Chipotle Cultivate Festival

This past weekend was the 2nd Annual Chipotle Cultivate Festival! It was wicked fun and had great food, a great purpose, and of course GREAT MUSIC!

The Chipotle Cultivate Festival is basically a food, ideas, and music festival put on by the restaurant chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill (which started in Denver by the way), to promote sustainable and responsible farming practices. Chipotle as a company buys almost all of their ingredients for their restaurants from their local farms across the country. They never use meats treated with antibiotics and always use vegetables without chemicals. They believe (and I can agree) that their food is not only better for you because of these practices but also tastes more fresh and more flavorful.

As a part of this free event, they offered several 45 minute concerts throughout the day! The lineup was as follows:

Air Dubai
Good Old War
Allen Stone
Blitzen Trapper
Chris Golub
Cold War Kids

Talk about a fun day, right??

Air Dubai

For those of you who do not know, each year Channel 93.3 - Denver's top station for alternative rock - puts on a contest each year called Hometown for the Holidays where local bands from the Denver area can compete for the public's votes to win which earns them a chance to be played on the radio and potentially to be signed with a label! In 2010, Air Dubai earned this honor with their pop-rap style and popping beats. Naturally, they were the opener for the festival celebrating one of Denver's hometown restaurants - Chipotle.

Following Air Dubai, was the folk band Good Old War. Now, I had heard of Good Old War before hand and I was fan, but I didn't really realize how musical this group was until I saw them live. Literally, this band is made up of a single guitar and the vocal chords of three guys. That's it! And yet their sound is so full. They definitely played a solid set. Check out some footage below.

Up next was Allen Stone, a self-proclaimed hippy singer-songwriter with a fun voice and just enough sass and jazz to really uplift a crowd. Unfortunately, I didn't get any footage of his performance but to make up for it, here's his Spotify page.

I'll be honest, I didn't stay to listen to Blitzen Trapper, so I cannot say anything about them other than direct you to their Spotify page, too. And, if you're wondering who Chris Golub is, he is the master behind the curation of the soundtrack you hear at Chipotle's everywhere. I guess you could say that he is Chipotle's own personal DJ. He spun tracks between sets.

Cold War Kids

But the day was not over yet! The headlining band was yet to perform.... COLD WAR KIDS!! All you indie fans out there, try to contain your excitement. They also played a fresh set. Cold War Kids really is that type of music that has just enough sass and edge to make you throw your hands up, close your eyes, and throw a smolder on your face and just move to the beat of the music with edge and a tinge of grit.

Nathan Willett of Cold War Kids

This was somewhat of a short review, but serisouly, if you are in the Denver area, come check out the Chipotle Cultivate Festival next year. They always have great bands (Grouplove played last year....) and I'm sure they won't disappoint next year. The next city the Festival is heading to is Chicago! Check out the lineup here. And man, oh man, it's a good one!

Peace out!