Step inside Denver’s new state-of-the-art live music venue, Mission Ballroom

The Mission Ballroom, operated by AEG Presents, is a new 60,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art concert and events venue in the RiNo neighborhood. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

Denver has long been a stronghold city for live music, especially for the electronic dance music industry. It’s home to famous venues like Red Rocks, Fillmore Auditorium, the historic Gothic, Ogden, and Bluebird theatres, among countless other arenas and convention spaces.

However, AEG Presents has been on the search for the right spot to build a new music venue for nearly a decade. After deciding to forgo buying the Fillmore, which AEG helped developed, the venue just wasn’t an option insofar as it is now largely controlled by rival promotion giant, Live Nation. Instead, Don Strasburg, co-president and senior talent buyer for AEG’s Rocky Mountains division, began scouting a new location to break ground for a new venue to match the Fillmore’s “mid-size ballroom” level capacity. In industry lingo, that term boils down to a venue that can host touring bands who are too big for smaller capacity theaters, yet not quite big enough to fill arenas.

Denver’s RiNo District provides the perfect home

When Strasburg and his team happened across a plot of land inside Denver’s River North (RiNo) district, just north of downtown, they knew it was the perfect location right out of the gate. They couldn’t have asked for a more perfect local, says Strasburg, if not for its strategic positioning right off a Metro light rail stop.

“We were all looking at each other and we just knew,” Strasburg said. “This location was exactly what we were looking for.”

Situated at 4242 Wynkoop, the Mission Ballroom sits in a bustling portion of the city, which makes it highly convenient to throw live music shows. “It may not be the quietest place to live, but it’s a great place to throw a party,” continues Strasburg.

The Mission’s new home in the RiNo district also stands as a direct reflection of the culture of the neighborhood, with Tracy Weil, co-founder of the district, calling the venue “a real game-changer.” Strasburg said that it was important for “the venue to represent the community… Being an arts facility seems to fit in very closely with the culture of RiNo.”

The Mission Ballroom, specs and opening week

Covering 60,000-square feet of space, the Mission’s core design concept was built for minimalism and adaptability. “It’s designed to grow and shrink depending on attendance expectations, with a movable stage mounted on trolleys that can change the room from 2,200-capacity to 3,950-capacity,” according to The Denver Post.

Not only does the venue stand as the city’s first major, multi-purpose music venue to be built in decades, its a state-of-the-art space to house AEG’s hundreds of year-round concerts. Not to mention, it’s going to seriously rival Live Nation’s Fillmore.

The Mission has neared the final touches of completion and is primed for a grand opening date next week with The Lumineers. Its opening week is also completely booked up with a diverse range of acts — from FKJ (August 8), Trey Anastasio Band (August 9-10), Gregory Alan Isakov (August 11), Ben Harper (August 12), Steve Miller Band (August 13) and Herbie Hancock with Kamasi Washington (August 14).

For more information and tickets, visit The Mission Ballroom’s official website.

Via: The Know