expressively excludes passive or continuous activation of public space, including programs operated by Denver and expansions of established business operations such as patio dining or sidewalk sales, and any other activation or expansion deemed by the executive director not to be a public permitted event.

for a little bit of clarity and context here we all know the landscape of permitting has changed

so when the pandemic happened all of a sudden our definition was capturing events that

or capturing permitting processes that were not events so we're adjusting that

this last summer as part of our consolidation effort we went through a rapid improvement event

with the peak team to reduce administrative burden while maintaining our safety governance.

Out of that work came a proposal to carve out an exemption for small, low-impact events.

So that would be events that are fully contained within a park, no street closures, fewer than 350

participants, not serving alcohol, no drones or fireworks. So if we don't have the risk elements,

we can lower that threshold. The 350 number aligns with the existing parks and recreations

permit tiers, which is also how we aligned the ERCO ordinance. So that's where that number came from.

Additionally, when we did some analysis, we started looking at events that are above that

threshold, and then we had either known community complaints or complexities that we recognized,

Okay, that's when we start creeping into a different space.

So the impact to the community and city staff is that 30 to 45 events annually will no longer require the overall event permit.

They still may need a park permit to be in the park or other space permits, but wouldn't need that additional event permit oversight.

we would be reducing four steps in the application process for these events,

which is the emergency action plan, health medical plan,

the overall DAV permit application, and the community notification.

That is something I want to flag for this group,

is that once it's below that threshold,

we don't require them to do the community notification,

but we can still ask them to.

This is going to save about two hours of time for these smaller events

for that administrative burden for them.

And then that does approximate about 10% fewer applications for the city staff as well.

So the outcomes of our consolidation, in summary, are the $1.1 million savings to the general fund,

revising our definition of special event,

and policy changes to reduce burden both on the smaller event planners

and the administrative workload of the city.

for next steps we're requesting city council approve the repeal of chapter 2 article 21 of

the drmc and authorize the transfer of our the previous office of special events authorities

over to denver arts and venues denver arts and venues plans to implement policy changes beginning

in 2026 and plans our communications to key internal and external stakeholders just advising

them of the changes and we'll be announcing it at our annual forum. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you.

That was very thorough. I appreciate that. Very exciting to hear about making things easier for

the people. We'll start with Councilwoman Torres. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I was really

excited to work with the team just on kind of getting eyes on what was being proposed and some

of the ordinance changes. When Office of Special Events was turned into an independent office,

there were a lot of concerns that I raised, I know Council President raised at that time,

that addressed this exact thing that's being fixed, which is the burden to really small

group events, projects, like it affected even our office when we would do movies in the park.

and requiring all of these additional steps when it's, you know, sometimes they're churches,

sometimes they're small R&Os, sometimes just a nonprofit that wants to hold an event,

and suddenly there's this, like, exacerbated process in front of them.

So I really love this.

I think the merger alone is really exciting.

I think it makes a ton of sense for this to be really consolidated.

And so I really give you all a lot of praise for going that extra mile and thinking about how that would actually meaningfully work within the arts and math and use system.

And I think there were fewer than 100 events that qualified, at least in the last year, under the 350 mark.

But I looked at that list, and it's kind of breathing a sigh of relief that those groups, you can recognize they're really small.

You can recognize they're probably low capacity.

It gives them a little bit of breathing room to hold those events.

So I appreciate all of that.

And I think where I got some assurance as well was that Office of Special Events has

already done the hard work of establishing rules and regs based on what the ordinance

currently says.

And that doesn't go away with this merger.

In fact, they'll be going in to do updates, which requires a public process when those

rules and regs are updated in the future.

So just really, really grateful for the team's work.

So thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Wonderful.

Thank you for that insight.

Council President.

Thank you.

I have to admit I voted no when we created this because of the burden that it was adding to my office to be able to do things and to partner.

And I will say I've had events where I've kept them below the number.

Well, I didn't actually want them to get too big because of the nuance of having to get the Office of Special Events involved.

And if that, if I have a council aide who is dedicated to being able to do that and we couldn't figure it out, I did see special events drop in my council district.

So thank you so much for this.

I really, honestly, I can't even, I felt really bad voting no on that.

I remember voting no and I was just like,

why are we adding another layer of bureaucracy

on top of a bureaucracy on top of another bureaucracy?

And I understood what we needed

because I remember working in Council District 9

on this taco event and we were all,

we had Dottie, we had police and it was all,

so I understood the consolidation,

but some of the rules and regs I didn't understand.

Can you send us your rules and regs if you update them?

because I can't find them in Legistar and the links aren't live yet for the rules and regs,

so I'd really like to understand them.

Sure thing.

And in the council briefing that I circulated, which I can resend, they should be live linked.

That last page does show where anything that was a section in the previous ordinance

either lives in the rules and regs already or where it's going.

Sorry, I'll look at that.

You sent it via email, right?

Okay, I'll look at that.

One question I do have that we get a lot of times is the, what's it called, the defibrillator?

The AED, yes.

Yeah.

Say it one more time.

Yeah, it's the AED, and don't ask me what that is.

Yeah.

Automatic emergency defibrillator.

What happened was we actually had to acquire one for city council.

And so then we had to come up with when this started, we had to figure out a process on city council.

So we at City Council Central, we have one.

And then a council member has to get it and put it under our name.

And then we send it to, so like the wellness in the park at Chaffee Park.

It's over 350.

But it is cumbersome.

So I have to, my council gets it.

We check it out.

Then they have to check it out.

And then they have to say if anything happens to the defibrillator.

That's all I noticed.

Has to happen.

So my question with this, and you don't have to answer it right now, is if something happened, who's going to use the defibrillator?

You're going to call 911 and the fire department's actually going to have a defibrillator on the rig.

It's a requirement for them to have.

And usually their response time is four minutes.

I've always felt uncomfortable sending a defibrillator out into community knowing that no one knows how to use it.

And I was like, that seems crazy.

So is that still a rule, or how have we changed that rule?

I'm just going to have to call it a defibrillator because it's in my head.

Happy to talk about that because we're on the other side of that with you.

So that requirement was created in 2019 through DDPHG.

DDPHE, that does require a Board of Health revision. So it was something we looked at. Could

we just discretionarily require this in the current code through DDPHE? It doesn't allow that.

So then these used to be available for rent, for day use. The pandemic happened. They became no

longer accessible to the events. Now we didn't have a path to compliance for them, as you witness.

that's when we came up with the checkout process to close that gap.

How this is going to impact that is if we are lowering the threshold of needing the DAV permit,

those that fall below that threshold will no longer need to follow that.

I know out of the RIE, DDPHE is looking at that,

but because it has to go through the public health board, it's not a simple change.

Well, if you ping us when it goes through that board, I'd be happy to write a letter saying why I feel like I understand the purpose it serves.

I really do.

And as somebody who also understands how our fire department responds and how timely our fire department responds and how they are actually certified to use that, I'm always nervous.

What if that got into the wrong hands?

And it's my name on the checkout process.

So if you follow that delineation, it would be like, oh, Council President Sandoval checked this out and gave it to somebody who wasn't even certified to use that.

I mean, you can't just, I don't know how to use it.

