It started with a tickle in my nose and a tingle in my eyes.
Don’t cry, don’t cry! I repeated as I contorted my face.
It was the afternoon of Saturday, May 30, and I was watching the final minutes of Best Day Ever, the new documentary about disabled mountain bikers and a community in Vermont that built trails specifically for their needs. Produced by filmmakers Berne Broudy and Ben Knight, the movie finishes with an emotional crescendo that yanks at the heartstrings of anyone who has a heart.
I’d watched Best Day Ever four times previously, so I knew what was coming. Still, when the feelings hit, my eyes welled up, my nose dripped, and tears streamed down my cheeks.
Best Day Ever was one of 11 films we showed during the 2026 Outside Days film program inside the King Center on the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, from May 30 to 31 These stories, such as Surfilmusic, Aanikoobijigan, Boyz N the Wood, and Right to Risk, tell stories that pack an emotional punch.
As a co-host of the film program, it was my job to introduce the movies and then conduct interviews with the producers and stars after each showing. Part of the job, I told myself, was to avoid weeping like a baby in front of the hundred people in the theater. As I counted down the seconds after Best Day Ever finished, I frantically wiped my face and blew my nose before grabbing a microphone. Crap, I’m a mess, I thought as I strolled on stage.
I gazed at the crowd. Nearly everyone was either wiping tears, blowing noses, or giving each other that I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying look. The entire theater was experiencing the film’s full scope of emotion: sadness, joy, hope, vulnerability.
It was just another reminder that yes, sometimes it’s perfectly OK to cry in public. And yes, it was something I did time and again throughout the 2026 Outside Days.
A Move to the Auraria Campus
This year marked Outside Inc.’s third massive festival of music, outdoor culture, art, and industry. For 2026 we enacted a few changes. The name changed from Outside Festival to Outside Days. We also grew, adding a third day to the music and culture festival, and a second day to the Outside Summit industry meetup.
We changed venues, departing Civic Center Park—which is undergoing a multi-year renovation—for the Auraria Campus, an academic cityscape that hosts three different schools.
The event was once again a bold experiment for those of us who work at Outside’s parent company. For four days, an army of magazine editors, advertising sales reps, marketing executives, subscription managers, and other day-jobbers moonlight as event producers (alongside event company Groundswell). We put down our keyboards and instead do crowd management, concessions sales, custodial duties, and manage ingress and egress.
But the central focus of Outside Days remained the same: invite brands, celebrities of the sports we love, amazing filmmakers, musicians, and artists to one place, and let them interact with tens of thousands of people who are wildly passionate about the outdoors.
I saw this magical mixture play out throughout the four days. I watched Alex Honnold casually roll up to The North Face’s climbing wall and give bouldering tips to children. I saw celebrity chef Jose Andres toss frisbees to a packed theater and then take swigs of wine with his fans afterward. A few hours before his band, Death Cab for Cutie, played a headlining set, singer Ben Gibbard told a crowd of onlookers about his love of running ultramarathons.
I also saw attendees having way too much fun. I saw people ride a mechanical bull shaped like a Brooks sneaker. Others teetered 25 feet above the ground in a ropes course made to look like a Costa Rican jungle. People played Plinko, climbed rock structures, ate free popsicles. Kids drew pictures, strung together necklaces and bracelets, and did all manner of arts and crafts.
More than 40,000 people showed up to the festival, and pretty much everyone I encountered had a blast. I strolled the grounds throughout the four-day event to hear stories of the fun people had.
Guests from Far and Wide
I met Jessica Bidwell near the Fjallraven tent as she and her four-year-old daughter, Olive, played on inflatable SUP boards. Bidwell made the six-hour drive from her home in Montrose because of the band lineup. She wanted to see Death Cab for Cutie, Japanese Breakfast, and Cage the Elephant.
The added perk, she told me, was exposing her kid to more outdoor recreation gear and experiences. Olive spent the afternoon dancing at the drum circle, playing on balance boards, and climbing. “It’s great connection, and it’s building the excitement for camping season,” Jessica told me.
