Best Free Entertainment 2005 | LoDo at Let-Out | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver

Best Free Entertainment

LoDo at Let-Out

The action can get pretty hot and heavy when LoDo's bars let out at 2 a.m. But from the cheap seats on the sidelines, watching the crowds pour out of the clubs and pour themselves into cars and cabs -- after some last-second attempts to hook up --can be mighty entertaining. And the vehicles parading slowly past offer a non-stop urban soundtrack.

Best Place to Rant for Free

Open Zine Project

Though Stevyn Prothero's tiny Iron Feather Book & Zine Shop is in danger of losing its space in north Denver, the place's do-it-yourself attitude lives on to the bitter end. Prothero welcomes any and all wannabe zinesters to use his stuff -- Xerox, keyboard, scissors and so on -- to create their own page for the community-based Open Zine Project. Prothero knows something about what it takes to create an indie publication: His own Iron Feather Journal has been coming out sporadically for years. Open your mind and take up your pen.

Best Annual Festival -- City

Capitol Hill People's Fair

Capitol Hill encompasses a wide swath of central Denver, so it's no wonder that the Capitol Hill People's Fair is the city's best, and most diverse, festival. From its humble beginnings at Morey Junior High in 1971, when 2,000 people attended, the People's Fair has exploded into Colorado's premier arts-and-crafts happening; last year, some 275,000 people attended the three-day event at Civic Center Park, soaking up live entertainment, food by the barrelful, community and family-oriented activities and the best people-watching of the year. The fest is a huge fundraiser, as well: Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods raised $45,000 for area nonprofits in 2004. Kick back, kick off your shoes, and celebrate Denver's funkiest neighborhood.

Best Annual Festival -- Mountains

U.S. Comedy Arts Festival

Normally, when you come across a celebrity in Aspen -- say, Kevin Costner fashioning a kayak for an In Style magazine photo shoot -- it's funny, but not ha-ha funny. For nearly one week out of every year, though, Aspen is the ha-ha-funniest place in the world. The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival is a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet of humor, from standup to sketch comedy to readings; Cheech and Chong, Conan O' Brien, Jim Carrey and Dave Eggers were among those on hand this year. And how about all those hangers-on in fur coats with VIP passes around their necks, talking on headset cell phones? Now, that's funny.

Best New Festival (Since March 2004)

The Shoot Out Boulder

The first of its kind in the United States, The Shoot Out Boulder celebrated the art of quick and cheap movie production. Filmmakers were given 24 hours to complete a seven-minute short. Only in-camera editing was allowed -- meaning everything had to be shot in sequence -- and the footage had to incorporate specific locations or props from within the Boulder area. Several dozen crews of both novice and seasoned filmmakers participated in the quick-paced contest, resulting in an amazing variety of subjects and styles that ranged from the hilarious to the reflective. Plans for another festival are under way, which is great news: The Shoot Out is a can't-miss opportunity for area filmheads.

Best Outdoor Festival

Cherry Creek North Gourmet Series

Good food and Cherry Creek North? Two of the most obvious bedfellows in town. It took little stretch of the imagination to combine them into a fail-safe annual festival. The glitzy al fresco celebration spreads over several Saturdays and features a gourmet market and cooking demonstrations by hot chefs from the region and the world, working in a state-of-the-art outdoor kitchen on Fillmore Plaza. The event, which culminates in a Grand Tasting soiree, is bling for your belly. So rev up your tastebuds: The series returns in July.

Best Battle of Wits

Stand-Up Comedy Battles

September's inaugural Yell Fest was a wild, chaotic mess. Put on by Comedy Works house comedian Chuck Roy, the night was advertised as a search for "Denver's biggest asshole." What the night actually determined was that given limited rules and ample booze, everyone's an asshole. Roy has since fine-tuned the format, and the resulting Stand-Up Comedy Battles, which take place on the last Wednesday of the month, have become a hilarious match of wits between the city's finest comics. Featherweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight contestants receive subjects about a week in advance, then square off on each topic in front of an audience to see who wrote the funnier jokes. Simple enough formula; the results, however, are anything but.

Best Posthumous Tribute

Lalo Delgado

The only thing wrong with Mayor Hickenlooper's declaration last September naming Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado Denver's first poet laureate was that it came too late for Delgado to savor it -- just two months after he died, at age 73. During his lifetime, Delgado -- whose politically charged epic "Stupid America" is considered a classic of Chicano literature -- battled the literary aristocracy for acknow-ledgment. But the thought was there, and Delgado, a community-minded teacher and activist who was much more than a poet, must be smiling down on the barrio in his honorary capacity. We miss you, Lalo.

Best Place to See an Irish Genius

Regis University campus

It makes sense that Regis University, a Catholic Jesuit institution, should end up with a statue of the great Irish author James Joyce on one of its campuses. After all, Joyce's stand-in, Stephen Dedalus, is referred to as a fearful Jesuit in the epic Ulysses. Sculptor Rowan Gillespie forged this life-sized bronze in Ireland in 2001; encircling the figure in a sundial pattern are carved entries from the novel. Located just a short stroll from parking lot 2, the statue provides inspiration for those who want to contemplate a writer whose work was once banned in the United States but is taught -- for now -- at virtually every place of higher education.

Best Use of Empty Air Time

On Stage

Stan Kroenke's Altitude Network took a blow right along with the National Hockey League: Pro hockey's strike-riddled lost season translates into lost revenue for the new station, which was conceived primarily to broadcast Avalanche hockey, along with play by other Kroenke-owned sports teams. But the Altitude team made a small comeback by creating On Stage, a concert series featuring live performances by such local music sensations as Wendy Woo and Big Head Todd and the Monsters, all videotaped in local clubs. Nice save.