PACE Center

Live Music

4.8(976 reviews)

The take

Parker's 534-seat performing arts center, opened 2011, run by Parker Arts. Touring Broadway, dance, kids' shows, comedy. The good seats are 75 feet from the stage. The town's actual cultural anchor.

Why it's here

The Parker Arts, Culture & Events (PACE) Center at 20000 Pikes Peak Avenue opened in 2011 as the town's bet that a real performing arts space would change what culture looks like in south DougCo. Fifteen years in, it has. The 534-seat Mainstage Theater hosts touring Broadway productions, national dance companies, indie folk and jazz acts, comedy, the Parker Symphony Orchestra, and a robust kids' programming line that fills out weekday matinees during the school year. Sightlines from the back row are 75 feet from a 41-foot proscenium, which is closer than the back row at most regional theaters of comparable size.

The programming is more ambitious than the venue's size suggests. The 2026 season as we write this has a Cirque Mechanics touring show, Cheyenne Jackson, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite ("100 Years of Blues"), Step Afrika!, and a slate of Nat Geo Live science talks. Tickets routinely run $25-$60 for shows that would be $80-$120 at the Buell or Paramount in Denver. For DougCo families who don't want to drive into the city for a Tuesday-night show, this is the answer.

The building also houses the Parker Schoolhouse exhibit space, classroom rooms used for arts education, and is the booking venue for the Vehicle Vault auto museum's evening events. Parking is plentiful and free in the surrounding municipal lot. Acoustics are good for unamplified work; the room is treated and the rigging is modern.

The limitations: no real dining option attached (you eat before or after, and the closest sit-down options are a 5-minute drive on Mainstreet), the touring season skews to October-May (summer is mostly local productions and rentals), and the bar program is fine but not a destination.

Know before you go

Go for

•Touring Broadway and national-tour dance productions
•Parker Symphony Orchestra concerts (the local resident orchestra)
•Kids' matinees during school breaks (priced for families)
•Comedy and music acts that would cost twice as much in Denver proper

Timing

Box office hours Mon-Fri 10am-6pm and 90 minutes before each performance. Buy tickets through parkerarts.org rather than third-party resellers. The October-May touring season is the busiest; summer is mostly local productions.

Pro tip

The first three rows in the orchestra section are sometimes priced lower than seats in rows 4-15 because of slight sightline compromises on certain productions. For comedy and music shows, those front-row seats are actually the best in the house. Subscribers get presale access; if you're going to four or more shows a season, the subscription saves money.

Skip / heads up

No food service inside the lobby beyond a bar; eat before or after. The bar program is small and lines back up at intermission. The 534-seat capacity means popular touring acts sell out 3-6 weeks ahead; book early. Parking is free but the lot fills 30 minutes before showtime on sold-out nights.

By Nathan Boesen