And it's in my office.

So I've always felt uncomfortable with that process.

So if you ever want backup when that goes through DDPHE, I'd be happy to testify or send a letter saying,

I've always felt uncomfortable renting out a defibrillator to community and passing it off.

and I don't even know where it goes.

Like, I don't even know where on site, like at the Sunnyside Music Festival.

That's a huge one, right?

I don't know who has it.

I don't even know where it goes.

One time I went to go check, and I was like, hey, where's the defibrillator?

And they were like, oh, we left it at the girl's house who got it from your council aid.

And I was like, I think it's supposed to be here.

And I was like, and they were like, we didn't think you would come.

And I was like, but I speak.

You ask me to speak every year,

So why wouldn't I ask on something that you've checked out from me?

And they were like, we just didn't even think about it.

And I was like, yeah, because you have firefighters who are four minutes away if something happens

who are actually going to give backup on oxygen and all the other things you need besides a defibrillator.

Okay.

Well, thank you for that because that was one of the big things that I've always was this defibrillator

and having one in Central.

It seems very weird.

Yeah, it has been cumbersome.

And then the objective originally, it was in 2019 before I came into the city,

was essentially for our larger events to not pull from the civic resources.

So that if you're gathering enough people that just calling 911,

now you're pulling the ambulances off of, you know, the service to the public.

So I do think that our efforts here are continuing to balance that,

making the larger events responsible for having on-site response.

but yeah like not burdening smaller events that infrastructure so yeah are the

dragon boat festival they hire a off-duty like ambulance and so it's there

and they're trained so I never worry about that it's the Sunnyside Music Festival that's a huge

park and I'm like okay this and they don't so indicate they can't they can't afford it so those

are the ones where I'm always questioning this who has the defibrillator and it's my name that

signed out on it so I always just get a little bit finicky about things like that. And I think

I think the need for that checkout process may still come up but it will be a lot less with

these events that we're proposing that will not hit that threshold any longer. Thank you. Thank

you Madam Chair. Thank you so much Council President. Councilman Watson you're next.

Very quickly I was going to say first and foremost thanks for the presentation this is

really great information and to the existing special event staff I want to say thank you.

I mean the work you do is as council president described the complexity community members get

a little upset over the multi-level steps that they have to take and but I appreciate your

engagement and my office deals with special events so much because of city park and all

the other things that we do in community. To add also to what council president said we

have an AED in our office in community and some of the smaller events at Skyland, Skyland has a

regular event where they come and they sign off our AED. This change to 350 would eliminate them so

would love to be involved in whatever discussions as far as the signing off because I'm also

uncomfortable with that but at least these small things like the North City Park Skyland event

that they hold on a regular basis they won't have to be coming to sign off from our office for that.

Three quick questions on insurance.

Does an insurance requirement for indemnification and stuff for nonprofits,

does that change for the 350 and lower?

Because everyone either needs other city insurance or their personal insurance.

Is there an impact on that?

Yeah, the insurance requirement doesn't change because it's tied to the park permit or a street permit.

This wouldn't affect the street permits, but because there's an anchor location,

the certificate of insurance is a requirement of that park permit.

That's good to know.

And then the permitting for for-profit organizations

in our parks, are there any changes to that?

One of the things that I would really love to lean

in with your team on is City Park and most of our large parks

in District 9 are being, you know, permitted out very quickly

by large for-profit organizations that have people paid the second

after the permits are opened to do these large events.

Is there any review from your RIE process on ensuring

that our permitting process provides equity

so nonprofits have as much access to our large events

as do for-profit organizations?

This may be a future question, but I would love to lean

in on that if you don't have an answer

because I think it's becoming a little bit more

of a 70-30 large organized paid organizations

who should be having events are able to outpower some of the nonprofits

and get in and sign up for these permits and do the work

because they're paid for it, nonprofits aren't.

Understandable.

And I would be happy to follow up on that.

That park permit is through the parks process.

So I think we would have to circle up with that team to get the statistics.

It's my understanding that they're equally available to all,

but what we're here talking about today is it's burdensome

to some of the smaller so it may be self-selecting and this might adjust some of this but it's

certainly a conversation with equity not so much equality and so equally available but people pay

to do it yes and then the last question council sponsored events how does this impact our events

for special events that we sponsor any changes that outside of the threshold of 350 it's still

the same requirements okay yep nothing changes there oh thank you so much thank you madam chair

Wonderful. Thank you for the questions.

Councilwoman Lewis here. Thanks.

And for the updates, I just have two quick questions.

The first one was regarding the notification of the neighbors.

And you all said that it's not required, but it might be requested.

And I was just curious as to what would trigger it being requested if it's not requested.

Well, it's more of an information sharing.

Obviously, one, events want to get the word out.

And two, I think communities, even if it's small, would like to know if something's happening in their park.

And that was our path to requiring that notification.

So I think it's something that parks will include in their, they send them an information packet.

So if they want to follow the guidelines and here's how you notify the community, find your R&O organizations, et cetera,

it'll be available to them, but we won't have that as a requirement.

Yeah.

But you said that sometimes it might be required or requested, excuse me.

No, I don't think that we would.

I can't think of a circumstance where we would put it as an additional condition on a permit.

Not that I can think of.

I can't say that that would never happen, but I can't think of a circumstance where we would put that requirement on an event that is low impact, that it's not already required of them.

Okay, good.

And then the second question I had for you all, with the change of the 350 threshold, does that have any impact on the conversations that we had previously had last year regarding the waste no more?

No, and that's part of why we picked 350 to align with it because we're trying so hard to keep everything.

It's a better understanding for the community applicants if we have a tier system that matches.

If it's different over here than it is over here, it just creates more confusion.

So we want to be consistent with that.

Beautiful. Thank you. That's all.

Wonderful. Councilman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I guess now I'm just on a thank you because my questions have been answered.

I was just going to also thank you for aligning it with the Waste No More, the 350.

It makes a big difference for us.

We do a lot of summer series programs, and so this is going to be really helpful for us.

Yeah, and that was actually the feedback we got from you all as, you know, these small

movies in the park.

You'll see on your briefing, the last page outlines exactly the types of events and we

found them to be low risk.

So I think it'll be a big success.

And I also think, Council President, you bring up a good point about the AEDs.

We, I feel like we check them out all summer long and always need to bring it back for

the next people to go.

and we've had conversations in our office of, you know,

who's actually certified to operate one of these AEDs.

So do no harm is what we're thinking, you know.

So I do know, I mean, I'm not DDPHE,

but I do know that because we've asked similar questions

that the Good Samaritan law protects people,

it doesn't put liability, that the AEDs talk you through it.

They push it out there because it is life-saving

and it is the fastest way.

So we're trying to balance that, that availability with, again, not being burdensome.

Well, just thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Awesome.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

I definitely have a lot of events in District 7.

One of the biggest ones that is every week during the summer is the Pearl Street Farmers

Market.

And so that's important to me.

It sounds like this won't affect that type of thing at all, except for maybe make it

easier.

The other big event we have is the Broadway Halloween Parade, which is always a lot of

work on the community and it is a District 7 sponsored event.

The scale is huge and only growing every year.

And so I'm curious what does that partnership look like?

