Hotel Hillcrest: Fort Collins DIY Venue

Tucked away in the neighborhoods of Fort Collins lies Hotel Hillcrest. A DIY venue ran out of creator Joe Woods’ home. On the outside it may look like any other college town house, but on the inside, Hotel Hillcrest is much more.

With its location only spread by word of mouth, Hotel Hillcrest, a DIY venue in Fort Collins is supporting local artists by giving them a space to show off their work. Joe detailed the inspiration for the space by telling me a little story, “I went to a house show just down the block and it was really cool. There was some really good bands playing . . . but there was more of a party atmosphere and at one point I asked somebody ‘who was playing next’ and they were like ‘I don’t know’ ”. At that moment, Joe began to visualize a more “professional” DIY venue of his own that focuses on giving back to the community.

Hotel Hillcrest comes with some house rules as detailed on their closed Facebook group:

1. No fighting, no exceptions. I don’t care how close you are with the homeowners, you’re getting kicked out.
2. No stealing. I cant enforce this, but if you steal from my house, then you’re a piece of sh*t and you have to live with that.
3. Just be overall respectful. This is a space to support the community and music scene. Don’t take it for granted, or we will stop. Help others out, be uplifting.
4. Have a good f****ng time!

The rules for the space are laid out simply and a typical event is, “very welcoming here. We’ve had a lot of musicians come through that are touring,” Joe said. “We had this one band from Washington say, ‘We have never felt more at home 900 miles away from our house.’ Everybody is cool, friendly and respectful and everybody understands that it is important for everybody else.”

Originally from North Carolina, Joe moved out to Fort Collins to study history at CSU. Back home, he started gaining stage production experience early on in high school and now spends almost all of his free time running and operating this DIY venue. With the self-titled role of “concierge at Hotel Hillcrest”, Joe Wood hopes to be able to do this outside of his home and on a larger scale.

To advertise for a venue whose address is not public information is a tricky challenge for Joe. Events at Hotel Hillcrest are advertised on social media with promotional posting on Instagram and event pages on Facebook that only outline who and when. If you want to know where this is all at, you can DM on socials or ask around if you know any locals. In the beginning, Joe reached out to local bands and booked the first few shows and now, “after that, I’ve just had people contacting me. Just by word of mouth people have spread word of Hotel Hillcrest beyond Colorado and now bands from out of town frequent the venue.

With the mission statement of a space that is created to support local musicians and artists by any means necessary, this space is home to an inclusive community that supports the art showcased here. Hotel Hillcrest is able to support the artists that come through off donations, but at the very least providing a space for others to come and see their work. Over the last few months, the space has been opening up the possibilities with what kinds of events are hosted to help cater to more local artists in Fort Collins.

The majority of the shows at Hotel Hillcrest are live music, but the space has also been used for art shows. The entire living room, dining room and kitchen are cleared out and art is hung up on any available wall space for galleries.

I sat down with CSU art major Asher Korn who recently saw a live show at Hotel Hillcrest for the first time. She detailed her entire journey that evening from first accidentally getting the wrong address to the last song of the artist, all with such positive energy and excitement. The stage is set up in the garage surrounded by hung-up bed sheets, candles and paper lanterns that together created a very relaxing yet “cute” atmosphere.

“It’s so cool because Fort Collins is very local friendly,” Asher said. “I’m from Denver and when you say ‘support local’ it’s its hard to connect with locals because so much is going on and happening. In Fort Collins it’s so much tighter of a community and easier to reach out to these artists and connect.” This community is growing and although the space is small, the hearts of the “concierge staff” at Hotel Hillcrest are big. The residents have turned their living space into this DIY venue and the support they offer to artists truly is unbelievable.

For those interested in going, Asher recommends to, “be respectful to the house and the house will be respectful to you. It’s so cool to see something start from the ground up and blossom into something cool especially when it has a fan base and support.”