The MHFB Story
In April of 1984, local Denver musician Robert Brown brought a small group of musicians together to form the Denver Gay and Lesbian Community Band. Bob’s goal was to provide a forum for people of all backgrounds to create music together, educate the community, and meet new friends. Shortly after getting started, the name was changed to the Mile High Freedom Band.
MHFB’s inaugural performance was at the 1984 Denver Gay Rodeo. We went on to present ten performances in that first season. Our major public debut was in the 1985 Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Although the band made no explicit attempt to hide the sexuality of our members, it came as a bit of a surprise to parade organizers that there was a ‘gay band’ in the parade and garnered a fair amount of media attention. In subsequent years, the organizers attempted to dissuade us from performing through various means including placing us as far back as they could!
From challenges of acceptance, living through the early days of the AIDS crisis, discriminatory statewide legislation, and hate crimes on LGBTQ+ people across the region and the country, our organization and our members have persevered. Through each new challenge, we have never lost sight of our original vision and purpose and we have continued to perform regular concerts, parades, and pep events, and twice hosted the Lesbian and Gay Band Association’s annual conference.
As we celebrated our 25th anniversary in the mid-2000’s, we began to experience a resurgence. MHFB Swing was founded, several annual events were started including Spooktacular! Spooktacular!, the Carnival Ball, and Melodies of Pride, and member participation reached all-time highs as audiences continued to grow. In 2018, we expanded the MHFB umbrella and for the first time welcomed students in the organization with MHFB Youth. In just a three short years, the program has already found great success and has given out $4,500 in scholarships to LGBTQ+ youth.
In 2020, MHFB, like the rest of the world, had to adjust to life with the COVID pandemic raging. This global catastrophe hit arts organizations of all types, big and small, across the world. We immediately pivoted to virtual performances and developed methods to rehearse, perform, and present our concerts. In the end, our entire 37th season was presented virtually. The ingenuity and determination of our members ensured that we did not have to cancel a single event and we continued to perform for the entire year. In fact, with our new globally-available concert broadcasts, we had viewers from around the world and ended the season with our concerts being viewed by some of our largest audiences to date!
As the Mile High Freedom Bands continues on from our 40th anniversary season, the organization is as strong as it has ever been. With nearly 250 members on our rosters, over 45 performance events each season, thousands and thousands of audience members at our events, and the expanding of our newest programs like MHFB Youth and MHFB Strings, we are thriving. Day in and day out, we are always focused on living up to our mission to make positive contributions to the LGBTQ+ community and allies through musical events and activities that engage, excite, educate, and entertain audiences while supporting performers of all abilities.
MHFB is a 501(c)3 charitable organization and a member of the international Pride Bands Alliance (formerly LGBA), Association of Concert Bands, Denver Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado Nonprofit Association.