And I think one of the frustrations that we've had around that event is just changing rules

all the time and it's not necessarily you all, it's you know other departments, but

How can this help in that specific instance?

We have police, fire, highway, the street is open up to the public.

And that's the same thing with the Pearl Street.

And what I hear from my community is like, we want the streets open to the public and close to cars more often.

How do we make that happen?

And it's been a really big struggle.

And your partnership would be amazing in that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. About what we're talking about today, that discretionary ability, it helps us because what happens with something like South Broadway Halloween Parade and Councilwoman Torres knows very well with First Friday, some of our events start in a certain iteration.

It grows, the city grows, the attendance grows, and then we have to adjust accordingly.

South Broadway Halloween Parade is another victim of its own success.

So happy to continue partnering and having those conversations.

I think as it pertains to this change, it doesn't fall under that exemption threshold, obviously.

But because we have the discretion now baked in, we'll be able to assess.

And again, when something's high risk, we do want to be able to have that governance and oversight.

And if it's determined to be a lower risk threshold, then maybe we can pull back.

Okay. That's helpful. I look forward to talking about that sooner than later.

I'm also curious, how does this interact with Denver Days?

This does not interact with Denver Days.

They're a separate program, and it is inherently designed to not hit the threshold of working with us.

They're supposed to be very small, very community-oriented, not a ton of infrastructure.

That's the impetus of those, so we're in different lanes.

If we've had several events that started as Denver days and then they've grown and then they cross over now into the permitting threshold differently.

But broadly, a lot of them just they don't overlap.

Great. That's good to hear.

And then my last question is just the $1.1 million in savings.

Where is that savings coming from if all the stuff is still there?

I don't understand that part.

That's a main question.

Yeah, it's because we're entirely contained in a special revenue fund, which will be part of the next presentation.

We thought we would do layoffs when we initiated this, and we were counting on the larger agency being able to provide the additional services.

So, for instance, the service that the Office of Special Events does for communities,

they put out on a newsletter all of the events that are happening to make sure people are aware of that.

They convene event organizers and train them.

So we were looking at having to reduce some of that.

We actually had two departures that we were not intending for different reasons.

So we were able to absorb this team, and we had the same savings that the other city departments had along merit and things like that.

So as we are continuing to adjust our budget for Loretto Heights coming online and other things,

we just made small cuts that no one would see, and we had these staff departures, and we were able to backfill with OSE team members.

So that 1.1 was coming from the general fund and now all the costs will be in the special

revenue front.

So we took the whole thing and then we figured out how to make it work on our side.

Great.

Awesome.

Wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for this presentation.

Excited for the next one.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rose and team.

And we did award this team the best team to be integrated into Denver Arts and Venues

and we won that award in our Denver Arts and Venues Awards.

So thank you.

Wonderful.

vote so this is an action item moved by seconded by the sir was yes

It can be a thumbs up if there's no objections.

Is there a thumbs up?

Yep.

I'm not on the committee.

We'll still allow you.

We love that.

Thank you very much.

That's the first time I've seen it.

That's great.

Thanks Tim.

I knew it not paid for the first time.

I don't do that.

Oh, they do?

They do.

Oh, okay.

They don't do it for me.

They never look.

You guys must not be a good person.

They're a comedian.

They're telling you.

Great.

Wonderful.

Congratulations on all your work.

And, yeah, so we'll continue to the next presentation.

Thank you so much.

I have a question.

Is there a public hearing also?

Oh, correct.

There was a public hearing.

Nobody signed up.

Oh, great.

Okay.

I mean, not great, but I'm glad that questions aren't answered.

Oh, and just this last page, those are live links.

So whether it's in the film, rules and regs, maybe not in the PowerPoint presentation,

but the briefing, I can send it to you after just so you have it.

Okay, now we'll switch over.

Thank you.

The second part of our time with you is about Red Rocks.

And thank you for inviting us to talk about it.

We love talking about Red Rocks.

And I'd like to invite Tad Bowman to come up, who's our venue director for Red Rocks.

I think after 38 years in the city, many of you may know Tad.

Ahead of that, I've got, and we can look at our agenda.

I have about seven slides that I'll move through quickly on DAV's mission.

And that's really important framing for how Red Rocks works within a social, cultural enterprise and what it means for the agency.

And I promised Tad that I would go very quickly.

So we'll move on to the mission statement slide, which includes just the portfolio of arts and venues,

including the new Loretto Heights Theater, which is the first new venue that we've taken on in over 10 years,

and that is beginning construction in this next year.

On the next slide, we looked at this already.

This is the timeline from going to the Mayor's Office of Art, Culture, and Film to Denver Office of Cultural Affairs.

So we really used the playbook with the Office of Special Events that happened in 2011 when theaters and arenas, which Tad also was managing, merged with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs to become Denver Arts and Menus.

So we're a relatively new city agency from that respect.

And that yellow box is what I want to focus on.

It's a social cultural enterprise model where we only have net revenue in a few places.

Most of what we do is a net investment into some of our large facilities.

So that is really through Red Rocks, through the Buell Theater, and particularly Broadway,

and through venue sponsorships.

And if you think about United being a sponsor that you would see up at Red Rocks,

that type of corporate sponsor.

That revenue is used to support all of our general operating costs, our venue operations.

It pays for our cultural programming, so what we're able to bring back and deliver to community in Denver.

and for the operations side of our 1% for public art,

our staff and the work that it takes

to deliver those capital projects.

The remaining capacity is used to maintain our venues,

and that is a huge part of this.

And I've got a slide for that.

And then Loretto Heights Theater coming online

is another thing that we will figure out

how to absorb those costs.

So the next slide actually shows you our 2024 net revenue.

So you can see that 2024 total Red Rocks revenue was almost $75 million.

Once you take off Red Rocks expenses of about $37 million, that's where you see that $37 million net revenue that can be then applied down to these other line items.

Most importantly to that capital transfer, which lets us sustain the venues that we operate in,

what is essentially a business model that doesn't look like any other agency in the city because our

competitors are all on the private side. So thankfully we have red rocks. Our actual cost

to maintain our projected annual cost from a Jacobs study that was done with Dottie in 24

is about $45 million. So the difference there between that $28.4 million partially is filled

with seat tax, which can only be used for capital maintenance.

And the other part of that is a really careful look at when and how we maintain our venues

and occasionally, and this time successfully, looking to voters and city council to put

forward bond funds.

So that's where the Red Rocks Backstage Project comes in for us through the vibrant Denver

bond measure.

We do have about 1.2 million visitors to the arts complex annually, and that is with our

resident company partners, the DCPA, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Symphony Opera Ballet.

So Red Rocks is really sustaining our downtown asset, and we would not be able to have that asset

but for the work that Tad and his team do up at Red Rocks. On the next slide, it's just a way for

us to visualize the same conversation of revenue sources and then investment and impact.

So when you look at, on the impact side, when you look at free and low-cost programming,

Those are some of the initiatives we have through our Arts Complex Creates program that was just launched.

That's inviting in new works incubators.

We actually just launched a front door for folks to know to apply to come in so that we can support new and emerging artists with the additional spaces we have at the Arts Complex, producing partnerships.

