Denver Folklore Center Celebrates 50 Years With A Weekend of Concerts

After being inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in February, Harry Tuft and the Denver Folklore Center celebrate 50 years of bringing folk music to the Mile High city. A full weekend of concerts presented at The Newman Center, The L2 Arts & Culture Center and Four Mile Historic Park will commemorate the golden anniversary.  

The Denver Folklore Center has been supporting folk music in Denver since 1962. This May, the Folklore Center will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary with a weekend full of concerts. Some of folk music’s best artists including Otis Taylor, Hot Rize and Tim O’Brien, Dakota Blonde, Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore, and Michael Cooney, will join founder Harry Tuft and the Denver Folklore Center to say, “Happy Birthday.”

In the early 1960’s, Harry Tuft ventured to Colorado in hopes of finding fresh powder. Instead, he found (and founded) a community rich with music and a need for a venue. The Denver Folklore Center was established in 1962 and provided space for folk music lessons, supplies, a place to jam or form a pick-up band. Now, it is the center of the folk community in Denver, and some say, Colorado. Harry, who was just inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in February, is thrilled that the Center has thrived for 50 years. He says, “When I came to Denver many years ago, I realized that Denver was a city made up of lots of different communities. I found here among those communities, a group of folks who really liked the kind of music that I like. We came together, magically, to build this influential organization. I’ve very proud.”

The weekend-long celebration will begin on Friday, May 25, at the Newman Center, with Hot Rize, Otis Taylor and the man who started it all, Harry Tuft, playing with Dick Lamm. Saturday’s events will be held at the L2 Arts & Culture Center and feature Tim O’Brien and Dakota Blonde. On Sunday afternoon, the festivities will move outside to Four Mile Historic Park. The party will close at Swallow Hill Music Sunday evening, for a semi-private VIP party.

Denver Folklore Center – 50th Anniversary Celebration

Friday, May 25 at the Newman Center – 8pm
Hot Rize, Otis Taylor, and Harry Tuft and former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm