Fireworks are a quintessential New Year’s Eve event, whether your plans include a raucous party or a chill gathering of friends. Only a couple of cities on the Front Range will be hosting fireworks this year, so they are bound to be prime attractions.

Or you could head to the mountains where many towns will be shooting fireworks off early to accommodate kids (and the cold). Most include a torchlight parade, in which skiers carry flares for a spectacular visual effect as they come down the mountain.

Join us as we count down the 10 best places to see New Year’s Eve fireworks in Colorado.

Downtown Denver

The 16th Street Mall (1001 16th St., Denver) will be the epicenter of the Mile High City’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, with a free, outdoor block party featuring multiple fireworks shows. At 9 p.m. and midnight, fireworks will illuminate the skyline and DJs along the promenade will play a soundtrack to the 8-minute show. Live music will continue between displays, too, for NYE revelers in the area.

Find more information at denver.org/event/new-years-eve-fireworks/108069/.

Parker

Douglas County celebrates New Year’s Eve with a fireworks-inspired drone show at EchoPark Stadium (11901 Newlin Gulch Blvd., Parker) starting at 7 p.m. Attendees will be able to watch from the parking lot and because no food or drinks will be for sale, they can also bring their own.

Find more information at douglas.co.us/event/new-years-eve-drone-show/.

Keystone

The best spots for viewing Keystone Resort’s NYE fireworks display, which starts at 7 p.m., will be at the base of River Run Gondola and River Run Village (100 Dercum Square, Keystone). That is, unless you choose to go night skiing, in which case you can take in the spectacle from the slopes.

Find more information at keystoneresort.com/explore-the-resort/activities-and-events/events-calendar.aspx.

Copper Mountain

Skiers celebrating the end of the year with laps at Copper Mountain can join a party in the Center Village (206 Ten Mile Circle, Frisco) that kicks off with a torchlight parade at 6 p.m. and ends with fireworks at 10 p.m. A DJ will spin tunes as vendors sell food and drinks at this free, family-friendly event.

Find more information at coppercolorado.com/things-to-do/events/december-events/new-years-eve-2023.

Vail

The Vail Ski and Snowboard School kicks off the NYE fun with a torchlight parade down Golden Peak (75 S. Frontage Road, West Vail), followed by fireworks that will be visible throughout the mountain town. The parade starts at 6:15 p.m. and fireworks start at 6:25 p.m.

Find more information at discovervail.com/event/new-years-eve-torchlight-parade-fireworks/.

Beaver Creek

The Winter Circus comes to Beaver Creek Village (26 Avondale Lane, Avon) to add a little wonder to this New Year’s Eve. The party starts with a 6 p.m. “ski down” the mountain, during which 200 skiers equipped with glowsticks will traverse the slopes down to the base where aerialists, contortionists, jugglers, break dancers, and fire dancers will be performing. Enjoy food and drinks until fireworks go off over Beaver Creek Mountain at 10 p.m.

Find more information beavercreek.com/explore-the-resort/activities/beaver-creek-events.aspx.

Aspen

Fireworks will illuminate the sky over Aspen Mountain at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Before the show, stop by the outdoor pedestrian mall in downtown (at the intersection of Mill Street and Cooper Avenue, Aspen) to enjoy music, firepits, hot chocolate and entertainment such as winter fairies and stilt walkers (noon to 3 p.m.). Or head to the Aspen Ice Garden and go ice skating for free from 3 to 6 p.m. (233 W. Hyman Ave., Aspen).

More information at aspenspecialevents.com/new-years-eve/.

Snowmass

So you’ve watched a torchlight parade, but have you ever participated in one? Snowmass invites intermediate skiers ages 8 and up to join its New Year’s Eve torchlight parade – no lift ticket required. The parade starts at 6 p.m. and cascades down Fanny Hill before a fireworks show at 10 p.m. To watch the festivities, head to the Snowmass Base Village (84 Carriage Way, Snowmass Village).

Find more information at gosnowmass.com/event/nye-torchlight-parade/.

Telluride

Dual torchlight parades will descend from the peak of Telluride Ski Resort down the mountains to the town center and to Mountain Village starting at 6:30 p.m. Fireworks follow the parades and visibility will be best from the Mountain Village core (670 Mountain Village Blvd., Mountain Village), which is also a public consumption area. That means you can grab a beer to-go from one of the bars to enjoy during the show.

Find more information at telluride.com/event/new-years-eve-torchlight-parade-fireworks/.

Steamboat Springs

Snowcats decorated with lights will help Steamboat Springs ring in 2024. The snowcat parade precedes a torchlight parade and fireworks to cap off the evening. The free event runs 5:30 to 6 p.m. at the base of the ski resort (2305 Mt. Werner Circle, Steamboat Springs).

Find more information at steamboat.com/things-to-do/events/new-years-eve-fireworks-and-light-up-snow-cat-parade.

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The couple announced the birth of their daughter, Amora Princess Wilson, on Monday, a day after the Denver Broncos defeated the Los Angeles Chargers.

“2 wins in less than 24 hours!” Russell Wilson posted on Twitter, adding the baby made her debut at 9 pounds and 1 ounce.

AMORA PRINCESS WILSON
9lbs 1oz
We Love You so much! @Ciara

2 wins in less than 24 hours! pic.twitter.com/UbhZJMIA3T

— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) December 11, 2023

Amora is the fourth kiddo to join the bunch. The Wilsons share a daughter Sienna, 6, and a son Win, 3. Ciara’s first child, 9-year-old Future Zhair, is with her ex, Future.

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Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” dominated the Golden Globe Awards nominations with nine nods for the blockbuster film, including best picture musical or comedy as well as acting nominations for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and three of its original songs.

It was closely followed by its release date and meme companion “Oppenheimer,” which scored eight nominations, including best picture drama and for actors Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt.

The revamped group, now a for-profit endeavor with a larger and more diverse voting body, announced nominations Monday for its January awards show, after scandal and several troubled years, including one without a broadcast. Cedric the Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama presided over the announcements from the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the show will also take place on Jan. 7.

