A Newcomer’s Guide to FoCoMX 10                

By The Downtown Fort Collins Creative District

Love live music but don’t where to start? Well the Fort Collins Music Experiment (FoCoMX) happening this weekend, April 27 & 28, is one of the best ways to get a flavor of Fort Collins and Northern Colorado’s music culture. Over 360+ Colorado bands takeover the stages all over the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District for this 2-day music festival. Music is a passion in the Fort and this festival is helping establish Fort Collins, Colorado as a music city. 

Prepare Yourself to Rock

Sounds like your mom’s advice, but wear good walking shoes. You can walk between almost all of the 30+ venues. Or in Fort Collins style you can also ride a bike or use the city’s Bike Share bicycles throughout downtown. This is a quick way to get around to your venue in time for the next set. 

Glance at the FoCoMX venues, they are both traditional music establishments and non-traditional venues including restaurants, breweries, cocktail bars, a movie theater and a museum! And make sure to check out the schedule ahead of time so that you can build your own customized schedule with music you would like to check out.

Sampling is the Name of the Game

Remember you have access to all 360+ bands over the 2-day festival, so you can sample just a portion of a band’s set and move on to the next band on your list. This way you can experience many different styles of music, find new artists you like, and of course, if you love a set you can stay for the whole thing!

Be flexible throughout the night, venues are of various capacities and you may not be able to get into a show, so have an alternate show as a back-up plan. There are so many to choose from you may also want to plan to “bundle” your shows in an area so you can easily get between them all.

So Many Choices

You can check out the bands ahead of time via the website (www.Focomx.org) where you can sort by venue, by genre, or search for the specific band you love. Once at their profile page you are able to listen to their sample songs, visit their Bandcamp/SoundCloud or official website. You can also read their bios, see which band members will be playing during the weekend, watch their videos and connect with them through their social media outlets. 

As you are exploring the music offerings you are also able to build your own adventure by selecting the act to add to your personal schedule. Once finished you will then be able to reference it throughout the weekend without feeling overwhelmed with the full 360+ band lineup of possibilities. 

Cool stuff for all audiences

There's a diversity collection of entertainment suitable for many varying audiences. Northern Colorado is rich with music from Indie to Bluegrass, Punk to Jazz, and all will showcase their original material, as well as, crowd pleasing cover songs at FoCoMX. 

If you are coming to Downtown Fort Collins for the first time a great place to get your bearings is Old Town Square located at Walnut and Linden Streets, just blocks off the Poudre River. Here you can find out information, take rock star selfie photos, get directions to FoCoMX ticket headquarters (Art Lab Fort Collins) and take part in a silent disco. This disco is like no other you have ever seen or heard, because if you are watching from afar there is no music. But you can join in the fun by checking out a pair of headphones, listening to the live DJ and dancing the night away.

If you are looking for fun for the whole family, the kids will love the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery where they can play in the hands-on music exhibit, see bands of students their own age doing everything from sound production, emceeing and playing. There are also kid-friendly programming at Everyday Joe’s with dancing, drumming and fun. 

And, for the change of pace you can also enjoy live, local comedy sets at many venues and original local music videos at The Lyric. The whole festival will also kick off the 10th year event with a special bagpipe performance in Old Town Square on Friday.

Celebrating 10 years of FoCoMX

This is special year for FoCoMX, a ten year of the anniversary! The Fort Collins Musicians Association who produces FoCoMX, have been bringing live music each April to the venues around the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District. From its humble beginnings to over 30 Downtown Fort Collins venues and an astounding 360+ Fort Collins’ and Colorado bands, 300+ volunteers, and over 350 hours of live music! Ten years of FoCoMX means that over 8,000 musicians have packed the stages, over 9,000 volunteer hours have been donated, and over 47,000 music lovers have rocked out to over 22,000 songs. We want to congratulate Northern Colorado musicians and FoCoMX for putting on such an amazing event for the past decade, you make our arts community so inspiring and unique - THANK YOU!

This is a musical love story for Fort Collins. So make sure you come out to FoCoMX, stop by to sign the anniversary poster (6-9:00 PM Friday and Saturday in Old Town Square), see some awesome bands and explore the Fort Collins music scene. See you this weekend! 

~The Downtown Fort Collins Creative District

Everything else you need to know about FoCoMX

The 10th annual FoCoMX 2018 is finally here, taking place April 27-28! This is the 10th year celebrating the Northern Colorado music scene, and it's the perfect chance to take the time to check out as many of the 300+ different performers playing this year’s event at 30+ venues as you can. The festival lineup is posted and tickets are on sale now! You can find updates on FoCoMX's Facebook page and Twitter page.

Fort Collins is lucky to have such a vibrant music scene that is supported by music lovers and the entire community as a whole. FoCoMX, presented by the nonprofit Fort Collins Musicians Association (FoCoMA) and Odell Brewing Co., has always garnered national attention and earned the unofficial title of “The Biggest Little Festival in America.”

Free tickets are also available for those who chose to volunteer for the festival! Volunteers who dedicate four or more hours of their time get free admission all weekend! Sign up to volunteer to be part of this amazing event: click on the Volunteer page for more information.

Learn more about FoCoMA – Fort Collins Musicians Association

When: April 27-28
Where: 300 + venues all over Fort Collins
Cost: $35

More info: