Boulder’s New Tulagi Music Festival Is Building Itself Around Sundance’s Arrival
QUICK ANSWER
Confirmed: Boulder’s downtown music festival, previously called the Roots Music Festival, relaunched in August 2026 under the new name Tulagi, and its founder says it is deliberately building infrastructure and audience around the same cultural moment that Sundance’s move is creating in Boulder. This is not a Sundance-affiliated event and it did not happen during festival week, but it is part of how Boulder’s arts scene is repositioning itself ahead of January 2027.
Last verified: September 21, 2026
What Tulagi is and what changed
| Fact | Status |
|---|---|
| Four-day downtown Boulder music festival, Aug. 27-30, 2026, with more than 200 acts across multiple venues | Confirmed |
| Renamed from the 2025 Roots Music Festival; now run by Caruso Ventures and the Bear Roots nonprofit | Confirmed |
| Headliners included Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Everclear | Confirmed |
| Festival expected roughly $1 million in donations to expand talent and venues | Confirmed, per Boulder Reporting Lab |
| Whether Tulagi will hold any event during Sundance week in January 2027 | Pending, not announced |
Founder Dan Caruso, who organizes the festival through Caruso Ventures, told Boulder Reporting Lab that the event is explicitly riding the same wave that brought Sundance to town: “We’re really going to be building out a lot of infrastructure here in Boulder, and Boulder’s going to get more attention as a place for culture and the arts.” He has said he wants Tulagi to eventually rival South by Southwest in scale and industry relevance, with programming that already includes a “Bold Conversations That Matter” discussion series alongside the music, plus a VIP “Founders Experience” aimed at major donors. Some longtime residents and musicians quoted in that coverage have raised concerns about whether Boulder’s homegrown music identity survives as the event scales up and becomes more commercially driven.
Why it matters for your trip
Tulagi happened in August, not during the festival, so it will not affect your January 2027 Sundance trip directly. What it signals is broader: Boulder’s cultural and hospitality infrastructure, venue investment, and civic appetite for hosting large audiences are being built out with an eye toward Sundance’s arrival, and Tulagi is explicit about riding that momentum. If you are trying to get a sense of Boulder’s arts scene beyond the festival itself, see our roundup of things to do in Boulder beyond the festival. It sits alongside Boulder’s own homegrown film event, covered in our post on BIFF’s 2027 dates, and it fits the broader story of why the city courted Sundance in the first place, which we cover in why Sundance is moving to Boulder.
What we’re watching
We’re watching for any announcement of a Tulagi event timed to Sundance week itself, and for whether the festival’s organizers formalize any partnership with the city’s broader Sundance planning effort. We’ll update this post if either happens.
