It’s no surprise that Thrillist, the travel and entertainment platform, selected Denver this year to host its annual bash designed to highlight all a city has to offer. After all, the Mile High City is thrilling. As the ninth installment of Hotel Thrillist, Thrillist partnered with Chase Sapphire, CLIF bars, Hotels.com, Don Julio Tequila and Bulleit Bourbon to transform the AC Hotel by Marriott downtown into a party venue to kick off 48 hours of amped-up activities.
This past weekend, over 200 influencers, members of the press, clients, brand associates, and paying guests were invited to join in the fun. We got to attend the festivities because naturally, we were intrigued. Here’s what you missed.
Food
The word foodie might suggest bourgeois bites of the highest culinary caliber and your assumptions aren’t wrong. Catered to those willing to taste their way through the Mile High, attendees of the Denver Feast Food Festival on Friday night weren’t disappointed. Held at the high-end, urban-inspired AC Hotel in LoDo, the festival’s menu didn’t dare spoil the expectations surrounding Denver’s diverse restaurant scene. Eighteen of the city’s top restaurants and bars included nosh and nectar for a night’s worth of gorging. With higher-end restaurants (Cattivella, Avelina and Bistro Georgette), local favorites (Little Man, 5280 Burger Bar and Ophelia’s) and cultural kicks (Dos Santos, Comal Heritage Food Incubator and Señor Bear) among others in an impressive lineup, there was something for everyone to enjoy. Our favorites, however, included the pasta fritta con salmone by Chow Morso Osteria and the pasticcio with meatballs by Cattivella. While the food was the best part, there were other thrillers at the festival. A staged photo-op including a red gondola, fake snow and a wintry backdrop with unrealistic ski signs to all the big-name resorts encouraged festivalgoers to get their picture taken. A stage with live country jam band music and an arcade room with snowboarding themed games were also present. They seemed to stick to the ski town theme throughout. It was the perfect place to get pumped for the kickoff party later in the evening at Temple Nightclub featuring a performance from electronic group Tritonal.
Fun & Festivities
As a guest at Hotel Thrillist, you also had the option of waking up early and driving to Castle Rock for bungee and zip-lining stunts if you weren’t too hungover from the night before. We’d never been, but Castle Rock Adventure Course isn’t for the weak. With 10 zip lines, a four-level climbing and ropes challenge course and an adventure tower designed for “family-friendly free-falling,” the adventure park was an adrenaline junky’s jungle gym. After only an hour of hurdling ourselves off a ledge to endure a 30-second free fall until a cord caught us mid-air, it was time to call it a morning. But the day wasn’t over yet. After a thrilling morning, Hotel Thrillist members could make the way back to Denver for a much calmer graffiti art and craft brewery tour in RiNo before an afternoon patio party at Improper City. More live music, food trucks, and photo-op fun was experienced by all. And you probably could’ve called it an early night afterward. But Hotel Thrillist would never end without a bang. Legendary hip-hop trio De La Soul brought Long Island liveliness to the stage at Ogden Theatre for a grand finale with gusto and groove. When the music ended, the party was still going strong.