So examples of that are Artistico and the Gay Men's Chorus and the folks that we're able to bring in to complement the resident companies that are there.

when we think about sector training and education through Denver Creates,

which I should have mentioned is the city's newest cultural plan.

We have speaker series that will be coming, a biannual summit, convenings of the sector.

And grants and cultural investments I think probably are the most familiar.

We do have a Denver Creates grant cycle that was just put out.

We have PSU Are Here, which is a small local-scale neighborhood-based art program.

We have grants for Five Points Jazz, which the councilman is really familiar with.

So that's where we're able to then, it's really that revolving cycle of what we can earn in just a few places we bring back and then deploy into Denver.

Just two more slides, and these are mostly information for you.

Major cultural initiatives, this is where we do talk about Denver Creates, a collective commitment to the arts, which is our new cultural plan.

highlighting the Loretto Heights Theater, which will be coming online in Councilman Flynn's

district in Southwest Denver. That's a real chance for us to grow our community access also, and

we're working on what those partnerships can look like, how we continue to support education

at that site, which is the history of that site, and really create access. And then on the last

slide, just a little snapshot of our cultural investments and programming, ArtDrop Day,

Denver. I mean, we have some really fun and different things that reach different communities

different times of the year. 16th Street Performers Network, we do provide an actual

payment to buskers, and we work on that with the Downtown Denver Partnership. And those slots fill

up in about 30 seconds. So there is a huge demand for artists to find a way to make a living in

Denver. So that's really a quick snapshot, and I can pause there for questions, or we can launch

into into red rocks whichever you prefer. Okay we'll continue. Thank you so much. Now it's the

Tad Bowman show. Good morning everybody. First I'll say I'm wearing an unusual apparel today but this is

an example of our end of season t-shirts that we do. This is this year's and we do this each year

and we actually share them with all of the staff that have worked all summer up there. So every

year there's some different artwork and this one's kind of fun because only crew can make it happen

which is a little bit of a play on the uh smoky the bear right only you can prevent fire this is

an only crew can do this and then it lists all the shows on the back of the shirt so again we've been

doing this for about 25 years you got to give them shirts now yes okay so it is a fun tradition

employee engagement to share with everybody the appreciation of working here also and we do have

a lot of staff through all the contractors that we have that really do work you know year after

year out there so yeah so we'll start this little presentation but we do have a video to start so

i think we'll jump right into that wonderful yes so before you start the video let me at least share

what this video is from so there's a number of associations out there in the industry the

concert industry this particular one was done for the international entertainment buyers association

so these are folks out there that literally will um are promoters that buy entertainment to bring

to their particular venues we're not necessarily members of aiba is the short term for it but aiba

has recognized uh contributions to the industry and venues get selected each year to be sort of

to their best venue. They'd won it so many times, Red Rocks has won it so many times for Aiva that just a couple years ago they said we're going to put Red Rocks into their Aiva Hall of Fame. We have a couple of examples where Red Rocks has won a number of times where they no longer let us win the award but they've, you know, named, Polestar as an example, they've named their award for best outdoor amphitheater after Red Rocks. So we can't win it but we get recognized in some way that way.

So this video was done by IEBA for their Hall of Fame induction that did it just a couple years ago.

And we thought it was a great overview to share with you today.

Wonderful. Thank you. What a treat.

Colorado is home to an abundance of wonders, both natural and man-made.

But perhaps the culmination of both is best seen in Red Rocks Amphitheater,

a national historic landmark within the picturesque Red Rocks Park,

located 15 minutes west of downtown Denver.

Red Rocks Amphitheater gives concert goers a chance to see unforgettable performances

situated between two soaring and majestic redstone monoliths. The warm red sandstone,

the views for miles, the gorgeous open skies make for a concert experience unlike any other.

The land on which Red Rocks resides is the traditional territory of the Ute,

Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples. In 1906, the Red Rocks property was purchased by famed editor

John Brisbane Walker with the proceeds of his sale of Cosmopolitan magazine. He built a temporary

platform between the two massive 300-foot rocks that hug either side of the theater today.

Walker invited musicians to perform on the platform and take advantage of the astounding

acoustics created by the surrounding rocks. Today, the city and county of Denver owns and manages

Red Rocks, having purchased the property in 1927. Under the direction of George Cranmer and in

partnership with the National Park Service, construction on the amphitheater began in 1936.

Much of the labor came on the shoulders of the Civilian Conservation Corps,

part of Roosevelt's New Deal programs administered by the WPA.

The city wanted to build on Walker's use of the natural architecture of the rock,

so they used the spectacular setting to attract and hire one of Colorado's most highly regarded architects,

Burnham Hoyt, to design a theater that complements and celebrates the natural landscape.

This geological phenomenon, the only naturally occurring acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world,

opened on June 15, 1941,

on the occasion of the Convention of Rotary International

with guest artist Miss Helen Jepsen of the Metropolitan Opera.

To honor Native Americans,

the program opened with a ceremonial eagle dance and a Zuni melody.

Red Rocks hosted the Beatles in 1964,

Bruce Springsteen's first-ever outdoor concert in 78,

and U2's career-making 1983 video,

Under a Blood Red Sky.

Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Igor Stravinsky, Liberace, the New York Philharmonic,

they've all graced the stage.

Red Rocks was one of the favored venues for the Grateful Dead

and is a traditional stop for many jam bands, including Widespread Panic,

who holds the record for the most sold-out performances, 72 and counting.

It's the kind of venue that artists book repeatedly,

even when they could be selling out much larger venues,

simply because performing at Red Rocks is an experience like no other,

a magical experience.

For many artists, Red Rocks is their favorite place to play.

And of course, many performers have signed their names on the not-so-secret tunnel walls.

Red Rocks hosts nearly 200 concerts each season between early April and mid-November.

With an impressive seating capacity of over 9,000, it continues to rank as a top-earning

and most attended venue in the world.

Congratulations to IEBA Hall of Fame inductee, Red Rocks Amphitheater.

A little bit at the end here.

This is so profoundly beautiful in this place.

Just to get to sing here, you know, for anybody,

it's such an unspeakable honor.

It's mystical.

It moves you on a cellular level to get to sing in this place

and hear your voice come back so naturally

off these big, gorgeous monoliths.

But to hear the Colorado Symphony up here with us,

it's hard for me to express just how moving it is to me and the twins and i i hope it's uh

i hope it's half as moving to you as it is to us because we're going to have a great time

that video at the end is great because that's actually part of our

video program we do and that's with a partnership with channel eight so channel eight comes up and

and runs all the equipment to do that in-house video system.

Also, Brandi Carlisle is great.

She has been there a number of times now.

One of the shows, she was up on stage,

and the story she shared was that not only is Red Rocks

her favorite concert venue,

it's her favorite place to be honored.

So really a high praise for, you know,

what the venue means to the performers

as well as the community, of course.

I need to look at the next slide.

The next one? This one? Okay.

So a little bit about how Red Rocks works and the rental agreement.

So as we book the shows, each show gets a rental agreement.

It's called a booking agreement, and that goes through the city's contracting process.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.

So for each rental, when the promoter rents the venue, they agree to a certain term.

