Toast to local spirits
Saturday. If you’re craving a trip to the mountains and a tipple, don your best Prohibition-era outfit and head to Estes Park for the Rocky Mountain Craft Spirits Festival. The Estes Park Event Complex will be transformed into a speakeasy with secret lounges, live jazz and swing music, and chances to sample the best in locally made liquor. More than 40 distillers and other vendors will be on site to make sure your glass is always half full, as you pose for vintage tin plate portrait photos and attend live educational tastings. Now that sounds like a roaring good time.
The Rocky Mountain Craft Spirits Festival comes to 1125 Rooftop Way in Estes Park, on Saturday, Nov. 1, from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets cost $53.17 at eventsinestes.com/rocky-mountain-craft-spirits-festival. — Tiney Ricciardi
Buntport and Poe
Friday-Nov. 16. Denver’s sturdy, innovative Buntport Theater, which just purchased its own building, is bringing Edgar Allen Poe’s spook-tastic writing to life with the tongue-in-cheek “Edgar Allan Poe Is Dead and So Is My Cat.” The comedic re-staging opens the theater company’s laudatory 25th season and runs (appropriately) from Friday, Oct. 31 to Nov. 16.
Says Buntport: “(It’s) an outlandish comedy about obsession, thrift store finds, and the chicken from Boston Market.” OK then! Oh, and be sure to wear your Halloween costume on opening night. See the show Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.; and Monday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. ASL interpretation and audio description available on Sunday, Nov. 2. Captioning available on Nov. 15 and 16. 717 Lipan St. in Denver. Tickets are name-your-price. 720-946-1388 or buntport.com — John Wenzel
Harlem jazz revival
Tuesday. If you’ve never seen a concert at Capitol Hill’s First Baptist Church of Denver, you’re not alone. But now’s your chance: the tidy church, catty-corner from the State Capitol, is on Tuesday, Nov. 4, hosting a Harlem jazz revival concert as part of the Soulful Sounds touring series.
The music-and-comedy night includes jazz and R&B from New York-based players and veers from Erykah Badu to Billie Holiday. Organizers encourage attendees to dress in Harlem Renaissance garb to complement “the historic sanctuary’s stunning architecture and stained glass windows,” according to the church’s website. 1373 Grant St. in Denver. Tickets: $35-$45 via acuteinflections.com. — John Wenzel
Día de los Muertos at night
Saturday-Monday. There is no shortage of kid-friendly Día de los Muertos parties and interactive altars around the metro area this weekend, but we’ve always been keen to point out that Longmont’s celebrations are the state’s oldest. The city already held its outdoor family party for the year (on Oct. 11), but Saturday, Nov. 1, brings the also-worthy “Noche de Museo: Celebrating Day of the Dead” performance.
The all-ages event, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Stewart Auditorium in the Longmont Museum, features poet ZBassSpeaks, dance by Grupo Azteca Tlahuitzcallii, and the music of iZCALLi, organizers said, adding that the show “will span the ages, from ancient Aztecan dance with Grupo Mexica Tlahuitzcalli to the genre-bending rock and roll of iZCALLi.” 400 Quail Road in Longmont. Tickets: $20 via longmontcolorado.gov/event/noche-de-museo. — John Wenzel