Films nominated for best motion picture drama included “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”

In the best motion picture musical or comedy category, “Barbie” was joined by “Air,” “American Fiction” “The Holdovers,” “May December” and “Poor Things.”

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” both received seven nominations each. “Poor Things” saw nominations for Lanthimos, its actors Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Tony McNamara for screenplay and Jerskin Fendrix for score. “Killers of the Flower Moon” got nods for Scorsese, for direction and co-writing the screenplay with Eric Roth, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro.

“Barbie” tied for second-most nominations in Globes history with “Cabaret,” from 1972. Robert Altman’s “Nashville” remains the record-holder with 11 nominations. It went into the morning as a favorite top, and got a big boost from its three original song nominations, including “I’m Just Ken,” and one of the year’s new categories, recognizing cinematic and box office achievement. One person who was not nominated was America Ferrera, who delivered the movie’s most memorable monologue.

“Succession” was the top-nominated television program, with nine nods including for series stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin.

The box office achievement category nominated eight films, including “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Mission: Impossible -Dead Reckoning,” “John Wick: Chapter 4” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Several years ago the Oscars attempted to add a similar “popular film” category, but it proved to be an immensely unpopular decision and was scuttled amid backlash.

As always there were some big surprises, like Jennifer Lawrence getting nominated for her bawdy R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings” for best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy. She was nominated alongside Robbie, Stone and Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”), Natalie Portman (“May December”) and Alma Pöysti (“Fallen Leaves”).

“The Color Purple” was expected to do better with the Golden Globes. The adaption of the stage musical got only two nominations total for Barrino and Danielle Brooks for her supporting performance.

Cord Jefferson’s comedy “American Fiction” also came up with only two nods, best musical or comedy and for lead actor Jeffrey Wright.

Sofia Coppola’s widely acclaimed “Priscilla” got only one nomination, for actor Cailee Spaeny’s portrayal of Priscilla Presley. Her category mates in best female performance in a drama include Gladstone, Annette Bening for “Nyad,” Sandra Hüller for “Anatomy of a Fall,” Greta Lee for “Past Lives” and Carey Mulligan for “Maestro.”

The Globes won’t have to worry about anyone criticizing its “all male” directors this year, however. Gerwig was nominated as was Celine Song, for her romantic debut “Past Lives,” alongside Nolan, Scorsese, Cooper and Lanthimos.

Netflix got the most nominations overall, with 13 total for a slate which included “Maestro,” “May December” and “Rustin,” followed by Warner Bros., which made “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “The Color Purple” with 12.

Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” was not nominated at all. Instead, its star Joaquin Phoenix was recognized for “Beau is Afraid” in the lead actor comedy/musical category, with Wright, Matt Damon (“Air”), Nicolas Cage “Dream Scenario,” Timothée Chalamet (“Wonka”) and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”). Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” with Adam Driver, also got zero nominations.

Here are a selection of other nominees:

Animated film: “The Boy and the Heron”; “Elemental”; “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”; “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”; “Suzume”; “Wish.”

Non-English language film: “Anatomy of a Fall”; “Fallen Leaves”; “Io Capitano”; “Past Lives”; “Society of the Snow”; “The Zone of Interest.”

Best actor in a television drama: Brian Cox, “Succession”; Kieran Culkin, “Succession”; Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”; Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”; Jeremy Strong, “Succession”; Dominic West, “The Crown.”

Female actor in a television comedy: Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”; Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”; Elle Fanning, “The Great”; Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”; Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face.”

Male actor in a television comedy: Bill Hader, “Barry”; Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”; Jason Segel, “Shrinking”; Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”; Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”; Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear.”

Screenplay: “Anatomy of a Fall”; “Barbie”; “Poor Things”; “Killers of the Flower Moon”; “Oppenheimer”; “Past Lives.”

Best stand-up comedy television special: Ricky Gervais, “Armageddon”; Trevor Noah, “Where Was I”; Chris Rock, “Selective Outrage”; Amy Schumer, “Emergency Contact”; Sarah Silverman, “Someone You Love”; Wanda Sykes, “I’m an Entertainer.”

The 81st Golden Globe Awards will be the first major broadcast of awards season, with a new home on CBS. And while to audiences it might look similar on the surface, it’s been tumultuous few years behind the scenes following a bombshell report in the Los Angeles Times. The 2021 report found that there were no Black members in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards.

Stars and studios boycotted the Globes and NBC refused to air it in 2022 as a result. After the group added journalists of color to its ranks and instituted other reforms to address ethical concerns, the show came back in January 2023 in a one-year probationary agreement with NBC. The network did not opt to renew.

In June, billionaire Todd Boehly was granted approval to dissolve the HFPA and reinvent the Golden Globes as a for-profit organization. Its assets were acquired by Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, along with Dick Clark Productions, a group that is owned by Penske Media whose assets also include Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Billboard. In mid-November, CBS announced that it would air the ceremony on the network on Jan. 7. It will also stream on Paramount+.

The Golden Globe Awards had long been one of the highest-profile awards season broadcasts, second only to the Oscars.

The show was touted as a boozy, A-list party, whose hosts often took a more irreverent tone than their academy counterparts. It also only honored the flashiest filmmaking categories — picture, director, actors among them — meaning no long speeches from visual effects supervisors or directors of shorts no one has heard of.

But the voting body was a small group of around 87 members who wielded incredible influence in the industry and often accepted lavish gifts and travel from studios and awards publicists eager to court favor and win votes.

Some years, the HFPA were pilloried for nominating poorly reviewed films with big name talent with hopes of getting them to the show, the most infamous being “The Tourist,” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. In the past decade, they’ve more often overlapped with the Oscars. The show also recognizes television.

Before the expose and public relations crisis though, no one in the industry took much umbrage with who was voting on the awards. The show had become an important part of the Hollywood awards ecosystem, a platform for Oscar hopefuls and was, until recently, a reliable ratings draw. As of 2019, it was still pulling in nearly 19 million viewers to the broadcast. This year, NBC’s Tuesday night broadcast got its smallest audience ever for a traditional broadcast, with 6.3 million viewers.