So they pay for most of the services that are up there.

So all the event staff, the stagehands, police, paramedics, firemen, all of those services, they pay for all of those.

And then as far as revenue sources for us, again, we generate revenues in terms of the facility fee, which covers parking.

So when people show up to park, they're not having to pay again, but it's within the ticket price.

Food and beverage sales.

We have an Aramark, a concessionaire with Aramark that does all the food and beverage sales,

and we have a management fee for that particular contract.

We have some sponsorships.

We have ticketing fees that I talked about, or actually ticketing fees.

When somebody buys tickets, there's convenience charges that are charged as part of a ticketing fee that we collect.

Labor reimbursements.

So when we staff the event staff, the security and ushers and ticket takers, that all gets billed back to the tenant as well.

There are some non-reimbursed expenses.

So when we do the traffic control up there, that's really reimbursed in terms of the parking fee or the facility fee that we collect, but the promoter doesn't pay that separately.

And again, of course, the food and beverage and then janitorial, whatever janitorial services

we do to clean up every night, that is collected within the rent.

So if you look at the, it's hard to see the sheet on the side here, but this is just an

example of our settlement sheet.

So every show we do a settlement sheet that we then use to bill the promoters for that

particular event.

I think there was a question at one point about what we have as a piece of the Rock

Award.

and I think we talked about this maybe at City Council recently.

Piece of Rock Award is a great tradition that got started way back with,

John Tesh was the first one that got one of these.

So it's just a way to recognize the artists that play on the stage up there.

And it's really a partnership with us and the promoters because we'll provide

at our cost at one of the awards and then the promoters will purchase

additional awards that they reimburse us for.

So the total cost, as I mentioned before,

the total cost of the program is really just a small piece

for us and then the promoters pay that difference.

But we do still get all that recognition.

All right.

Next slide.

So I think one of the questions was a little bit

to our capital investments that we've had at Red Rocks

over the years.

And as mentioned, Gretchen mentioned earlier,

sort of investing into our facilities to make sure

that we're continuing to keep them up

so that they can be used the way that we use them today.

So there's just a list of some of the,

one further, I'm sorry, you can go back one.

So just to give you an idea of the investment

that it takes to keep Red Rocks going, one more slide.

Did we miss one?

Here we go.

This just shows you an indication over the last few years

of the amount of investment that's occurred up at Red Rocks

to keep it going.

Some of these are fairly large projects.

For example, recently we had to make a number of improvements

for accessibility to meet ADA compliance.

And that was all part of an agreement between the city

and the Department of Justice

to make some of these improvements.

So there was a large investment for that.

And then again, some other large investments

to make the place again more usable

and functional for everybody.

The next slide just gives an idea

of some of those projects over time.

I'll try to hit just a few of the highlights

and just interesting to know the very first one stage tower,

those are those two stone towers.

Those were actually added 1959 and 1960

and the architect for that was a guy named Stanley Morris

and this is kind of a cool story.

Stanley Morse worked with Burnham Hoyt,

Burnham Hoyt, a local architect.

Stanley Morse was a draftsman that worked with Burnham Hoyt

on the original design of the amphitheater.

And when the city said, hey, we've got to make some adjustments

here for weather, for lighting, for sound,

and some improvements to the venue back in 1959,

they actually brought Stanley Morse back to do those additions.

So just an illustration of how Red Rocks needs to sort

of evolve over time in order to keep it as functional

as it is today.

some of the other improvements over time.

One of the really great improvements that occurred

was the visitor center up at the top of the amphitheater.

I've been with the agency for a number of years,

so I saw what it was like before the visitor center

was up there and it was pretty rustic up there.

The restrooms were really subpar.

There really wasn't a thing up there.

And at that time it was,

let's have a place for people to go to when they go there.

So the visitor center has been a great improvement.

What's interesting about being here for this amount of time

is being there when the visitor center gets constructed

and now being here as we're doing a refresh.

So the last couple of years,

we've been doing a refresh up there.

Really exciting things are happening.

We are working on some new AV exhibits

that will be up there.

So hopefully early summer,

people will be able to go up there

and see a whole new audio visual program

in addition to a number of exhibits that we're working on.

So some really great refresh ideas

up in the visitor center.

Currently, we've got a couple of projects that are happening right now.

There's a merch stand that's being built on the south side that went through the LPC process

and we've got this east terrace that's over on the east stairs.

So as people come up that long staircase, we'll have this little area that we can do

all of that ingress process, right?

The security checks, the bag checks and ticket scanning and all of those things so they're

not just being done on the stairs.

So we'll create this.

And the great thing about that East Terrace is

that in the original drawings that Burnham White did,

in this particular location, he actually showed

having a terrace there.

So we're kind of just really adding on to what Burnham

White had asked or put in the drawings early on.

Some of the other things over time,

the south ramp was constructed just a couple of years ago

and that was a result of some assessments that was done

by an engineering firm to say that the structure wasn't

really conducive to what we use it for so that needed to be replaced.

The stage roof was done and completed by April of 2021 and that was a long time coming.

The stage roof that was there prior to was built in the 80s, just not really, it did

the job but it really didn't serve the needs of what we needed to today and there had been

a lot of conversation about trying to replace that stage roof over time so that's been a

a nice addition to what we do up there.

I mean, I'll brag a little bit about it.

If anybody has a chance and wants to go up to Red Rocks

and show them around, but that stage roof

can hold about 200,000 pounds

and the old roof could only hold about 30,000 pounds.

So it really makes accommodating the shows

that show up there much better.

The depot in the upper north lot is a great project

that was done a handful of years ago.

What that does is really accommodate

of those operational needs that didn't exist in 1941 when the venue opened. One of those is really

important is our waste management center. So several years ago we got a grant from the EPA

to start a recycling program and now we do we sort every piece of trash that comes through the venue.

So we have a staff through Aramark that does this night after night after night. So really amazing

again some of these folks that work up there these guys work in the middle of the night to make sure

that after a show is done the park and the amphitheater are clean and ready to go for the

tourists that are there the next day. Sidewalks, walkways, lighting, a number of projects we've done.

Interesting thing you might not know about water service and wastewater service at Red Rocks when

the place opened it relied on spring water, it relied on leach fields for water and wastewater.

So over the last several years we've been able to work out with the town of Morrison to provide

both wastewater and water service for us.

So we used to, I mean, just an example,

we had a wastewater tank that we had to collect

all the wastewater and it could only hold so much wastewater.

So when widespread panic, I mentioned widespread panic,

widespread panic is there for three days

and everybody's drinking all their beverages

and they're using the restroom.

It would get to the point where like,

hopefully the wastewater tank doesn't overflow.

So we are so grateful that we have to do that.

So I mentioned all the ADA compliance work that we just recently done, some really great improvements up on the top plaza, a shuttle stop for our shuttles that take people up to row one.

Some concession areas that we've been able to improve over time, the spotlight booths that are there really help to improve the function for not only the shows when they need spotlights,

but also concession operation or concession opportunities that didn't exist prior to that.

And that was done about 10, 12 years ago, 10 or 12 years ago.

Even things like having Wi-Fi and cell phone service up there.

Again, just trying to keep the place current with the current operations.

