Despite tearful goodbyes, the Underground Music Showcase won’t miss a beat.

The three-day South Broadway music festival will return in the summer of 2026 at a new location — the River North Art District — despite fears last year that the longest-running music event in Denver had reached its end.

Those fears were legitimate, with UMS LLC announcing in July 2025 that there just was not enough funding to support the festival’s $1.4 million budget following its 25th anniversary.

UMS LLC was formed by nonprofit organization Youth on Record and for-profit marketing agency Two Parts in 2021 after Two Parts purchased the festival from the Denver Post Community Foundation in 2018.

While Youth on Record dropped out as a partner behind the festival last year, Two Parts waited for a call.

“It’s been a crazy rollercoaster,” Keanan Stoner, CEO of Two Parts and new festival director for UMS, told The Denver Gazette. “The emotions after (last year). The sheer exhaustion and the emotional heartache of, ‘This thing is so special. I can’t imagine it going away’.”

“If this thing rests, it’s an exponential decrease that it happens again at all after every year,” he added.

In steps the RiNo Art District Business Improvement District.

The RiNo BID Board approved a memorandum of understanding Feb. 2 to acquire a 50% stake in UMS, and will serve as UMS’s presenting sponsor for at least the next three years, committing $250,000 annually, according to a news release.

“With hundreds of shows activating venues, businesses and public spaces across the district, UMS creates opportunities for us to build stronger partnerships with our local businesses, hotels, restaurants, and arts community while driving exploration and economic activity throughout RiNo,” Terry Madeksza, executive director of the RiNo BID, said in the release.

The change in partnership means a change in locale — but not a change in size or scope, according to Stoner.

“I think we’re picking right up where we left off with room to grow,” he said. “This commitment loosens up the belt a little bit and allows us to think about this thing without feeling like we’re on a razor’s edge.”

“UMS needs to feel the same. It needs to be this incredible mix between awesome headliners and these club shows where you can find your next favorite band,” he said.

The budget isn’t set yet, but RiNo BID’s investment allows the finances to stay in the same spot.

While the new venues stretched throughout RiNo will breathe some fresh air into the event, the change is bittersweet, according to Stoner, with a longstanding history of settling into South Broadway.

The UMS humbly began in 2001 by then-Denver Post reporters John Moore and Ricardo Baca. The one-night showcase was set to show off local, “underground” bands voted upon by 25 local music experts. 

Bands like 16 Horsepower, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and future Grammy winners DeVotchKa were placed on the first polls. 

The behemoth event grew exponentially over the next decade, but After Two Parts purchased the festival, it was condensed down into three days and around 200 bands from both Denver and surrounding cities.

Stoner ensured that the amount of bands and the types of acts will endure the move up north when the 26th UMS hits RiNo July 24–26, 2026.

“There’s these amazing public spaces. It’s got these warehouses, these grungy, gritty places on the edge. It’s got this intense artist energy,” Stoner said of RiNo. “There’s a much larger canvas that we can play with.”

The bands and venues aren’t decided upon, but more information should be coming in the spring.

Youth on Record on the other hand, will continue its mission of mental health, sobriety, accessibility, professional development, representation and harm reduction.

It’s unclear if the nonprofit will have a presence at the festival this year, but Stoner said he hopes to get them to come out.

“UMS was a critical part of Youth on Record’s story, but ultimately young creatives are our North Star,” said Jami Duffy, executive director of Youth on Record and former co-manager of UMS. “The transition out of the co-ownership and management of UMS allows us to meet this moment in our city and in our nation… Youth on Record’s best contribution to our community right now is to focus our full energy on young people and build the future they deserve.”

UMS isn’t the only festival to see trouble or big moves.

The Great American Beer Festival is moving the 48th year of the festival from its longtime home at the Colorado Convention Center to Denver’s Levitt Pavilion at Ruby Hill in southwest Denver.

The city of Denver transitioned the 21-year-old Five Points Jazz Festival into a year-round grants program to support jazz events in 2024. In Fort Collins, Bohemian Nights has been discontinued and the one-day Westword Music Showcase went on hiatus in 2023 after 27 years.

But UMS lives on.

“We’re excited for the next level and seeing what this looks like in all new spaces,” Stoner said.

More info can be found at undergroundmusicshowcase.com.