The group nominating and voting for the awards is now made up of a more diverse group of over 300 people from around the world.

Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Denver DJ-producer Illenium likely set records at Empower Field at Mile High, from the most tickets sold for a weekend run (Swift), to the biggest, venue-based concert in Denver history (Sheeran) and the biggest-ever show from a Colorado artist (Illenium).

As state and federal legislators again failed to pass meaningful legislation protecting consumers from outrageous ticketing fees, prices soared. A nosebleed seat to one of Swift’s shows at Empower Field may have cost less than $50 if you were lucky enough to get one during the disastrous Ticketmaster pre-sale. But thousands were forced to buy them on the secondary market for prices ranging from $500 to $10,000 per seat.

The Wall Street Journal found that the average price of a concert had doubled in the past five years, increasing from $125 in 2019 to $252 in 2023. The story was the same with re-sellers such as SeatGeek, whose resale averages doubled from the previous year to roughly the same price.

Those secondary-market tickets were also sold on sites like StubHub which, it should be noted, was forced to refund $3 million to more than 8,500 Colorado consumers in 2021 after the Colorado Attorney General’s Office found it wasn’t honoring its refund guarantees. Senate Bill 60 — a.k.a. Consumer Protection in Event Ticketing Sales Act — easily passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis in June because it could upset “the successful entertainment ecosystem in Colorado,” he said after killing it. Supporters vowed to revive it.

Local notes, some off-key

Denver strengthened its hold on electronic dance music, with artists, fans and promoters reinforcing the Mile High City as the global capital of the bass subgenre. Transplants such as French producer and DJ CloZee notched crucial headlining spots on the way to bigger, better appearances at venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Provided you were willing to align yourself with mega-promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, the path from support act to Red Rocks headliner had never looked clearer.

Even as massive concerts continued at the 18,000-seat Fiddlers Green Amphitheatre, and heritage acts played their final Colorado shows (see Eagles, Dead & Company, Foreigner), festivals in metro Denver took a dip. The pause of this year’s Westword Music Showcase left a local music hole in June as the multi-venue event took the year off. Fortunately, South Broadway’s Underground Music Showcase got more equitable and community-oriented as it increasingly catered to all-ages, sober and BIPOC performers, such as the fast-ascending, R&B/hip-hop sensation N3PTUNE, amid a hundred-plus other acts.

The jazz world wobbled as Vail Jazz shut down after nearly than three decades, Denver Post jazz columnist Bret Saunders wrote. The free City Park Jazz series was also clipped by a series of June rainouts, denting its much-needed donations and attendance. The dearly departed El Chapultepec made a comeback of sorts with a legacy/archive project. The former owners sponsored shows at the nationally acclaimed Denver jazz club Dazzle — which itself reopened in a slick, more affordable space in downtown’s Performing Arts Complex. There, blockbuster Broadway musicals such as the jukebox-hit “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” wowed audiences at the nearby Buell Theatre, drawing people to an urban core that’s still hollowed out from the pandemic.

Icons such as the historic Denver Folklore Center changed hands to an equally capable owner in Ian Dehmel, while nearby folk-music hub Swallow Hill welcomed a new concert director in music veteran David Dugan, just days after executive director Aengus Finnan finished out his first full year at the nonprofit.

Immersive entertainment company Meow Wolf, meanwhile, continued making good on its promise to support local artists with diverse, thoughtfully booked shows at the 488-person capacity Perplexiplex venue, from drag showcases to up-and-coming queer singer-songwriters.

Meow Wolf also brought back a slightly reworked Vortex music and art festival to Live Nation’s new-ish JunkYard outdoor venue. Smaller festivals and block parties mingled craft brews and local music favorites. The Colorado Music Hall of Fame inducted progressive bluegrass legend Yonder Mountain String Band, which celebrated the achievement at Telluride’s 50th anniversary bluegrass fest. Hazel Miller, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and jazz pioneer George Morrison Sr. also got overdue spots in the state’s music hall. Alongside, jamgrass veteran The String Cheese Incident (already in the music hall as of 2022) celebrated its 30th anniversary of helping create and lead the genre.

Colorado Symphony dipped further into its pop collaborations with its Imagination Artist Series, which included not only local platinum-seller Nathaniel Rateliff but also a world premiere from Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA. (More were just announced with the same artists for 2024.)

But as venues and performers struggled to sustain comebacks in the face of cost-of-living and rent increases, every little bit of support made a difference. That included potentially career-changing shows at Levitt Pavilion Denver, which presented 50 free, quality concerts over the summer, and programs from the nonprofit Youth on Record and the state’s Take Note Colorado music education drive.

A garden of faceplants

In terms of national acts, Drake came up with perhaps the most lame excuse for a concert postponement in the history of Colorado music, blaming a last-minute ghosting on “the distance the road crew has to travel along with the magnitude of the production,” which made it “logistically impossible to bring the full experience of the show to Denver … .” The show was rescheduled for January at Ball Arena, with another date added, but one would’ve thought they figured out production details before putting tickets on sale and prompting more than 10,000 people to schedule their lives around it.

We also mourned the latest tour-dissing by Beyoncé, and wondered why current tours from Janet Jackson, Pearl Jam and Metallica snubbed Denver.

Bizarrely, and sadly, Royal Trux leader and indie rock veteran Neil Hagerty was charged with a trio of felonies in an alleged assault on a Denver police officer. The gloom also hung over some indie venues as HQ (formerly 3 Kings Tavern) flooded and closed after a devastating water break (it has since reopened), and workers at the Mercury Cafe — which hosts jazz, experimental music, poetry and comedy — pushed for a union after complaining of unsafe work conditions. Punk rock mainstay Carioca Cafe (a.k.a. Bar Bar) and Wax Trax Records grappled with the city over noise complaints and permits, while jam band Lotus and other acts lost crucial members to untimely deaths.