Again, there's some other things on there, but you can probably have a chance to read those at some point.

Going through here, just some photos of some of the improvements over time.

and so this just shows a little bit about the visitor center.

What's really great, talked a little bit about in that video

from Aiba about recognizing the indigenous folks

that were here and their use of what Red Rocks was.

But we just recently in the visitor center

in that upper right hand corner is a new medallion

in the floor that is a land acknowledgement,

which is a really great new piece to the visitor center.

So when you do have a chance,

You can go up and sort of walk through the space for sure.

The next slide shows the merchandise stand

that we're talking about.

So it did go through the landmark process.

And it really is in keeping with the same design elements

as the rest of the amphitheater.

So this is just one view of it.

If you were on the other end and you sort of looked up,

you'll see that sort of continuous design ideal

that exists through the space.

South ramp, I mentioned that earlier.

When it was determined that this really needed

to be replaced through the engineers that were hired,

that we really took a hard look at,

does it make sense to make some major changes to this ramp?

Does it make sense to try to figure out

how to make it ADA compliant or accessible?

Logistically, that wasn't gonna work.

You'd have to have a ramp that was a mile long

for those to get the grades.

So we really took the cues from the existing ramp there.

And you can see it's actually an interesting structure

because there's two different bridges

that are part of this structure that had to be replaced.

But we really did take the cues from the existing ramp

that was there to really continue to keep the heritage

or what that was before.

So if you go up there, it's really, you know,

again, it's got some unique features

because when you do a replacement,

you want to make sure that people understand it's new.

It's not the exact replica.

But the nice thing at the halfway point,

we did a little sign up there that really talks

about what the old ramp was and then talks

about the new ramp.

So a little interpretive signage.

The next slide shows a loading dock

that was just recently completed.

Again, another really necessary improvement.

At Red Rocks, it's an unusual place.

You can't just drive the tractor trailers right

up to the stage and drop all the equipment off.

So you really need to have a transfer station.

When I started, there wasn't a dock at all,

and they had to just, it was really hard to work on all that.

There was a dock that was built in about 2000,

but over time you just realize

that it really didn't serve the functions very well.

So this new dock, you can see in some of these photos,

and if you have a chance to get up there,

but it's twice as, the dock size is twice as big,

so they can handle all the equipment.

has a little bit more room as far as the number of trucks that can back up to it.

One of the great things from a sustainability standpoint is we've got power for each of those trucks

so they can actually plug in instead of having their generators for the trucks while they're there.

So really thought about that.

And then lastly, what's really great about this, if talking about amenities for the people that are working,

the truck drivers that drive overnight to get to Red Rocks, their local crews,

inside this dock there are restrooms and showers and a break room.

So they now have some facilities that never existed before.

So I talked with some of the over-the-road truck drivers this summer,

and they're so excited about this opening up.

We actually didn't get the inside until the very last week of the season.

So this coming season will be exciting to provide that amendment for them.

We talked about the stage roof replacement already.

Again, that was partially funded through the 2017 bond.

Again, it has made a huge difference in the functionality up at Red Rocks.

a little bit more coverage.

Aesthetically, it's much more pleasing.

What's kind of fun about it technically is that in that roof,

there's 84 rolling beams.

So they can move these beams to wherever they need to in order

to hang the equipment for that particular show.

East Terrace is a photo of a little bit what I talked

about there.

And then on the right side of this drawing,

you can see that's a little snippet

of the original drawing from Burnham Point.

I mentioned the depot that's in the upper north lot.

Again, that serves so many functions for us,

but it does handle our waste management center.

Again, if you were at a chance to see the crews up there

literally going through all of the waste

to separate landfill from recycling, composting, so forth.

Even examples of, we've improved some sidewalks,

walkways throughout the park so that when you're off,

you know, coming into the venue or out of the venue,

you have a safer place.

added lighting throughout the venue,

inside and outside, parking lots, roads, so forth.

This particular bridge is down behind the loading dock

for what we call Will Call Trail.

So that's made it a much safer experience for people.

And then as far as a maintenance item here

in the lower south corner of the amphitheater,

when they built the amphitheater,

they had to excavate the north side,

but the south side they had to use fill.

And when they did that, they didn't necessarily

put the enough foundation under the seat.

So over time, it started to settle.

So one of the projects was to come in

and redo that particular section.

So if you go up there today,

you would never even know that that section

has been taken out and repaired and put back in place.

And then lastly, we talk here a little bit

about the backstage expansion project,

very important project in terms of amenities for the performers

that play at Red Rocks.

The current backstage area certainly has some deficiencies.

It is not at all ADA compliant.

The ramps to getting to the backstage area

from the stage is far too steep.

I've seen some of the performers up there

that had a hard time getting back and forth.

So there's lack of kitchen facilities that really don't.

What we have today was sort of a makeshift.

And so new kitchen facilities, just a backstage expansion

that really helps to accommodate the amenities

for the performers that are up at Red Rocks.

And we had another video, but if you don't want to see

that today, we can send you a link for it.

This last video is...

I limited Ted to one video.

Well, we do want to save some time for questions.

So we can send you a link to this video,

but this video is really awesome.

we made this video as a way to share with the shows when they come to Red Rocks so they understand

before they get there some of the unique challenges but also how we can help help assist them as they

get their show loaded in so this is a fun one to watch if you have a few minutes and we can send

you that link wonderful it's funny because I see oh there is the link is on here okay there was the

link to the first video on here because a council member no if we could get the link to the first

video actually because people loved it and want to have a be able to access that but anyway thank

you so much tad one thing you didn't mention is is how many years you've been with red rocks can

you say a little about sure i i had i've been really lucky i got started with theaters and

arenas as a 20-hour week intern and that lasted about maybe a couple of months as 20 hours a week

and then went full time and that started in september of 87 so 38 plus years now with the

the city and the same agency. Wow amazing thank you for your dedication and your

service to the city in such a special place there are some dream jobs so I

could see why you stuck around and thank you all for this great information I

know we have a couple people in the queue and I have some questions myself

so we'll jump it off with Councilwoman Lewis. So one I didn't know there was a

visitor center so thank you for that information and the second question I

I had was in a comment that I had was in reference to the first part of the presentation with Red Rocks being a revenue generator.

As we're looking at Park Hill Park coming online, I would love to explore with you all what it might look like to bring a large, like, music something to that area.

I think it'd be a really good opportunity to really activate that park as well as generate revenue in a way that maybe we haven't seen in Park Hill.

That's literally all I wanted to say.

We'd be happy to set that up.

And we do use Sculpture Park that way in the past.

So I might also bring in Jody Grossman, who is Tad's peer venue director for the Arts Complex.

And we'd love to help you with that conversation.

Yeah, that's it.

I might add a little bit to certainly Parks and Rec when the Grand Duzi event happened.

So I think there's folks in Parks and Rec that might be able to participate with that process too.

Thank you.

Is that all you have?

Great.

Wonderful.

Councilman Watson, you're up next.

Thank you so much, committee chair, and congratulations, Ted, on your tenure.

I wanted to quickly share in 85, two years before you started,

I was sitting in my living room on St. Thomas,

a little 15 year old, and I was making a decision

between CU and Michigan State.

