Boulder festivals by season
Every festival worth planning a weekend around, season by season, with the real dates and prices from the organizers themselves. Which turned out to matter: four addresses in Boulder's official printed guide no longer work, and two organizers have quietly renamed.
Photo: MECU (MECU≈talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Last checked: August 3, 2026
Boulder runs something most weekends of the year, and 18 of the 30 festivals here cost nothing to walk into. They're sorted by season so you can find the next one worth building a weekend around. You'll get a real date wherever the organizer publishes one, a real price wherever there's a price, and a plain admission wherever there isn't.
Winter (December to February)
| Festival | When | Cost | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lights of December Parade | Saturday, December 12, 2026, 6 to 7.30pm | Free | 1300 block of Pearl Street | An evening holiday parade down the mall, run by Downtown Boulder Partnership. |
| Winterfest at Colorado Chautauqua | December. Chautauqua hasn't published 2026 dates in a form we can verify | Free to enter, with paid add-ons | Colorado Chautauqua | A December weekend of carriage rides, a holiday market and family entertainment at the foot of the Flatirons. |
| Versatility Dance Festival | January. The 2026 edition was January 17; no 2027 date published yet | $23 to $36.80 | Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St | One evening of contemporary dance companies and dance films, presented by Boulder's T2 Dance Company. |
Spring (March to May)
| Festival | When | Cost | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boulder International Film Festival | The 2026 edition ran April 9 to 12. 2027 dates not published yet | Ticketed | Boulder Theater, plus other venues around town | A four-day film festival with filmmaker talkbacks and a chef competition. It moved out of its usual March slot to make room for Sundance. |
| Boulder Arts Week | April 2 to 11, 2027 | Free umbrella event; individual events vary | Citywide | Ten days in which galleries, theaters and artists across Boulder run events under one shared calendar. |
| Tulip Fairy and Elf Festival | Sunday, April 18, 2027, 1 to 5pm, rain date April 25 | Free | Pearl Street Mall | A parade of children dressed as fairies and elves, timed to the tulips planted along Pearl Street. |
| Bluebird Music Festival | The 2026 edition ran April 18 to 19 | Ticketed | Macky Auditorium, CU campus | An indie rock and folk festival across a weekend of showcases, benefiting the Future Arts Foundation. |
| Boulder Creek Festival | The 2026 edition ran May 22 to 25, Memorial Day weekend. Its 36th year | Free. The Creekside Beer Fest is separate, from $41 plus fees, 21 and over | Along Boulder Creek, roughly 9th to 14th | A free street festival with artisan vendors, live music across several stages, food trucks and a kids' zone. |
| BolderBoulder 10K | Memorial Day. Next edition May 31, 2027, its 46th year | $69 to $99 depending how early you enter | Through Boulder streets, finishing inside Folsom Field | A 10K road race that finishes in the stadium with a Memorial Day military tribute. |
Summer (June to August)
| Festival | When | Cost | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bands on the Bricks | Wednesdays, June 10 to July 29, 2026, 5.30 to 9pm | Free | 1300 block of Pearl Street | A weekly outdoor concert series with a local opener, a headliner and a beer garden. |
| Boulder PrideFest | Saturday, June 13, 2026, 11am to 4pm | Free | Boulder Main Library | A one-day Pride celebration with community booths and performers, run by Rocky Mountain Equality. |
| Colorado Shakespeare Festival | Opens the first week of June and runs to August 2, 2026 | Roughly $31 to $98 | Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre and the Roe Green Theatre, CU campus | CU's professional repertory company stages four rotating Shakespeare productions each summer, outdoors. |
| Colorado Music Festival | July 9 to August 9, 2026, its 50th anniversary season | Ticketed, singles and subscription packages | Chautauqua Auditorium | A month-long orchestral residency in the 1898 auditorium. |
| Pearl Street Arts Fest | July 17 to 19, 2026. Its 49th year | Free | Pearl Street Mall | A juried outdoor art fair with over 100 artists, plus children's art activities. |
| Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance Festival | July 26 to August 7, 2026, with public showcases July 31 to August 2 | Ticketed. The 2026 showcase price isn't published yet | Frequent Flyers Studios, showcases at the Dairy Arts Center | A two-week aerial dance intensive, trapeze and silks, ending in public performances. Its 28th year. |
| Boulder Taco Fest | Saturday, August 22, 2026 | $39 general, $55 with the 5K, $110 VIP | Downtown, along Boulder Creek | A one-day taco festival with food and drink tokens, live Lucha Libre wrestling and music. |
| Tulagi, formerly Boulder Roots Music Fest | August 27 to 30, 2026 | Ticketed, wristband based | Over 20 venues across downtown | A four-day, multi-venue live music festival. It debuted in 2025 as Boulder Roots Music Fest and rebranded for 2026. |
| RockyGrass | July 23 to 26, 2026 | Ticketed. No price is published on their own site. | Planet Bluegrass Ranch, Lyons | The 54th year of a nationally known bluegrass festival on a riverside ranch. It SOLD OUT for 2026, and sells out most years, so it's a book-months-ahead event. |
