What to do in Colorado this week: TED Talks in Breckenridge, Original Thinkers in Telluride and free music in Denver
Hear directly from the project director of the Floyd Hill project on Interstate 70, an 8 mile stretch that’s $905 million and decades in the making during at the TEDxBreckenridge stage on Saturday.
We’ve also got Denver’s PorchFest in the Baker neighborhood, Original Thinkers in Telluride and fresh coats of paint in Superior.
Oct. 1-7
TEDxBreckenridge. If you’ve traveled Interstate 70 west of Denver lately, then you know the work of Kurt Kionka, this year’s TEDxBreckenridge headline speaker.
Kionka is the project director for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Floyd Hill project, charged with reworking and replacing the battered 8 miles of freeway from Evergreen to Idaho Springs. And if you’re thinking that sounds like a pretty niche and nerdy thing to spend your Saturday learning about, just remember that this is a stretch of road with an Instagram following creeping up on half a million.
His presentation will cover how his team broke a decades-long stalemate over the winding stretch with a two-word mindset shift: “Yes, if.” Plus nearly a billion dollars in construction funding.
But if saying sayonara to the most terrifying left-merge lane in all the state doesn’t move you, come for the eight other experts presenting on topics like quantum technology for mines, social anxiety in teens, an Indigenous history of music and reading climate cues by studying pikas.
$55; 3-6 p.m., Saturday; Riverwalk Center at Breckenridge, 150 W. Adams Ave., Breckenridge
Other events to consider
- Denver PorchFest. All free, all day, on the front, side and back porches of the Baker neighborhood in Denver. Jump among nearly 200 local acts and check out food, drinks and vendors at the PorchFest hubs, Dailey Park and Cookie Factory. Free; noon-7 p.m., Baker neighborhood in Denver
- Original Thinkers. Find yourself immersed in film screenings, tea ceremonies, dance parties and plenty more at the ninth annual Telluride Original Thinkers Festival, in collaboration with Warm Cookies of the Revolution. $200; Thursday-Sunday; Various locations around Telluride
- Superior Mural Festival. Street Wise Arts, originally based in Boulder, is expanding to Superior this weekend, with live painting from 14 artists during the annual Fall festival, which draws local vendors and musicians to downtown Superior. A free artist talk takes place tonight at 6 p.m. ahead of the Saturday festival. Free; Thursday and Saturday; 2250 Main St., Superior