And on the TV screen came a video of this band playing

in this place that looked like Mars.

And it turned out to be U2 playing at their 83 concert,

the Virgin Islands, we get things kind of late.

So we got the video for the first time

on the islands two years later.

You two helped me to make the decision to come to see you.

And so I moved here in 87 in the summer right after I graduated.

And within a few weeks, and kids, if you're listening, don't do this, I was 17 and I hitched a ride to Red Rocks.

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

But I did that, and I had to see Red Rocks.

And it was someone I met at a rare campus when I was finalizing my sign-up for school.

So Red Rocks has been in my blood.

I am very excited about all the good stuff Tad and you and the team does.

Two good things and two collaborations.

First, once again, Tad, thanks to you.

Thanks to the mayors of Morrison and Golden, as well as to Commissioner Andy Kerr and Tafoya

for Green Latinos over the last two and a half years, maybe almost going on to three years

now.

We have been in dialogue, our office and Denver Parks and Rec, Mountain Parks, finding solutions

for multimodal transportation to Red Rocks.

Over 3 million visitors, 2 million folks go there for athletics and hiking,

1 million goes there for concerts, all of them drive.

And so we've been working with RTE and other partners to make sure

that we can reduce the amount of cars going to Red Rocks.

And thank you, Tad, and your team for working with us.

We had a demonstration on September 10th where we actually have demonstrated

that we can have multimodal uses to get folks to and through, not just Red Rocks,

but what we're calling now West Tracks.

So all of the venues, mountain parks and stuff around Jeffco.

And so I wanted to thank the team of folks that work collaboratively on that and to make sure that that happens

and so that we can reduce our carbon footprint and also increase the amount of folks going to Red Rocks.

I want to thank a team of folks within Denver Arts and Venues that have made possible the Five Points Jazz process

over half a million dollars in the last two years of funds directed to Five Points

with a requirement of 90% to 95% of those dollars going towards artists and towards the venues,

not towards production, which is a change from any of the other large events we've done.

So I want to thank Brooke Dilling.

I want to thank Tariana and Navis Neves.

And definitely want to thank Norman Harris.

And I think I'm forgetting one other person on the team.

Let me make sure.

I don't want to miss the name.

I think those are – and Sonia Ray.

I apologize.

for your collaboration and making this such a great project. We have 10 new artists for 2026

that are going to be performing over a hundred thousand dollars already awarded to them for the

2026 season. So greatly appreciate that partnership with Red Rocks for the work with Morrison Golden

and greatly appreciate the work with Denver Arts and Venues for ensuring that Five Point Jazz

continues and that our venues and the artists are actually getting the funds and not production. So

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Wonderful.

Thank you for sharing that.

Look forward to hearing more as we get ready to party.

This is a fun committee.

This is where we're going to talk about partying.

Oh, I have one more thing.

And I think, Ted, you put forward a challenge

to Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

I cannot believe that widespread panic

has more concerts than they do from Colorado's own Big Head

Todd and the Monsters.

So Big Head Todd and the Monsters, if you're

watching Channel 8, you need to up your game.

I hope they are watching.

Yeah.

That would be cool.

OK.

Councilwoman Romero-Kimball.

Thank you.

I think it's neat to see all of the progression of the changes that have happened over the years.

I, too, have spent a lot of time either at a concert or hiking or visitor center.

So showing all of those pieces is just neat to see over time.

And I think oftentimes we forget the things that aren't the party or the sexy part of a venue, but yet make it so accessible and continues to elevate the quality.

So I'm excited to see that the back stage area will be renovated and fixed.

I think Red Rocks uniquely is one of the places where you can go see a concert and go for a hike all in the same evening.

So it's just a really great place to be.

So thank you for your work.

You're welcome.

And by the way, I could talk about Red Rocks for a very long time.

And one of the things I share oftentimes when I do tours up Red Rocks is how unique it is

in terms of that tourists and visitors can come throughout the day and they can exercise

and they do all these things even while we're loading in a show.

And I don't know any other venues that you can do that in.

I mean, you're not going to walk around inside Ball Arena when they're getting ready for a game or a show.

So, I mean, just the tradition that Red Rocks has.

And, yeah, I mean, it really is an amazing place to be a part of.

Yeah, I think uniquely it's, like you said, as you're setting up,

it always feels like when you're up there and there is something going on

or sound checks happening, you almost feel like you're behind the scenes as well for the concert.

And you've maintained it in a way that's very, feels very accessible and open.

it doesn't feel closed off and I think that's a really neat neat neat neat piece about the entire

venue so thank you well the visitor center is complete with exhibits I do want everybody to

come up and I'd be happy to offer them with you so it'd be really nice it is free everything

concert tickets are expensive nationally everything at Red Rocks during the day is

free and it's really important in our visit Denver conversations bringing folks in to visit us see

that and then book a return trip and stay in a hotel and generate lodger stacks and sales tax.

So that's an important part.

Tickets sale oftentimes, there's a number of folks from out of town, right? So it does drive

that economic impact that we've talked about before, but it is a bucket list item. As for

people, I think it was shown on the video. So in Southeast Denver, when you come down Hampton,

at the top of Hampton and you're looking towards the mountains, it's directly into Red Rocks.

And so if you are at Hampton and I-25, it's one of the most beautiful views, I think, in the city.

Also because you can see Red Rocks every day and it's absolutely stunning and beautiful.

So I see it every day and think about it and just, it's beautiful.

I think all the Welsher sometimes and some of those holes that face West, I'm like, there's Red Rocks.

Fox Hollow has a hole.

It's gorgeous.

I have a video doing your cartwheel in front of it.

It is a sacred place.

And I just want to acknowledge that.

And I think it's as much a bucket list for people to come see as the performers to come perform there from comedians to artists.

When I've gone to Red Rocks, I've heard the performers stand there in awe.

of what it is to be there.

So, yes, it is a very sacred, amazing, special place,

and I'm glad it's a part of the city of Denver.

Councilwoman Parity also wanted to get in the queue,

so I'll give her a chance.

Thank you.

Had a little trouble coming off mute there.

I wanted to, a couple things,

I'm so appreciative of the ADA improvements

and glad that we're continuing along that route

and wanted to share credit a little bit with Tim Fox,

who's a friend of mine and a wheelchair user

and music-obsessed person who challenged the lack of accessibility at Red Rocks

and started that ball rolling.

So he did that for everybody, and I'm appreciative of that.

My question is actually mostly about the seat tax.

Can you remind me, I know it was just on the slide,

how much we charge per ticket for the seat tax?

The seat tax is 10% of the ticket price.

Whatever it is.

Okay.

And what's the average ticket price?

Oh, boy, I'd have to be guessing right now.

$75, I'll tell you.

$75.

It's probably around $75 per average ticket price.

Some are lower.

Okay.

I just was curious, thinking about that, when that last has been changed.

I think it's – and is that set by ordinance?

And has there been, like, any kind of economic study recently about the amount that that's set at and whether it's, you know, at the right point?

There could be.

Yeah, I can tell you a little bit of anecdotally, I believe the FDA tax, facilities development

and admissions tax was initiated way back when the old Mile High Stadium needed to convert

to from baseball to football and they built the east stands so the east stands could move

in and out.

