Three days of music and more to promote outdoor industry is moving to Auraria campus
This weekend’s Outside Days festival will deepen at least two iconic bands’ long roots in Denver and its surrounding areas. Notably, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips, whose Saturday night appearance will mark the band’s 20th wild and hopefully wonderfully weird Colorado concert.
Coyne and his heartfelt Oklahoma indie-rock brethren have performed here alongside a menagerie of human stuffed animals. Coyne once arrived on the Red Rocks stage by rolling atop the heads of adoring zealots from inside a Gyllenhaal-sized plastic bubble. They’ve played a couple of times alongside the 80-member Colorado Symphony.
My best friend and his wife were so aligned with Coyne’s belief that happiness is a choice and that life is a profoundly beautiful — if temporary — experience that they gave one son the middle name Wayne. Elder and baby Wayne met in person at an in-store band appearance at Twist & Shout Records. I was one proud godfather.
The Flaming Lips will perform a festival-friendly iteration of their “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” 20th anniversary show on Saturday at the Outside Days festival in a new location – on the Auraria campus. While festival sets are tighter than their standalone evening shows, the Lips’ recent 2026 festival appearances indicate we will be hearing massive staples like “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” “Fight Test,” and their evergreen closer, “Do You Realize?” (But feel free to expect other greatest-hit anthems as well, including “She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Race for the Prize.”)…