Broomfield’s troubled FirstBank Center shut down, and Loveland’s Budweiser Events Center announced a name change to Blue Arena. In Colorado Springs, the $55 million Sunset Amphitheater complex broke ground on its way to a planned June 2024 opening. And at a Louis Tomlinson show at Red Rocks in June, nearly 100 fans got cuts, bruises and broken bones after intense hail. Some concession stand workers reportedly laughed at them from their shelters, prompting calls for earlier storm warnings and more safety coverage at the city-owned venue. With climate change worsening, it seems to be just the tip of the extreme-weather risks for future outdoor concerts.

On the brighter side, salsa destination La Rumba marked its quarter-century milestone as Spanish-language concerts at venues ranging from Ball Arena to Levitt Pavilion and Aurora’s Stampede proliferated. That, along with supportive, sober and all-ages options, are a pair of trends we’d like to see continue into 2024.

Looking for a preview of the musical year ahead? Check out our updated list of 2024 Red Rocks concerts, plus music news, profiles and more at denverpost.com/tag/music.

And The Denver Post’s readers love to dig into those stories. This year, as always, skiing was one of the top topics of discussion, especially Epic Pass sales and a resort ranking. But hiking and camping were also big, especially when it came to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We also had an unusual sighting, literally, in our top 10. But we’ll let you see that for yourself. Here are our 10 most-read outdoor recreation stories of the year, with the number-one story at the end.

Bad drivers in the backcountry are a big problem

The sheriff in San Miguel County called a group of people who slid off Black Bear Pass in their truck “ass clowns,” which is funny. But the problem is real: More and more people, who lack skills or experience or proper maps, are driving on backcountry roads they can’t handle in Colorado — or simply ignoring closures — resulting in more rescues.

First-of-its-kind hiking permit proposed for Blue Lakes

The gorgeous Blue Lakes in the San Juan Mountains near Telluride have become so crowded in recent years that the U.S. Forest Service wants to require permits just to hike there during the day — as well as to camp. The goal of the plan, which would be the first in Colorado of its kind on forest service land, is to reduce the environmental impact of recreation.

Colorado’s oldest chairlift will be retired at age 70

Sunlight Mountain Resort’s Sunlight chairlift began its long life at Aspen in 1954 before being relocated in 1973. Since then, it has faithfully served skiers at Sunlight. The relic of ski history engineering is still safe, but is scheduled to be put out to pasture this spring.

High-alpine lake is one of Colorado’s most spectacular hikes

Nearly 2,500 feet below the summit of Long’s Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park is a beautiful alpine tarn called Chasm Lake. The 4.2 hike to get there is strenuous, but the steep rock walls soaring into the air above the water make it one of the most beautiful payoffs in Colorado.

Another hassle awaits Rocky Mountain National Park visitors

Rocky Mountain National Park has been feeling the heat. Not only will its busiest campground, Moraine Park, be closed into this summer (see below), but visitation continues to soar, resulting in what will likely be a permanent ticketing system. To make things worse, one of its two Estes Park-area entrances, Fall River, was under construction all summer and fall.

Epic Pass prices increase, early bird on sale for 2023-24 season

Vail Resorts announced its early bird prices in March for this season’s Epic Passes — and Denver Post readers wanted to know all about it. Of course they did. The pass, which includes Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge and Crested Butte, is one of the hottest items in Colorado. so the costs, the on-sale dates and every other detail is big news.

Colorado ski resort named the best in North America by website

Magazines, newspapers and websites love to rank things, including ski resorts, and since Colorado has some of the best in the world, they often end up on lists. In March, readers of OnTheSnow, a website, voted Steamboat as North America’s best overall resort.

Campground closure at RMNP could have ripple effect across Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park’s largest campground, the immensely popular Moraine Park, shut down last summer so it could undergo a major modernization project, meaning 244 fewer sites in the area. That figured to put more pressure on nearby campgrounds in the adjacent and already overloaded national forests. The campground will hopefully reopen in June 2024.

Coloradans may see Northern Lights more often in coming months

Seeing the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is on a lot of people’s bucket lists. So, how cool would it be to be able to see them from Colorado rather than having to travel to the Arctic? Space weather predictors say there is more of a possibility of that happening in 2024 with increasing solar storm activity — something that happens in an 11-year cycle.

Bigfoot may have been caught on camera from Durango train

In October, a Wyoming couple was looking for elk while riding the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in southwest Colorado when they spotted, well, something that looked like Bigfoot. The story made national news after a video taken by another passenger went viral online. Was it really the famed but elusive cryptid? We’ll let you judge for yourself. See our story, with video, here.

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Travel guides, transplants (and even this publication) have plenty of thoughts about Colorado’s best pizza places. I’m a transplant, too, and have fallen in love over the years with local favorites ranging from Beau Jo’s honeyed crust to Cart-Driver’s wood-fired pie.

Related: 11 of the best pizza joints in and around Denver

But having arrived here 23 years ago from Dayton, Ohio — a city that’s no slouch when it comes to pizza — I’ve become dependent on a Denver shop that feels positively old-school compared to the new class of local pie-slingers.

Since 1996, Enzo’s End Pizzeria has been a comforting anchor on the semi-gentrified stretch of East Colfax Avenue between Colorado Boulevard and York Street, where pedestrian traffic is fairly constant. Its red, thatched shingles and vinyl-booth dining room share space (and an interior door) with the also excellent, also old-school PS Lounge.

Tipplers at that bar can order pizzas from Enzo’s while they hang at PS — itself a cash-only classic where women get free roses upon entering, and everyone gets a free shot of the (admittedly weak) Alabama Slammer.

I don’t drink alcohol anymore, but I do have many fond and blurry memories of digging into a New York-style, thin-crust pie from Enzo’s during nights out. Fortunately, Enzo’s stands alone. Its clean-finishing, toothsome crust and 30 high-quality toppings (the usuals, but also garlic chicken and sautéed spinach) are brought together with mozzarella that is lactose-free.

