HOP & SKIP to First Friday

This Friday, July 3, we’re launching an exciting new campaign: Hop & Skip to First Friday from Downtown to NoBo Art District. Funded by a Boulder Vision Grant and developed in partnership with The Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections and The New Local, the campaign encourages art lovers to ditch the car and use Boulder’s fast, frequent transit routes to experience First Friday across both districts in a single evening.

Why Hop & Skip? Boulder is fortunate to have two central transit routes that make getting around the city’s arts and culture corridor easy and efficient:

• The HOP is a circulator bus managed by the City of Boulder and operated by Boulder’s own nonprofit, Via Mobility Services. It runs every 12-15 minutes near The New Local galleries on Pearl Street (the nearest stop is at Pearl and 10th Streets), and circulates through downtown, the Hill, and the CU Boulder campus.
• The SKIP, managed and operated by RTD, runs every 15-30 minutes along Broadway, Boulder’s central spine, connecting the northern edge of the NoBo Art District all the way to South Boulder.

Together, these routes let gallery-goers park once, at a city garage or park-and-ride, then HOP downtown to take in the galleries and exhibitions before catching the SKIP up to NoBo, all without ever moving the car. It’s a simple shift that opens up more of the city to explore on a summer evening, with performers and artist activations along the route the whole way.

What’s Happening This Friday, July 3:

• Downtown First Friday features a full slate of artist activations and exhibitions, including a wandering minstrel performance by Singing Bones, an open mic at Velvet Elk with Finn O’Sullivan, live screen printing by Nora Graven in front of The New Local, Block print stamp bookmarks in front of Boulder Bookstore and an appearance by Nevada Road at Savannah Bee Company. Galleries and venues hosting exhibitions include:
  • BMOCA (Tres Voces, Un Corazon)
  • The Museum of Boulder (People of the Sacred Land)
  • The New Local (Women of the Living West)
  • TNL Annex (Term VII group exhibition)
  • Boulder Brim (hat steaming and hand shaping demonstrations)
  • Open Studios (Art at PARK)
  • Rocky Mountain Regenerative Medicine, which will feature a Phil Lewis display and live music
• NoBo Art District is rolling out a stop-by-stop experience along the SKIP route:
  • First Stop, Violet St.: A visual art surprise activation outside Mighty Fudge Studios (4520 Broadway), paired with an exhibit by Jeffery Packard at The Gallery at Mighty Fudge Studios.
  • Second Stop, Yarmouth: Live music from DJ San Juan at NoBo on the Corner (4600 Broadway), alongside the exhibit Between Horizon and Memory by Gary Markowitz.
  • Third Stop, Front Range Dr.: Live electro-pop-funk from Nu Bass Theory outside Thistle Community Gallery (4871 Broadway), plus the NoBo First Friday Market featuring local artists and creatives, and the exhibit Where We Roam at the Bus Stop Gallery (4895 Broadway).

Make a Night of It! Catch the HOP to explore everything happening downtown, then hop on the SKIP to ride up Broadway into NoBo. Riders can get off at Violet Street and walk north to take in the activations and galleries all the way to the district’s northern edge. It’s a low-stress, low-cost way to see more art, hear more music, and skip the parking hassle entirely.

How to Ride: The easiest way to ride the HOP and SKIP buses is to tap your RTD MyRide app or use your work-issued EcoPass! Everyone who works in Downtown Boulder or on University Hill has access to a free EcoPass. We can help you access yours! Don’t work Downtown or on the Hill? Reach out to us at ecopass@boulderchamber.com to get your employer on board or to inquire about getting a neighborhood EcoPass.

No pass? No problem! Just tap your mobile wallet or tap-enabled debit or credit card for the best fare every ride.

This is just the first event in the Hop & Skip to First Friday campaign. BCTC looks forward to helping more of the community discover how easy it is to use Boulder’s transit system to connect with local arts and culture, this summer and beyond.