Denver’s Red Rocks to give it’s backstage area a $35 million makeover
May 19, 2026, 4:26 PM
People ask me all the time how cool the backstage area at Red Rocks must be… I always hate to break it to them that it’s kind of lame. Some of the rooms are built into the rocks, which is cool, but outside of that it’s underwhelming and outdated for the best venue in the world. But that’s about to change!
The world’s most famous amphitheatre is about to give its performers a long-overdue upgrade. Red Rocks will undergo a $35.1 million renovation of its backstage and dressing room areas beginning next year, funded by the Vibrant Denver Bonds approved by voters in November.
The project will include construction of a new multi-story structure designed in part to address accessibility issues for performers backstage. The current dressing rooms — which host acts entertaining roughly 1.7 million concertgoers a year — have been in need of improvement for more than a decade, according to amphitheatre spokesman Brian Kitts.
“The backstage updates have been contemplated for more than a decade,” Kitts told the Denver Gazette. “It’s just taken that long to find the funding.”
The Vibrant Denver Bond package, approved by voters last fall, earmarked approximately $237 million — about 25% of the total bond offering — for arts and cultural venues across the city between 2026 and 2031. The $35.1 million Red Rocks allocation represents the single largest slice of that cultural investment.
The renovation comes on the heels of a record-setting run for the Denver-owned venue in Morrison. In 2025, Red Rocks hosted 236 events and drew 1.75 million paid attendees, according to city documents — the most successful season on record. The amphitheatre generated $75 million in revenue in 2024, funds that support operating costs and cultural programming citywide.
The backstage project follows a separate round of $3 million in improvements completed earlier this year, which added a permanent merchandise stand and an east terrace originally envisioned by Red Rocks’ architect Burnham Hoyt in 1936 but never built until now.
