Mission Ballroom opening Aug. 7
The Lumineers, Trey Anastasio Band and more will open Denver’s newest music venue this summer
Mission Ballroom, Denver’s first built-from-the-ground-up music club to open in more than a decade, is celebrating its arrival with a trio of concerts from Mile High City pop-folk act The Lumineers, Phish leader Trey Anastasio’s band, and Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountain said today.
AEG Presents, which announced the 60,000-square-foot Mission Ballroom less than a year ago, said the Mission will officially open Aug. 7 with The Lumineers, followed by Anastasio (Aug. 9-10) and Harper and Trombone Shorty (Aug. 12).
“Mission Ballroom was designed with three core components that up to this point have not been fully integrated together in the club concert experience in the United States: flexibility in capacities, unrivaled sightlines and state-of-the-art in-house sound and lighting,” Chuck Morris, CEO of AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, said in a press statement. “Fans and the bands will love it.”
Located at 4242 Wynkoop St. in Denver’s hip, fast-developing
River North neighborhood and arts district, the Mission promises state-of-the-art concerts and events to anchor Westfield’s North Wynkoop development, which is expected to span 14 acres and three blocks on Brighton Boulevard.
Mission Ballroom will be an adaptable space capable of accommodating anywhere from 2,200 to 3,950 guests, according to AEG. Executives spent more than a decade seeking the perfect spot to build “one of the finest venues this town has ever seen” before honing in on the northern reaches of RiNo. The Mission will give AEG a venue comparable in size to East Colfax Avenue’s 3,700-capacity Fillmore Auditorium, owned by competitor Live Nation, The Denver Post reported last year.
The complex is also close to the busy Interstate 70 and Interstate 25 interchange, providing vehicle access that AEG was seeking when picking a spot for its next major venue. It will be served by multi-modal transit, located near the 38th and Blake street RTD rail station on the University of Colorado A Line.
Like the Fillmore, the Mission will feature wrap-around balconies and general-admission standing room, as well as riser seating across the back and upper levels of the venue, inspired by Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Its most notable innovation, The Post reported last year, is a stage mounted on trolleys. It is capable of being moved around based on the size of the crowd, a feature meant to make smaller shows feel appropriately intimate.
AEG is encouraging people going to the Mission to register for its Mission Fair Ticketing system, which is essentially a ticket lottery and will be available only for certain shows.
“When an event is announced using Mission Fair Ticketing, the tickets are immediately available for a pre-reservation,” AEG officials said in a press statement. “The fan goes to the (AEG spin-off) AXS.com purchase page anytime from the announcement of the event until the conclusion of the registration term, which will be clearly noted in the event announcement details. Guests can enter a reservation for the amount and level of tickets desired at any time during the sales window (period), along with a credit card in order to purchase the tickets.”
To ensure its validity, the purchaser’s credit card will be charged $1, AEG said. However, not all events at Mission Ballroom will use the Mission Fair Ticketing system, and shows using it will be clearly noted.
Mission Fair Ticketing began this morning for the opening weekend and certain shows. Fans have until noon on Sunday, March 24, to request tickets. So how does it work? AEG said ticket requests are processed in random order, which means that if a purchaser’s request is selected, the credit card is automatically charged for the ticket. Guests can request up to four tickets per show, and buyers will be notified by Thursday, March 28, if their orders can be processed.
Any unsold tickets will be put on AEG’s AXS ticketing page at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 29.