Upslope’s Get Down features Taylor Frederick’s Funk Circus, Yawpers, A. Tom Collins

By Quentin Young

The craft brewers of Boulder County are some of the best purveyors of live music in the area.

Oskar Blues’ Lyons location runs one of the town’s main stages for local acts. Left Hand Brewing in Longmont is responsible for some of the biggest concerts the city has seen in recent years.

Upslope Brewing in Boulder is only 7 years old, but already it’s gaining a reputation for its musical side. Last year the company put together a music festival with two stages and eight bands, including popular Front Range jammers Euforquestra as headliners. More than 2,000 people attended.

Now the festival is back for Year 2.

The second Upslope Get Down, as the festival is called, is scheduled for 1-11 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at the brewery’s Flatiron Park location in Boulder. The festival this year again will feature eight bands on two stages. But it offers new attractions, too, such as a Kid’s Zone with a rock wall and hula-hoop making, sponsored by Avid4 Adventure and McGuckin Hardware.

Katie Hill, the brewer’s marketing manager and Get Down organizer, said Upslope founder Matt Cutter is a big music fan, and music is a basic part of company culture.

The 2015 festival lineup features such top local acts as A. Tom Collins, Rowdy Shadehouse and The Yawpers. The headliner is Taylor Frederick’s Funk Circus.

“The lineup is definitely really important to us, because we want to pick bands who will keep people dancing and keep people around and drinking beer,” Hill said. “Funky is our vibe. We like to keep it funky and upbeat.”

The Circus, a new project that is making its debut at the Get Down, is a collection of performers from several local bands that are familiar to local music fans —- Yamn, The Motet and the Jaden Carlson Band are all represented in the Circus. Band leader Frederick, guitarist with Yamn, said assembling the Circus was like creating his “own fantasy draft.”

The Circus will feature a rotating cast of musicians every time it rolls into a venue, and it will showcase different styles of music. Frederick envisions a psychedelic Circus and an electronic Circus for future shows. But the band will cover funk favorites for the Get Down, Frederick said. And that’s not the only way Frederick’s tastes align with Upslope’s.

“I am a very big craft beer fan, actually,” he said.

Other acts on the Get Down lineup include Technicolor Tone Factory, Cure For the Common, The Good Kind and K-Law.

The festival is free, but VIP tickets are available for $55. The Kid’s Zone activities, also free, are open from 1 to 5 p.m. Other festival attractions include food trucks, a dunk tank fundraiser for charity, and the auction of artwork by Amanda Wilshire of Awd aRT.

Quentin Young: quentin@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/qpyoungnews