If you were unable to make Punk In the Park the last time the festival visited Denver for one day in 2022, your luck has tripled. Punk In the Park will be at the National Western Stockyards for three days this summer: July 18, 19, and 20, and the lineup is insane.
If you’ve never been to a punk festival, it’s overwhelming in the best way possible. I’ve been to a few (Inland Invasion, Punk Rock Bowling, last year’s inaugural No Values) and it’s basically impossible to have a bad time. You’re sweaty, hoarse, sunburnt, and mosh-drunk. But the energy is impossible to replicate. You’re never going to see this many great bands all on one bill, end of story. Punk In the Park will also be in Chandler, AZ, Portland, and San Francisco, and with all due respect to those fine cities, the Denver lineup might just be too good to beat.
The Dropkick Murphys and Bad Religion are co-headliners, along with The Descendants and Pennywise. No word if Murphys co-frontman Al Barr will rejoin the group since his self-imposed hiatus started in 2022, but even if he doesn’t, the band has been carrying on capably in his absence with Ken Casey on lead vocals. Along with the headliners, there’s a slew of legacy acts, like The Dwarves, Screeching Weasel, The Casualties, The Aquabats, and The Adicts, who in my opinion are must-see any time they’re on a bill.
The nice thing about PitP is that it’s not just nostalgia-bait for millennials and Gen-Xers. There’s a ton of bands on the bill you might not have heard of, like The Bombpops, Catbite, and We Are the Union. Beyond that, local Denver bands like Cleaner and Cheap Perfume round out the bill. Add to that some food trucks and beer tastings, and there’s really no reason to miss this festival.
We’ll be there, posting recaps and pictures of everyone’s battle jacket, so if you see a guy with a beard and tattoos…well, it could be anyone in Denver cause we all kinda look like that, but it might be me.
About Author