I met Myles Kelly, 20, and Matt Molyneaux, 23, after they completed the elevated ropes course at the Visit Costa Rica setup. The guys had dangled from roped harnesses as they navigated the teetering structures and slings 25 feet above the pavement.
“It made me feel like Spiderman, which has been a lifelong dream,” Kelly told me. “There’s that cheese-like part of the course, which was scary and hard.”
The two guys had traveled from Lakewood to see Cage the Elephant. They are longtime fans of the band, but said that seeing Cage the Elephant for $100 these days is nearly impossible.
“Outside Days kept popping up on my Instagram,” Molyneaux said. “The lineup got me.”
Chrystal and Brad Rexroat were resting up against a fence with their nine-year-old daughter when I saw them. It was just a few minutes before Cage the Elephant was set to play, and the Rexroat family was staying up late on a Sunday night, despite being tired.
Brad, who works for Columbia, had been working the expo throughout the weekend. Chrystal told me she saw a change with vendors from 2025 to 2026—this year they were more welcoming of kids.
“It’s been more family-friendly this year,” she told me. “There are a ton of arts and crafts at different booths, and vendors have been really accepting. They welcome your kid in, let them touch things, and speak to them.”
I met Jennifer and Desiree Branda near The North Face’s main tent shortly after they played a round of branded Plinko. The Branda sisters had flown in from Texas to see their favorite band, My Morning Jacket.
Going to shows is what the two sisters do to keep their relationship strong, Jennifer told me. And they have their whole process for attending concerts dialed. While My Morning Jacket was the final act to perform on Saturday, May 30, the Banda sisters staked out their spot near the stage as soon as they entered the gates early in the afternoon.
“Every single song is amazing when you know the words,” Jennifer Banda told me. “You have an emotional experience. I wanted to cry at times because their set was so good.”
A Psychedelic Saturday Party
As it turns out, my tears for Best Day Ever didn’t mark my personal emotional crescendo at Outside Days. That event came a few hours later.
My wife, Angie, and our six-year-old daughter, Magnolia, arrived later that afternoon. After several hours of climbing walls and popsicles, Magnolia was exhausted and ready for a bath and bed. But it was just a few minutes before The Flaming Lips were slated to play, so I convinced them to stay longer.
I’ve played the band’s 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in the car more than a few times while driving my daughter to and from school. Like most dads, I secretly want my kid to love the ancient rock songs that were popular way back when I was hip.
And I couldn’t think of a better band for my kid’s first legit rock concert. I’ve seen videos of Flaming Lips shows from years gone by: there are pyrotechnics, bubbles, balloons, and lots of glitter. Yeah, it’s an act that’s basically designed for stoners and small children.
The band did not disappoint. As massive strobe lights flashed across the stage, the Flaming Lips opened the show with the familiar opening bars of the song “Fight Test.” Without prompting, Magnolia started swaying and dancing and singing out the songs.
“Daddy, I know the words,” she said.
And then, for the title track of the album, four massive inflatable pink robots shot up from the stage and towered above lead singer Wayne Coyne. Magnolia climbed up to my shoulders and stared wide-eyed at the huge pink balloons.
The party continued throughout their set as they played more songs she recognized. The Lips also sent dozens of massive colored bubbles bouncing into the crowd—a real hit for all of the six-year-old kids out there.
As the sun started to dip over the horizon, the unmistakable first notes of the band’s biggest hit, “Do You Realize,” echoed across the concert grounds. My kid bobbed on my shoulders, screaming along, while I bellowed out the lyrics. I thought about the entire weekend, the fun with my family, the new friends I’d made, and yeah, about Best Day Ever and the story it had told.
Coyne’s voice echoed across the Auraria Campus: Do you realize… that happiness makes you cry?
It sure does, and the tears in my eyes were proof.
The post The 2026 Outside Days Delivered More than a Few Emotional Moments appeared first on Outside Online.
