Public, organizational and private performances have been held at Red Rocks for over a century. The earliest documented performance at the amphitheater was the
Grand Opening of the Garden of the Titans, put on by publisher
John Brisben Walker on May 31, 1906. Featuring Pietro Satriano and his 25-piece brass band, it was the formal opening of the natural amphitheater for use by the general public after Walker purchased it with the proceeds of his sale of
Cosmopolitan. The amphitheater's largest-scale performance to date was the
Feast of Lanterns on September 5, 1908. Commemorating the opening of the scenic road up nearby
Mt. Falcon, it was patterned after the festival of
Nagasaki, Japan, and featured four military bands and fireworks off Mt. Falcon, Mt. Morrison and two intermediate hills. Renowned opera singer
Mary Garden put Red Rocks on the world musical map with her performance on May 10, 1911. Garden said "Never in any opera house, the world over, have I found more perfect acoustic properties. Never under any roof have I sung with greater ease or had a greater delight in singing. Upon the full construction of the amphitheater to its present form by the
Civilian Conservation Corps, the venue was formally dedicated on June 15, 1941. It has held regular concert seasons almost every year since 1947. On July 23, 1948,
Igor Stravinsky conducted the Denver Symphony at Red Rocks. In 2020 and 2021, it was shut down temporarily as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. The first performance of each season is the
Easter Sunrise Service, a nondenominational service held on
Easter Sunday of each year. In 1958,
Van Cliburn played Red Rocks to a sold-out crowd. The earliest notable
rock performance at Red Rocks was by
The Beatles on August 26, 1964, the only concert not sold out during their US-tour. Beatles drummer
Ringo Starr later recalled, “I remember it was very high and the air was thin. They were giving us hits from oxygen canisters.” When Starr returned to Red Rocks with his
All-Starr Band on June 28, 2000, he asked if anyone in the crowd had been at the Beatles concert thirty-six years earlier. On August 26, 2004, the East-Coast-based Beatles-tribute band
1964 was flown to Denver to re-enact the Beatles concert held at the site exactly forty years earlier. The first
country and western show at Red Rocks was on August 29, 1965, headlined by
Johnny Cash. led to a five-year ban of rock concerts at Red Rocks. Approximately 1,000 people without tickets arrived at the sold-out show. Denver police directed the overflow, non-paying crowd to an area behind the theater, where they could hear the music but not see the band. The situation seemed satisfactory until some of the people without tickets attempted to enter the amphitheater by charging at, and breaking through, the police line. Some of those without tickets began lobbing rocks at the police, and the police responded by discharging
tear gas at the gate-crashers. The performances on July 7, 1978, and July 8, 1978, were released as part of the
July 1978: The Complete Recordings box set, with July 8 having a stand alone release,
Red Rocks: 7/8/78. The Grateful Dead held the record for most sold out performances at Red Rocks until 2015.
Widespread Panic holds the record for the most sold-out performances at Red Rocks, with 72 as of June 2024.
Blues Traveler has played the venue every
Fourth of July since 1993, except 1999 when lead singer and harmonica player
John Popper was unable to play due to heart surgery.
Phish were banned from performing at Red Rocks after they played four concerts there in August 1996. Fans of the band who showed up to the concerts without tickets were accused of starting a riot outside the amphitheater on the second night, and the nearby town of
Morrison was unprepared to accommodate the size of the band's following. Phish was not invited to perform at Red Rocks again until July 2009. Rush played Red Rocks on their
R30 30th Anniversary,
Snakes and Arrows and
Time Machine tours. Colorado musicians who have performed at Red Rocks include
John Denver in 1973,
Judy Collins in 1973,
Dan Fogelberg in 1984,
Big Head Todd and the Monsters in 1994,
Earth, Wind & Fire (some members are from Denver) in 2002,
The Fray in 2006,
DeVotchKa in 2008,
3OH!3 in 2012,
Pretty Lights in 2012,
OneRepublic in 2013,
The Lumineers in 2013, and
Strawberry Runners in 2016. As of 2023, Colorado band
The String Cheese Incident has played at Red Rocks over 50 times. On August 7, 2000, the "Film on the Rocks" series started with a screening of
Casablanca. Lead vocalist and guitarist
Jack White has performed solo a number of times. In 2014, after voters in Colorado legalized
marijuana, the Colorado Symphony played a cannabis-themed "Red Rocks on a High Note" show there. On October 5, 2019,
AJR played a sold-out show at the amphitheater for their
Neotheater World Tour. During the 2020 pandemic, Red Rocks hosted the Colorado Symphony Strings, which played sold-out Acoustic on the Rocks shows in July and August, following social-distancing guidelines. In September 2020, virtual shows were streamed live. Despite Denver Arts & Venues announcing the closure of all its venues (including Red Rocks) in September, in-person shows did occur. Other events included drive-in movies for mainstream films and the Denver Film Festival's red carpet movies. In 2021, Red Rocks Amphitheatre was named the top-grossing and most-attended concert venue of any size, anywhere in the world. On August 9 and 10, 2022,
South Park creators
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone held a live concert alongside rock bands
Primus,
Ween and Rush at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, commemorating
South Parks 25th anniversary. Besides a few original songs from the supporting bands, the concert mainly consisted of Parker and Stone performing music from the series. On June 21, 2023, the largest injury-inducing weather event in the venue's history occurred. Before
Louis Tomlinson was scheduled to perform, a hailstorm with apple sized hail injured over 90 people, including 7 who were hospitalized. == Notable recordings ==