A FESTIVAL BUILT BY YOU

For 25 years, the Underground Music Showcase has been more than just a festival – it’s been the heartbeat of Colorado’s music scene. From its gritty, grassroots beginnings to becoming the state’s largest and longest-running music festival, UMS has been the stage where local legends are born, careers are launched, and legacies are built. Brought to you through our own IC Ambassador and UMS Co-Manager Jami Duffy, we are proud to support her and her vision that started with Youth on Record and evolved into this beautiful production.

From dive bars to house shows, from South Broadway to the national stage – this scene, this community, this festival – it’s been shaped by artists, fans, and the creative weirdos who dared to do things differently. For 25 years, UMS has celebrated the best of Colorado’s independent music culture.

UMS 2025 is the final showcase in this form. Festivals are hard to sustain – and 25 years is something to be proud of. As they look to the future, we know the next era of Colorado music will come from this community: from your ideas, your inspiration, your fire. But first: Let’s do this thing, one loud last time.

LEGACY IS LOUDER

What we’ve built together is bigger than a weekend. The music. The memories. The relationships. That’s legacy – and you’re part of it. We’re spending the next month honoring that legacy – and then we’re closing it out together, in the loudest, proudest way possible. Take a deep breath – we got you. This isn’t a slow fade. It’s a blowout. UMS 2025 will be the kind of weekend people talk about for the next 25 years.

Jami Duffy

Jami Duffy is an award-winning nonprofit executive, cultural strategist, and systems change leader working at the intersection of arts, education, economic justice, and public policy. As Executive Director of Youth on Record (YOR), she has led the organization through more than a decade of transformative growth, building one of the nation’s leading creative youth development nonprofits.

She is the Co-Manager of the Underground Music Showcase (UMS), helping to evolve Denver’s largest and longest-running music festival into a mission-driven cultural anchor that invests in emerging Colorado artists. She is also a Co-Founder of All In Denver, a grassroots movement advancing racial equity, housing justice, and civic engagement.

Duffy is a 2020 Denver Business Journal 40 Under 40 awardee and a 2023 Livingston Fellow. Her leadership has been featured by NPR, Nonprofit Quarterly, the U.S. Department of Education, and national arts policy forums. Through every role, she is focused on shifting systems, redistributing power, and ensuring that young creatives, especially those from historically excluded communities, have access to opportunity, influence, and long-term success.