As my food-writer wife informed me, there are various reasons why cheeses tend to lose their lactose (in the production process, as they age, etc.). But Enzo’s version has always had an ideal mix of gooey and giving and savory, concealing a tart and perfectly applied sauce with garden-fresh tomato flavor.

A 12-inch small ‘za costs $18 before toppings, so it’s definitely not cheap. But do you always want the cheapest pizza available? With a refund guarantee and a tasty side salad, there’s little risk in eating Enzo’s. The reward, however, is immediate and lasting.

Enzo’s End Pizzeria. New York-style thin-crust pies. For dine-in, takeout and delivery; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. 3424 E. Colfax Ave. enzosend.com or 303-355-4700

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Those admission price add-ons are usually saved for blockbuster shows built around artists most people know and love already. (DAM actually has one on display now in the form of “All Stars,” a traveling blow-out featuring names like Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence and Jackson Pollock.)

Retrospectives of work by living and lesser-known artists are nearly always included with the regular ticket, and that newcomer description still fits Boafo, who is just 39, and who has had limited exposure to U.S. audiences. With so much to see at DAM already, and with admission costs already steep, visitors will be reluctant to take a risk.

But I encourage paying a bit more to see this offering. Boafo is a unique talent and a rising star in the international art scene. The exhibition, titled “Soul of Black Folks,” is a terrific introduction to his work.

The exhibition, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensa and now making the rounds of regional museums, has more than 30 paintings (mostly oils on canvas or paper) and they are all in his signature style of portrait-making. They are handsomely, and leisurely, arranged on the first floor of DAM’s Hamilton Building, with a soundtrack of upbeat pop songs, curated by the artist himself, providing the viewing experience with a solid momentum.

Portraits, of course, are old news in the painting world, and Boafo fits snugly into the tradition — in some ways. His subjects pose for him, patiently and with vulnerability, and he has them gaze directly back at him in a way that captures their personalities while engaging viewers in deep conversations. Looking at Boafo’s pictures is something of a staring contest with the people in them.

The subjects are of-the-moment — men, women, pairs, several self-portraits — but the show has a timeless feel. Boafo is sometimes put in a  class with contemporaries such as Kerry James Marshall and Jordan Casteel, two other Black painters who are popular with collectors and critics in the current age, and he does, like those artists, often paint Black subjects.

But it is just as easy to frame him as an heir to the influences of European heroes past, such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Like those old-school stars, he is heavy into silhouettes, disappearing backgrounds and very conscious choices in the personal details that he paints into his work. He might play up a certain article of clothing or an accessory or a pet as a way of making those items appear crucial to the identity of his subjects.

At times, he makes those details central to the viewing experience. Take, for example, the painting “Green Clutch,” which depicts an adult female figure seated on a chair. She is dressed in a bright green botanical-print top and with her hand at her chin. She appears confident and comfortable and invites us to meet her eye-to-eye.

But because Boafo titles his painting as he does, he forces us to give extra consideration to the small handbag that sits at her hip. The purse is just a split second in a work that is full of motion, but the artist wants us to see how the things we carry or wear are crucial to our identities.

Similar considerations are raised by the painting “Red Collar,” which points us to a very small detail in a portrait of a couple holding a dog. A viewer would naturally focus on the human faces in this work, or on the brightly colored blue-and-red striped dress one of the people is wearing, and which Boafo renders in bright hues. But the title suggests we need to focus on the dog if we really want to understand their essence. It is rare to see titles used with such power in contemporary artworks.

Boafo’s paintings are also notable for the way he depicts skin color. In public discourse, his subjects are often reduced to easy descriptions. We tend to say these people are Black or Brown.

But Boafo isn’t content with such simplicity. His Black and Brown people have traces of reds, grays, yellows and other colors in their flesh. In the piece “Umber Brown Belt,” which depicts a woman dressed in a flower-patterned blouse and black shorts (and, yes, an umber-colored belt), there are all of those shades in her face, plus a distinct blue around her mouth, eye and forehead.

What does he want us to see? Again, you can look at his titles, though this time at the title of the overall exhibition, which is drawn from an essay by civil rights activist and social scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk,” which was published in 1903.

In the work, Du Bois discussed the idea of “double consciousness” or, as the exhibition text points out, the experience of Black people feeling a need to see themselves through their own eyes and, simultaneously, through the eyes of white people around them.

With these images, Boafo invites viewers to see them on their their own terms. The portraits are direct, the subjects are empowered organically to simply be themselves. They control, as much as possible, how they are viewed by all.

In that way, the pictures are simple and complex at the same time. And, it needs to be said, they are endlessly compelling, tactile, colorful, exaggerated, light-hearted, open and, in their way, super serious. They are also commercial works. No surprise that Boafo is represented by New York’s legendary Gagosian gallery.

The pieces are relatable in a way that many portraits are not.  Boafo employs numerous techniques in his work, oil paint and paper transfer. Sometimes he works on canvas and sometimes directly on paper. He uses a brush, but most prominently he uses his fingers, and you can see the width and trails of them in the paintings. His objects feel hand-made and human — because that is how they are created.

IF YOU GO

Amoako Boafo, “Soul of Black Folks”: continues through Feb 19 at the Denver Art Museum. Info: 720-865-5000 or denverartmuseum.org.

Ray Mark Rinaldi is a Denver-based freelance writer specializing in fine arts.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan O’Neal, the heartthrob actor who went from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in “Love Story” and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic 9-year-old daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon,” died Friday, his son said.

“My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us,” Patrick O’Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, posted on Instagram.

No cause of death was given. Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, a decade after he was first diagnosed with chronic leukemia. He was 82.

“My father, Ryan O’Neal, has always been my hero,” Patrick O’Neal wrote, adding, “He is a Hollywood legend. Full stop.”

“He meant the world to me. I loved him very much and know he loved me too,” Tatum O’Neal told People magazine in a statement. “I’ll miss him forever. and I feel very lucky that we ended on such good terms.”