| Rocky Mountain Folks Festival | August 6 to 9, 2026 | Ticketed. No price is published on their own site. Under 12s free with a ticketed adult. | Planet Bluegrass Ranch, Lyons | The 36th year. Note the town's LaVern M. Johnson Park closes to the public from August 6 until noon on August 10 for it, which catches out anyone planning a normal park afternoon. |
| Erie Balloon Festival | July 10 to 12, 2026 | Free, including parking and the shuttle | Near Erie High School, Erie | A dawn mass balloon ascension, a Saturday night balloon glow, tether rides and a paramotor display. Entirely weather-dependent, and no pets on the launch field. |
| Lafayette Peach Festival | August, on a Saturday | Free | Public Road, Old Town Lafayette | Peach pies and smoothies, crafters and antique dealers, rain or shine. Sources disagree on whether it's the 27th or 30th annual, so we don't put a number on it. |
| Louisville Street Faire | Fridays, June 12 to August 7, 2026 | Free | Steinbaugh Pavilion, Louisville | A free Friday evening concert series with food, vendors and kids' activities, running over twenty-five years. No event parking lot, and organizers ask you not to use restaurant lots. |
| Boulder County Fair | Summer, at the fairgrounds | Free live music, paid carnival | Fairgrounds, Longmont | The oldest county fair in Colorado. Worth knowing before you set off: despite the name it's in LONGMONT, not Boulder. |
Fall (September to November)
| Festival | When | Cost | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaipur Literature Festival Colorado | September 22 to 23, 2026, roughly 4 to 7pm each day. Its 12th edition | Free | Downtown Boulder | The Colorado edition of India's Jaipur Literature Festival: authors in public conversation about books and ideas. |
| Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema | Screenings spread across September and October rather than one block. Its 23rd season | Ticketed per screening | Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Arts Center | An international dance-film festival, run as a series of themed screening programs. |
| Open Studios | October 3 to 4 and 10 to 11, 2026, noon to 5pm. Its 31st year | Free | Artists' own studios across Boulder County | A self-guided tour where working artists open their home studios to the public. |
| Munchkin Masquerade | October 31, 2026 | Free | Pearl Street Mall and downtown | Halloween trick-or-treating for children through downtown shops. |
| Firefly Handmade Holiday Market | November 14 to 15, 2026, 10am to 4pm | Free | Pearl Street Mall | An outdoor artisan market. No dogs, because it's on the mall. |
| Switch on the Holidays | Sunday, November 22, 2026, 2 to 7pm. Lights go on at 5pm | Free | Pearl Street Mall | The holiday lights switch-on, followed by Boulder Ballet and Boulder Chorale performances and a free Santa visit. |
| Festival del Sol | UNCONFIRMED. No 2026 date is published, and its usual September slot has passed | Free and bilingual, when it has run | Colorado Chautauqua | A free bilingual festival of Latino culture. The most recent confirmed edition was its 5th, in September 2025. |
Common questions
How many Boulder festivals are actually free?
18 of the 30 on this page are free to attend, including Bands on the Bricks every Wednesday in summer, the Pearl Street Arts Fest, Open Studios, Munchkin Masquerade and the Boulder Creek Festival. Free here means free to walk in. Boulder Creek Festival is free but its beer fest is a separate ticket, and Winterfest is free to enter with paid add-ons, and both are marked that way in the tables.
Is the Sundance Film Festival in Boulder?
Not yet. Sundance relocates to Boulder for its 2027 edition, running January 21 to 31, 2027, at venues including the Boulder Theater, Chautauqua Auditorium, the Dairy Arts Center and Cinemark. Anything describing it as a current Boulder festival is ahead of itself. Boulder's own film festival, BIFF, moved its dates later in the year to avoid clashing with it.
Which festivals have confirmed dates right now?
Most of them. The exceptions are honest gaps rather than oversights: Chautauqua hasn't published Winterfest's 2026 dates in a form we can verify, the Versatility Dance Festival hasn't set a 2027 date, BIFF hasn't announced 2027, and Festival del Sol has no 2026 date at all despite its usual September slot having passed.
Why do some links here differ from the printed visitors guide?
Because four of the web addresses printed in that guide don't resolve. The Tulip Fairy and Elf Festival, the Versatility Dance Festival, the Jaipur Literature Festival and Sans Souci all appear there with domains that are dead or wrong. Every link on this page was opened and checked on August 3, 2026. Two organizers have also renamed: Boulder Roots Music Fest now goes by Tulagi, and Out Boulder is now Rocky Mountain Equality.
What's the single best weekend for a first visit?
Memorial Day weekend does the most work: the Boulder Creek Festival runs free along the creek for four days and the BolderBoulder 10K finishes inside Folsom Field on the Monday. If you would rather have music than crowds, any Wednesday between June 10 and July 29 gets you Bands on the Bricks for nothing.
Keep exploring
Seasonal picks beyond the big festivals are in the this weekend guide, the ones that cost nothing are collected in free things to do, and the full Boulder guide covers every category.