Outside Festival and Summit, which was held in Denver’s Civic Center Park May 29-June1, nearly doubled its attendance numbers from last year to 35,000 across four days.
Pitch competition Outside Ignite and Outside Summit, which featured speakers such as REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton and The North Face Global Brand President Caroline Brown, brought members of the industry together. This year’s Summit had 900 registrants – an 80% increase from last year, according to a news release.
The music festival reached capacity at 33,000 attendees. It and the film festival components exposed consumers to outdoor brands and activities, said Outside Interactive CEO Robin Thurston in an interview with SESO.
“Our mission is to get people outdoors,” Thurston said. Organizers focused on three avenues to bring attendees in: inspiration, activation, and celebration, he said.
“When I think about the festival, it fits into all three of those things,” he said. “There’s a moment of visual inspiration when you walk into the park and see all the things that are going on. There’s a real activation part where we say, ‘Come, climb on this climbing wall.’ And there will be lots of photos out of this and people that share it and say, ‘Oh, next year we should bring more people.'”
When it came to the film and music festival, which featured performers such as Waxahatchee, Khruangbin, Lord Huron, and Sylvan Esso, Thurston said it was a way to draw people into the outdoor ecosystem.
“Maybe you see a band that you really like and then you spend five or six hours at Solo Stove or these different partners experiencing these things that you might not have before,” Thurston said. “Whatever it takes to get people off the couch, off their screens, and really interacting in all the different pieces.”
Children 12 and under attended the music festival for free. According to organizers:
- 26% of attendees came from out of state.
- 53% were women and 47% were men.
- 32% of festivalgoers identified as BIPOC.
Sponsors for the Outside Festival include Capital One, REI Co-op, Brooks Running, Scout Motors, Berghaus, The North Face, VF Corporation, UCHealth, the State of Colorado, Visit Denver, and the Denver Art Museum.