Ryan O’Neal was among the biggest movie stars in the world in the 1970s, working across genres with many of the era’s most celebrated directors including Peter Bogdanovich on “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?” and Stanley Kubrick on “Barry Lyndon.” He often used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy or sinister backgrounds behind their clean-cut images.

O’Neal maintained a steady television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, appearing for stints on “Bones” and “Desperate Housewives,” but his longtime relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life kept him in news.

Twice divorced, O’Neal was romantically involved with Fawcett for nearly 30 years, and they had a son, Redmond, born in 1985. The couple split in 1997, but reunited a few years later. He remained by Fawcett’s side as she battled cancer, which killed her in 2009 at age 62.

With his first wife, Joanna Moore, O’Neal fathered actors Griffin O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie “Paper Moon,” for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. He had son Patrick with his second wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.

Ryan O’Neal had his own best actor Oscar nomination for the 1970 tear-jerker drama “Love Story,” co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer. The movie includes the memorable, but often satirized line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

The actor had at times strained relationships with three of his children, including estrangement from his daughter, squabbles with son Griffin and a drug-related arrest sparked by a probation check of his son Redmond. The personal drama often over-shadowed his later career, although his attempts to reconcile with Tatum O’Neal were turned into a short-lived reality series.

O’Neal played bit parts and performed some stunt work before claiming a lead role on the prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place” (1964-69), which also made a star of Mia Farrow.

From there O’Neal jumped to the big screen with 1969’s “The Big Bounce,” which co-stared his then-wife, Taylor-Young. But it was “Love Story” that made him a movie star.

The romantic melodrama was the highest-grossing film of 1970, became one of Paramount Pictures’ biggest hits and collected seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. It won for best music.

After “Love Story” made him a major movie star, O’Neal was considered for seemingly every major leading role in Hollywood. Paramount even pushed for him to to star as Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” before Al Pacino got the part at the insistence of director Francis Ford Coppola.

O’Neal then starred for Bogdanovich as a bumbling professor opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1972 screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?”

“So sad to hear the news of Ryan O’Neal’s passing,” Streisand, who also starred with O’Neal in the 1979 boxing rom-com “The Main Event,” posted on Instagram. “He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered.”

The year after “What’s Up, Doc?” Bogdanovich cast him in the Depression-era con artist comedy “Paper Moon.”

In it, O’Neal played an unscrupulous Bible salesman preying on widows he located through obituary notices. His real-life daughter, Tatum, played a trash-talking, cigarette-smoking orphan who needs his help — and eventually helps redeem him.

Although critics praised both actors, the little girl’s brash performance overshadowed her father’s and made her the youngest person in history to win a competitive Academy Award. She was 10 when the award was presented in 1974. (Younger performers such as Shirley Temple have won special Oscars.)

The elder O’Neal’s next major film was Kubrick’s 18th century epic “Barry Lyndon,” in which he played a poor Irish rogue who traveled Europe trying to pass himself off as an aristocrat.

Filming the three-hour movie was tedious work, however, and Kubrick’s notorious perfectionism created a rift between him and the actor that never healed.

O’Neal then reteamed with Tatum in Bogdanovich’s early Hollywood comedy “Nickelodeon” (1976). But the film was a flop and they never worked together again. An attempt to capitalize on his “Love Story” character, Oliver Barrett, with the sequel “Oliver’s Story” (1978) resulted in another flop.

Father and daughter drifted apart as Tatum grew older, with the elder actor learning about his daughter’s marriage to tennis great John McEnroe by a belated telegram, Ryan O’Neal wrote in a 2012 book about his relationship with Fawcett.

“A door inside me locked the morning the telegram came, and I am still blindly searching for the key to open it,” O’Neal wrote in “Both of Us.”

O’Neal’s career cooled further in the 1980s with the emerald heist drama “Green Ice” (1981) and the 1984 comedy “Irreconcilable Differences,” in which he played a busy father in an unhappy marriage whose daughter, played by 9-year-old Drew Barrymore, tries to divorce her parents.

The decade was also a low-point in O’Neal’s personal life. His son Griffin faced numerous brushes with the law, including a 1986 boating accident that killed Gian-Carlo Coppola, 23, son of movie director Francis Ford Coppola in Maryland. Griffin O’Neal was convicted of negligently and recklessly operating a boat, received a community service sentence and later served a brief stint in jail as a result.

With his Hollywood status diminishing, Ryan O’Neal began appearing in TV movies and eventually returned to series television opposite then-lover Fawcett with the 1991 sitcom “Good Sports,” but the show ran only one season.

Both acknowledged the work put a strain on their relationship.

“We get into fights,” O’Neal said in 1991. “She’s tough. She expects to be treated well. On a set that can get lost when you’re trying to create a moment and you’re fighting the clock.”

O’Neal began accepting more supporting roles with the 1989 film “Chances Are.” He began a second career as a character actor, playing a husband who hires a hitman to kill his wife in “Faithful” (1996) and a mysterious tycoon in the blackmail comedy “Zero Effect” (1998).

By then his relationship with Fawcett had ended, although they remained close and eventually rekindled their romance in the 2000s. The volatile O’Neal family dynamics that had taxed their relationship before, however, remained.

In 2007 the elder O’Neal was arrested in 2007 for alleged assault and firing a weapon in an altercation with Griffin, but charges were never pursued. Their son Redmond was repeatedly arrested, jailed and spent several years in court-mandated rehab.

A probation check on Redmond O’Neal in September 2008 at his father’s Malibu home led to the actor’s arrest for methamphetamine possession. Ryan O’Neal pleaded guilty to the charge and entered a drug diversion program, but he publicly denied the drugs were his. He said he confiscated them from his son and was trying to protect him.

Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal was born on April 20, 1941, and was the son of screenwriter Charles O’Neal and actor Patricia Callaghan O’Neal. O’Neal spent time as a lifeguard and an amateur boxer before finding his calling as a performer.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed.