I think that's where it got started.

But it's been very critical for the upkeep and operation of our facilities over the years

for sure.

And it is use restricted to capital maintenance.

Right.

Yeah.

And honestly, I'm just I'm curious if without I know, like we want people to go to Red Rocks and ticket prices for everything get higher and higher.

But I'm not asking if it's too high.

I'm asking if it's high enough, just to be clear.

Because I know we have maintenance needs up there.

Yeah.

Our external partners feel differently.

But, yeah, we're always looking for additional capital dollars.

So as a percentage, so it does go up as ticket prices go up for sure, too.

So sure.

That's true.

Yeah.

Okay. And any economic, any like analysis of that in recent years, just to see, I guess, to sort of like look at it more objectively, like whether it's.

I will.

Sorry, go ahead.

Oh, no, I apologize. I will go back and ask the Department of Finance because it impacts more entities generally than just arts and venues.

It impacts our tier one partners that operate city facilities and the stock show has a charge there.

So, yeah, I will definitely go back and ask that and including the timing of when that was last looked at.

Yeah, thanks, Gretchen. I appreciate that. Thank you guys so much.

This was a joy and I'm the one that asked for the video link. Thank you.

Yeah, I think that is a great question.

And if we could avoid bond and have funding sources for capital, that would be great, too.

I know I did want to follow up on a similar note.

If we could get the Jacobs study and also the backstage feasibility study that were mentioned in the presentation, that would be great.

I wanted to start with a question for you, Gretchen, around how are we thinking about and integrating the work that the state is doing for Sundance and film into the work that DAV is doing and potential collaboration, not just with Red Rocks, but with Denver Arts and Venues as a whole?

Yeah, that's a great question.

And it's one that we've been talking about a lot.

So two things, as we are waiting for them to wrap up their final events and program in Park City and move here,

and really looking to Boulder to kind of catch that activity first, we've got two different initiatives lined up.

One is we want to and have offered a date similar to Film on the Rocks to Sundance.

We have five Film on the Rocks dates.

That's something that TAD manages.

That's a brand that is operated by Arts and Venues directly.

And we are waiting to hear back from them on that if they would like to come in with a promoter partner

and really do an event to get people excited here.

And that could be a combination of a film or a band or some speakers, and that's really theirs to program.

It would be a venue rental like every venue rental that TAD does.

So we're excited about that possibility.

The other is this summer we want to do some free and open and public events in our parks with some screenings.

So we are waiting to brainstorm that with them hopefully soon.

Or a showing at the Paramount or something that's kind of a hype event for us downtown so that we can get people interested.

Two-thirds of Sundance participants are locals right now.

So we are really looking to build a local audience.

And obviously, Denver's a huge part of that with our hotels and our experiences downtown.

So we're hoping to make that connection and have that be another downtown activator.

Wonderful.

I definitely want to see some of that financial impact trickle down to Denver personally.

So that would be great.

You mentioned in the first presentation about the art drop week.

I didn't see as much promotion last year, and we didn't get a little bear.

Are we going to get one this year?

I don't know.

We want to ask about that.

The person to answer that question is Tariana Navis

and she is on vacation.

So I will have her get back to you with that.

Okay, great.

And then this goes back to Red Rocks.

Thank you, Tad, for all your work and huge fan of Red Rocks.

I've definitely been there for Yoga on the Rock,

seeing people leave still from the night before.

So that continuous use is real.

One of my questions around concessions is,

Is Aramark required to use any local small businesses, or how are we providing opportunity to our local small businesses with the trading posts, with concessions in general at Red Rocks?

I think there are some requirements.

I have to go back and double-check the contract.

But I do know that they actually do use some smaller businesses for subcontractors.

So Machete Tacos, Rolling Smoke.

This isn't really a small business, but Smash Burger has been there in the past.

Anthony's Pizza so they use some local vendors to round out their selection.

Yeah that would be great to have. If there is opportunity to bid on those

opportunities as well we can share with the businesses in our districts.

How are the crew and stagehand selected? Are the people that come do they bring

their own crews and stagehands and how many staff do we provide? What does that

look like? Sure so the way it works is a show when they come to town they have

have their own road crew and their own staff of things that they do.

And then they'll always need, when they come to town, they'll always need additional labor.

They put in a request for labor with us, and then we use Legends Global now.

They used to be ASM, but we put in a request to them.

They're our provider for stagehand labor.

And, you know, the crew sizes can range anywhere from, you know, 20 to 80.

I mean, it's not unusual for some shows to come in.

Now it's crazy because you can't fit 80 people on the stage.

but local crews and labor oftentimes can be up to that number.

That's good to hear.

I know IOTC has asked a few questions about that.

As far as the wages, all of these people fall under Denver's minimum wage.

Is that correct?

Like their stagehands that they bring and the ones that are here?

Yeah, the stagehands that are here certainly fall under their collective bargaining agreement

with ASM legends for sure.

the crews that come in, I don't think they're subject to all the minimum wage rules,

and I don't know how that would be affected, so I'm not sure the answer on that one.

I'll look into that piece if you can talk to them.

And then I want to just acknowledge the amount of CIP you've done is amazing,

and every time I go it is under construction, but it's never felt like I'm in a construction site,

So kudos for that.

Also take a moment to say that I have placed some concrete at Red Rocks, which is something I'm proud of.

And my previous put down concrete.

My construction was my previous before council.

And so we did work at Red Rocks.

Great, yeah.

I'm proud to have thrown down some of that concrete.

I was curious.

I'm really proud that we're doing the acknowledgement.

I'm proud that the video started with an indigenous land acknowledgement.

I'm curious what is the ongoing relationship with the indigenous community?

Do they get access to Red Rocks for any of their events?

Is there some kind of connection and continued working together there?

We don't have anything specific right now.

I think it would be a great opportunity to look at something we've talked about.

Is there a particular event day that we could do?

So certainly open to looking at those opportunities.

We don't have anything ongoing necessarily right now.

Okay.

Okay.

That's good to know.

Definitely probably want to talk to some of our indigenous relatives about that.

And then my last question is more just a follow-up, along with the other list, is the projects that were funded that have been done.

If you could list if they were bond or special revenue funds or general fund.

Just for us, as we look at how do we continue to fund this huge need that Red Rocks has for maintenance.

I was shocked at that number, honestly, every year.

That's a huge number to try and fill.

So definitely would love to see that.

But overall, so proud to have Red Rocks as a part of Denver.

I think everyone around this table, most people in Denver have had a very special moment there,

from yogas to concerts to I do appreciate free access.

There's not a lot of free access.

It's stressful to try and find a trail, to worry about paying for parking, all of those things.

And I do think that including that in the ticket is a good thing,

especially for low-income people that are saving up for this.

And as far as the fee goes, I think people end up paying a lot more for these tickets, and that fee doesn't go up based on the resale value, right?

So that's a curious part of it.

But really grateful for all your work.

Super excited about what's to come this year and in the future.

So thank you so much.

And with that, I think, do we have any other action items?

Great.

Well, thank you so much, and we'll see you again soon, I'm sure.

With that, we're adjourned.

That's great.

Thank you.