8 Best Moments of Mile High Fest
By Jef Otte on August 16, 2010 1:09 PM

Radio-friendly rock was the order of the day at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver August 14-15, drawing shirtless bros with tribal tattoos for miles around to party, drink beer out of plastic cups, and smoke copious amounts of, presumably, medicinal marijuana (Colorado has had a boom in recent years, and artists made numerous allusions to that fact). The lineup was pop-heavy and easy on the ears, but it didn’t fail to offer up some pleasant surprises, along with a few truly epic moments:

BEST CROWD-INVOLVING JAM: OZOMATLI
A long-time fixture of the L.A. scene and occasional musical ambassador (the band has toured Asia sponsored by the U.S. State Department a few times), Ozomatli plays high-energy, eclectic music that’s world-influenced but distinctly American. Throughout its set, which the band packed with everything from old-school hip-hop to norteño mariachi, the boys from Ozomatli—particularly emcee Justin Porée—got down from the stage and worked the crowd. But that was just a precursor to the set’s final moments, in which all seven members (by my count) took up percussive instruments and climbed down into the audience to jam, with trumpet man Asdrubal Sierra right there with them and keeping up an unamplified solo that continued even as the roadies moved in to break down the stage.

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