But the arrival of King Henry VIII’s six wives to the Buell Theater (through Dec. 24) is proof that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

In what can be considered one of the best concerts of Denver’s fall season, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s blast-from-a-past, her-story lesson brings together Catherine of Aragon (Gerianne Pérez), Anne Boleyn (Zan Berube), Jane Seymour (Amina Faye), Anne of Cleves (Terica Marie), Katherine Howard (Aline Mayagoitia)  and Catherine Parr (Adriana Scalice) for a rock show. Or, as the opening song “Ex-Wives” so deftly and drolly introduces the sextet: “Divorced. Beheaded, Died … Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.”

The premise is simple, and seeks the participation of theatergoers. “Den-vvverrr! Make some noise!” Aragon shouts before launching into “No Way.” Although each woman was queen at some point, the audience is invited to decide which queen should don the evening’s crown. The ex with the best sob story wins. Naturally, Anne Boleyn, who infamously met her end due to the executioner’s blade, would seem to have a head start (pun intended). Throughout the show and in the “Don’t Lose Ur Head,” portrayer Zan Berube, with a quirky zest that calls forth Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, reminds us of that outrageous fate.

Over the next 80 minutes, each woman seeks to persuade the audience with numbers that are consistently winking, sometimes wise and biographically apt. There’s even a ballad. With show-stopping chops, Amina Faye as Jane Seymour — the one who was actually loved by VIII, who died shortly after the birth of son Edward — sings “Heart of Stone,” a tune that suggests that even for her, there was more to her story than the historical record captured.

Given the patriarchal vibe of the time (the Tudor past but also the #MeToo-ish present), the musical — with its (Spice) girl-power feminism — argues there was cause for hurt, outrage, even fear aplenty. But is this competition in misery the best way of going about historical comeuppance? “Six” asks, toys with and then answers that quandary.

As with a proper rock show, there’s a live band, directed here by Jane Cardona. And this being a work honoring queens, the nimble players — on keyboards, guitar, bass and drums — are the Ladies in Waiting.

The wild set (Emma Bailey) suggests a concert venue, one that allows for some measure of intimacy. Think the Fillmore, not Ball Arena. For Anne of Cleves and her tartly delivered tune “Haus of Holbein,” the action heads to Germany.  From start to encore, the light show (designed by Tim Deiling) plays off that conceit: twirling beams of light whirl; the dark, strobe-y energy of a dance club serving up electronica beckons; a cross, etched in glowing light bulbs, signifies piety with an attitude.

There are willfully LOL moments, intent on capturing the attention of the LOL generations. Cleves’s refrain of “I didn’t look like my profile picture” underscores who this lesson in European history aims for. Ditto its brevity.

Feminism lite, perhaps. Theater lite, maybe. This isn’t the sort of musical that bursts forth into song because regular dramatic language can’t contain the emotions. These are songs as biographical sketches, setting the record straight as pop confections.

For some theatergoers, the show might revive a familiar sticking point: Women who claim feeling sexy as a right and a pleasure often look like they’re delivering a mixed message when it comes to female empowerment. Just ask Queen Bey (a different monarch who gets a nod here) or the other pop figures the playbill tags as “Queenspiration,” among them: Adele, Avril Lavigne, Shakira, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj and Alicia Keys.

Doubters will have to chew on the vivaciously delivered (it’s complicated) “All You Wanna Do,” by VIII”s other murdered mate, Katherine Howard (Mayagoitia). Or pay specific heed to Catherine Parr’s anthemic “I Don’t Need Your Love,” to rightly complicate matters — which makes this fleet, seemingly frothy show a perfectly spiked treat for a holiday month.

Lisa Kennedy is a Denver freelance writer who specializes in film and theater. 

IF YOU GO

“Six”: Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Directed by Moss and Jamie Armitage. Choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. Featuring Gerianne Pérez, Zan Berube, Amina Faye, Terica Marie, Aline Mayagoitia and Adriana Scalice. The Ladies in Waiting: Jane Cardona, Sterlyn Termine, Rose Laguana and Kami Lujan.  At the Buell Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets. Through Dec. 24. For tickets and info: denvercenter.com or 303-893-4100.

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Denver is brimming with New Year’s Eve events, whether you want to attend an all-inclusive soiree, a concert or a casual party. And the holiday falling on a weekend this year makes it even more worthwhile to celebrate.

Here are 15 places to say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024. A bonus: If you end up near the 16th Street Mall on New Year’s Eve, pop outside to enjoy a fireworks show, which will illuminate the skyline at 9 p.m. and midnight.

Swanky soirees

Denver NYE Black Tie Party

Don your best formal attire and ring in the New Year in style at the Denver NYE Black Tie Party. Guests get to enjoy an open bar, music from local DJs and cover bands, and Vegas-style casino games. There will also be a complimentary photo booth, midnight balloon drop and party favors.

Dec. 31 from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at Asterisk Event Center, 1075 Park Ave. West, Denver. Tickets cost $135 at newyearsevenight.com.

Denver New Year’s Eve White Rose Gala

The Roaring ‘20s are back in fashion as the theme of the 2023 White Rose Gala. Live entertainment will spotlight music and dance from the era. Decor and dress will reflect that timeless quality, too. Additional attractions include selfie stations and a speakeasy for VIP ticket-holders.

Dec. 31 from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Ritz-Carlton, 1881 Curtis St., Denver. Tickets cost $99-$149 at newyearspartydenver.com.

New Year’s Eve Dance Extravaganza

Dust off your dancing shoes and start the New Year off on the right foot at the Dance Extravaganza, which features multiple ballrooms with bands playing a variety of music styles such as bachata, swing and salsa. The event includes dance lessons as well as free-for-all fun, hors d’oeuvres and a complimentary champagne toast at midnight.

Dec. 31 from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, Boulder. Tickets cost $40 at eventbrite.com.

Denver NYE Cocktail Party

Looking for an all-inclusive soiree? Look no further than the Denver NYE Cocktail Party. DJs and bands will play in multiple ballrooms at the Sheraton hotel downtown, where guests can also enjoy an open bar, casino games, photo booths and more.

