First Friday Festivals at RiNo ArtPark

An event series celebrating RiNo’s artists, spaces & community

First Friday in RiNo Art District always has a special vibe to it. The sidewalks crowd with people. Music fills the air. Vendors set up on the street. Art galleries display dynamic new work, while artist studios open their doors to offer a peek into their creative process.

This summer, that familiar rhythm gathers in a new way at the ArtPark at Arkins Park, where the district’s long-running art walk expands into a series of festivals designed to celebrate and amplify that energy.

The First Friday Festival series at ArtPark creates a central place to begin (or return to), while still encouraging the kind of wandering that defines a First Friday night. It’s a chance to experience the district both as a whole and in its smaller, more personal moments: a conversation with an artist, a song that pulls you in, something unexpected you didn’t plan to find.

At the center of it all is the ArtPark itself—a space shaped by adaptive reuse and ongoing collaboration, where studios, exhibitions, and public life intersect. Over the course of the season, each festival will bring a different mix of musicians, artists, vendors, and hands-on experiences into that setting, reflecting the many ways creativity shows up across the district.

The series begins May 1 with an opening night that balances performance, exhibition, and hands-on experiences. Inside the Truss House, In the Studio features work by more than a dozen artists who have benefited from RiNo Art District’s subsidized studio programs, offering a closer look at their current work and the practices behind it. Throughout the evening, Denver trio Chouette performs two sets blending jazz, bossa nova, musette, and pop, while Courtney Ozaki-Durgin leads interactive workshops in immersive theatre and storytelling. A selection of local vendors spanning food, art, and handmade goods rounds out the experience around the Truss House.

From there, the night expands outward. The festival is just one node in a much larger network of activity across the district—open studios, exhibitions, murals, and businesses all contributing to the atmosphere that has long defined First Fridays in RiNo.

“The RiNo Art District exists to support the artists, makers, and creative businesses that shape this community, by amplifying their work and advocating for their place here,” says Executive Director Daisy Fodness-McGowan. “With our First Friday Festival series, we’re inviting people to gather at RiNo’s ArtPark, a truly special space, and experience the depth of creativity that lives here, side by side with the artists who make it.”

Can’t be there to join us on May 1st? Save the date for additional First Friday Festival dates in the series!