Dear ADSF Community, 

Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe is committed to keeping the arts and our creative community accessible to all. Over the years, the Art District on Santa Fe’s First Friday Art Walks have become a landmark of the Denver Art scene. These events have also grown. A lot. As a result, ADSF has recently been called upon by our members, as well as residents, visitors, and partners at various City of Denver departments, to come up with a solution to some emerging challenges in order to continue to sustain these events at such a large scale. 

After many months of receiving concerns and other feedback from stakeholders in our community, it became clear that adaptations needed to be made in order to:

1. ensure visitor and pedestrian safety during crowded events

2. address concerns from local businesses, as well as the multiple City of Denver departments responsible for permitting these events

3. ensure the long term sustainability of our organization and the free programming we provide for our community 

Our new system for First Fridays aims to organize vendors in a way that still allows space for independent local artists to participate, while keeping sidewalk space accessible and ADA compliant for large summer crowds. This was not the case when vendors were freely setting up along Santa Fe Drive, and raised flags with adjoining businesses, regular visitors, and the City. Concerning incidents that we’ve witnessed or which have been reported to us include pedestrians regularly walking onto the street to make their way around vendors (and crowds forming around vendors), vendors getting into altercations with local business owners, wheelchairs being unable to get through sidewalks, accessibility ramps being blocked by vendor tents, and more. 

While ADSF—and, we know, many of you—would love to see full closures of Santa Fe Drive implemented more regularly as an alternative solution, these are not possible with our current budget. Permitting and resources for full closures cost anywhere from $15-30,000 per event, which far exceeds ADSF’s current budget. Additionally, the city has already made it clear that they will not permit full closures more than once a year due to the large amount of traffic that moves down Santa Fe on a daily basis. 

We know that with our current system, space reserved for vendors is limited and very competitive. When we pulled sidewalk and avenue closure permits for these events, we wanted to include more vendor spaces along Santa Fe, but unfortunately these were not approved. Most sidewalks in the Art District cannot accommodate legal street vending because the sidewalks are not large enough to meet accessibility standards for pedestrians while vendors are set up. Additionally, due to the growing crowd size of these events, the city has said they will not grant any vending or occupancy permits for Santa Fe Drive on First Fridays. However, we are taking vendor feedback seriously, and the ADSF team is currently exploring options to open additional vending spaces on side streets, activated parking lots, etc. 

We also want to make clear that our vendor fees exist only to help cover a minimal portion of the cost of permits, staff, traffic control, and security required to put on the event in this way. ADSF is a very small nonprofit, and although it may not look like it, lots of work goes on behind the scenes to make First Fridays the successful and beloved events they have been for many years. Their success, and subsequent regulatory changes, have simply caused them to outgrow our organization’s capacity to run these events without charging vendor fees. Because we understand costs can be prohibitive for artists, we worked hard to keep these fees comparatively low from the start. However, because we’ve also heard your feedback and care about the continued inclusion of small artists and vendors, we are actively seeking sponsorships to help cover more costs so that vending registration can eventually be offered to artists for free. 

Ultimately, while we adore our vendors and know how much value they bring to our events and community, we also cannot ignore the real safety and accessibility risks that an overcrowding of unregulated vendors—combined with growing audiences—have unfortunately created. These things have affected the participation of small businesses in the area, people with disabilities, the elderly, and more. We assure you that this decision was not made lightly and is intended to be a compromise between the needs of business owners, vendors, pedestrians, and the city, whose demands are often at odds with each other.

Finally, please know that ADSF is always open to continued feedback and does not intend to stop improving these events. This summer’s programming is a pilot for a new system that we anticipate continuing to adapt, and we just ask that our community members are open to compromise so that we can continue to facilitate accessible, safe, and diverse experiences for all. Our team is always open to questions, comments, and constructive conversation. Please feel free to email Ana Paula Pinto, Director of Programs & Operations, anytime at anapaula@denversartdistrict.org. 

We appreciate patience and support from businesses, artists, and visitors as we do our best to accommodate the growing needs of our community! 

All the best, 

The ADSF Team