Boulder Creek Festival

What Is the Boulder Creek Festival?

The Boulder Creek Festival runs Memorial Day Weekend, May 22 through 25, 2026, along the banks of Boulder Creek in the heart of Boulder, Colorado, with the Flatirons rising sharply to the west and a spring-fed creek rushing past your feet. Now in its 36th year, the free community event draws more than 150,000 attendees across the weekend and serves as the unofficial kickoff to Colorado summer. Presented by the City of Boulder and Team Player Productions, it brings together live music on three stages, a 200-vendor artisan market, food trucks, a craft beer festival, kids programming, and a live art competition into one walkable, creekside corridor that feels less like a managed event and more like Boulder simply deciding to celebrate itself.

Music, Art, and the Creekside Beer Fest

The main Bandshell stage anchors the music lineup with 30 or more artists across the weekend, covering indie rock, folk, bluegrass, and reggae. Past headliners have included Steely Dead, Magic Beans, and Boulder Sound Machine. The 2026 music lineup will be confirmed closer to the event, so checking bouldercreekfest.com in April is worth building into your planning. Running alongside the music is the Street Wise Art Battle, where ten hand-selected artists compete in a live painting competition at the festival’s Art Zone on Saturday and Sunday, with finished works auctioned to benefit Street Wise Arts. The Creekside Beer Fest features more than 20 Colorado breweries, including Avery Brewing Co., Upslope Brewery, and Ratio Beerworks, in an all-inclusive tasting format on Saturday and Sunday, with tickets launching in April.

What Adventure Families Will Love Most

Creekside for Kids brings dedicated children’s programming across the full weekend, with concerts by performers like Jeff and Paige, interactive games, carnival rides, and hands-on activities that hold up through a full afternoon. The festival’s location along Boulder Creek Trail means active families can walk or ride into the festival from Eben G. Fine Park to the west, treating the creek path itself as the opening act. More than 30 food trucks and vendors cover everything from vegan and international cuisine to classic carnival favorites, so feeding a group with different appetites is genuinely easy. The free admission removes the pressure of a tight schedule, letting kids and parents move between the creek, the music, and the market at whatever pace the day demands.

Boulder Creek and the Broader Outdoor Picture

Boulder Creek runs directly through the festival grounds, and the water is cold, fast, and full of personality by late May when snowmelt from the Indian Peaks Wilderness keeps the flow strong. Eben G. Fine Park at the creek’s west trailhead gives families a natural starting point for a morning walk before the festival crowds build. After the festival, the Boulder Reservoir sits just five miles north of downtown, offering open-water swimming, paddleboarding, sailing, and boat rentals on a 700-acre Front Range lake with clear views of the mountains. For families who want more vertical in their weekend, Chautauqua Park and the Flatirons trailheads are a ten-minute drive from the festival grounds.

Where to Stay Near Boulder Creek Festival

Boulder’s hotels along Canyon Boulevard and the Pearl Street corridor fill quickly for Memorial Day weekend, so booking well in advance is essential. Families who want space and quiet alongside the festival energy will find the Boulder Reservoir area and the surrounding communities north of town offer short-term rental options with more room to spread out. For a full lakeside extension of the weekend, Carter Lake and Boyd Lake State Park sit within 30 miles of Boulder, where waterfront cabins and campsites put the water within reach the morning after the festival closes. Browse available lake properties on Lake.com to pair Boulder’s Memorial Day energy with a few slower days on the water before summer fully arrives.