After taking the year off, Global Dance Festival’s organizers say they intend to bring the gathering back in 2026.
The festival landscape has lost numerous events in recent years, and now EDM fans in and around Denver must add one more to the list. Global Dance Festival has announced that it will not take place in 2025, but that it still plans to move forward with the 2026 edition.
“From its start at Red Rocks to its evolution into a full-scale festival, GDF has built a legacy that artists and fans hold close to their hearts,” reads a statement from Global Dance, the event brand that organizes the event. “We will be taking this year off from the festival, but don’t worry — GDF will return in 2026.”
Global Dance Festival was originally called Rave on the Rocks and then Weekend of E during the time that local radio station 93.3 KTCL organized it from 1999-2002. Global Dance, which was then called Triad Dragons Entertainment, took over the brand in 2003. In 2017, the gathering relocated from Red Rocks Amphitheatre to the parking lot of Sports Authority Field (now Empower Field) at Mile High.
The 2024 edition of GDF was complicated by a venue change to the National Western Complex that required organizers to place the mainstage indoors for the first time in the festival’s history. And while complaints about event lineups are no anomaly in the social media age, last year’s event seemed especially mired by them.
“We know how much GDF means to our community and want to say thank you for all your continued love and support,” the organizers’ statement closes out. “Let’s global dance!”