Dec. 31 from 8:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, 1550 Court Place, Denver. Tickets cost $110-$210 at nyenightdenver.com.

New Year’s Eve at The Tropicana

The Colorado Mambo Orchestra will be bringing the heat to The Brown Palace and transforming the venue with its Latin- and Cuban-infused jazz tunes, led by renowned musician Raul Murciano. (You might know him from the Miami Sound Machine with Gloria Estefan.) The party includes light bites, desserts, a champagne toast and enough sonic heat to make you forget the Colorado winter.

Dec. 31 from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa, 321 17th St., Denver. Tickets cost $250-$825 at eventbrite.com.

NYE concerts

Decadence Colorado

Outside of summer festivals, there’s hardly a bigger EDM event in the U.S. than Decadence Colorado. The Denver-based New Year’s Eve party at the Colorado Convention Center welcomes the genre’s biggest DJs, producers and groups, including the city’s own Illenium (who this summer headlined at  Empower Field at Mile High). The 2024 installment also features Red Rocks headliners such as Zeds Dead and crowd-movers like Two Friends, Mersiv, Subtronics, Steve Aoki, Sofi Tukker, Sidepiece, Ganja White Night and influential dubstep act Skrillex.

Dec. 30-31 on two main stages. Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St., Denver. Tickets cost $109-$359 at decadencenye.com.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at the Hi-Dive

A beloved country-punk tradition, Slim Cessna Auto Club’s NYE shows bring the Gothic folk sound that Denver is known for to intimate crowds for a raucous, two-night run. It’s a gritty tent revival through the funhouse mirror, with glowering, preacher-like stage presence and figurative brimstone aplenty. Swaggering, thunderous instrumentation. Cowboy hipsters. Mortality! In other words: true, ungentrified Denver.

9 p.m. Dec. 30-31 at the Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway in Denver. Tickets cost $25 per night or $40 for both at hi-dive.com.

CloZee at Mission Ballroom

French DJ and, recently, Denverite CloZee is an international EDM headliner having one of her biggest runs yet in the Mile High City this holiday season. Her pair of shows at this sterling RiNo venue are packed with guests, including Vincent Antone, Yoko and Daggz (Dec. 30), and LYNY, Super Future and Pheel (Dec. 31).

8 p.m. Dec. 30-31 at Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St. in Denver. Ages 16 and up. Tickets cost $85-$99 at axs.com.

Itchy-O NYE at Summit

This massive Denver ensemble, which invokes fiery ritual and release as much as dark rhythms and melodies, is taking over LoDo venue Summit for what promises to be a bacchanal with (a) soul. Known for its outlandish costumes, glowing instruments and in-crowd performances, Itchy-O is a unique Denver act that must be seen (and heard) to be believed. Its NYE show is pitched as a celebration when the “ancient and avant-garde merge into a symphony of sensory upheaval.”

9 p.m. Dec. 31 at Summit, 1902 Blake St. All ages. Tickets cost $41.25-$58.50 at concerts.livenation.com.

Neal Francis at the Ogden

Chicago R&B act Neil Francis plays a mean keyboard as he’s backed by airtight percussion, electric guitar and rubbery bass, his tastefully detached vocals meditating over it all. Live, the band is another potent backside activator, leading crowds through sweaty bliss and funky, ’70s-flecked dance numbers that sport as much texture as they do melody. There’s every chance this will be a legendary concert.

8 p.m. Dec. 31, with the Texas Gentlemen, Ogden Theatre, at 935 E. Colfax Ave. 16 and up. Tickets cost $45 at axs.com.

Casual affairs and family-friendly parties

The Improper Circus

Ring in 2024 with help from aerial performers, fire breathers, stilt walkers and tarot card readers when the Improper City bar in RiNo transforms into a circus for the last night of the year. The ticket price includes a welcome drink, complimentary big-tent snacks like popcorn, and a champagne toast at midnight.

Dec. 31 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Improper City, 3201 Walnut St., Denver. Tickets cost $35 at eventbrite.com.

NYE on Tap

Denver brewery Bierstadt Lagerhaus plans to host a New Year’s Eve party sure to delight beer and cocktail drinkers alike. The all-inclusive ticket price buys access to an open bar featuring Bierstadt lagers as well as liquor, an appetizer buffet and a champagne toast at midnight. A DJ will also be onsite spinning tunes.

Dec. 31 from 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at Bierstadt Lagerhaus, 2875 Blake St., Denver. Tickets cost $99 at eventbrite.com.

NYE Family Carnival Extravaganza at Bounce Empire

The title of this event hints at the scale of Bounce Empire, a sprawling inflatables “theme park” marketed as a DJ-driven party-pad as much as a kiddie-birthday destination. This event combines both, with full access to the huge inflatable slides and jump houses, as well as full bars and adult chill rooms, plus a full menu and other programming.

8 p.m.-1 a.m. Dec. 31 at Bounce Empire, 1380 S. Public Road in Lafayette. All ages. Tickets cost $39 at bounceempire.com. 

Downtown Aquarium New Year’s Eve Family Celebration
Sharkey, the Downtown Aquarium’s mascot, will be on hand as the cultural attraction, restaurant and venue welcomes folks for its buffet, balloon drop, contests and giveaways for kids. Reservations are required; call 303-561-4450 to secure one. Multi-course dinners are available for $45.

Seatings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. 700 Water Drive in Denver. All ages. Tickets cost $26 for kids 10 and under, and $46 for everyone else. Reservations are available online. aquariumrestaurants.com/downtownaquariumdenver.

Roaring ’20s New Year’s Eve

Fortissimo’s dueling piano bar will make good on the promises of its brand name – which means “very loud” – with a raucous New Year’s Eve party. Dress the part for this Roaring ’20s-themed event and prepare to belt out sing-along songs into 2024.

Dec. 31 from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at Fortissimo Dueling Pianos, 891 14th St., #110, Denver. Tickets cost $35-$70 at eventbrite.com.

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