More than 10,000 people will descend upon Madison County this weekend, as festival-goers will dot the hillside at Avenue of the Saints Amphitheater in St. Charles for Hinterland Festival.
Hinterland Festival, in its fourth year, is a music festival organized by Iowa native Sam Summers that features indie, folk and country musical acts.
Summers grew up in Urbandale and graduated from Iowa State University in 2006 where he studied economics and marketing. He spent much of his youth visiting his grandparents in Mount Ayr, which fostered a love of the outdoors and the countryside.
With Hinterland Festival, Summers has found a way to merge that passion for the outdoors and countryside with his passion for music.
But it wasn’t until just three days before the first Hinterland Festival in 2015 that Summers found the perfect location for his masterpiece.
The inaugural event was set to be held at Water Works Park in Des Moines, but flooding forced Summers to move the festival to Avenue of the Saints Amphitheater just three days before the event kicked off.
“I think it’s kind of a blessing in disguise to get moved in our first year, because we absolutely love the location we’re in,” Summers said in an interview with the OST last week. “I think for the fans coming in from out of state, this is a very representative location that I think of when I think of Iowa. There’s lots of nice oak trees and all that. The natural bowl shape of that hill makes it so you can see all the way around and hear, and you can sit on the hill and watch. It worked out really nice for us.”
Summers owns Wooly’s in Des Moines and also organizes the Nitefall on the River concert series at Simon Estes Amphitheater and Brenton Skating Plaza in downtown Des Moines.
Even with his success from those ventures, he still had a lot of convincing to do in his first year of organizing the festival.
But, having to move the festival location three days before the event in 2015 showed agents how invested he was in making the festival work. Since then, the festival’s brand has grown.
“Now, at this point, agents are asking me for it. I’m already getting people asking for next year, which is great,” Summers said. “I have some agents flying in this year to see it, which means it’s a big show and people want to witness it. I think everything is gaining momentum.”
Summers expects about 9,000 people in attendance Friday and 11,000 on Saturday, with somewhere around 6,000 people utilizing the camping passes available for the festival.
Camping has grown each year at Hinterland, and Summers said this year will have the most campers yet. As a result, he has added a new stage to the camping area that only those with camping passes can access. The camping area will also include a vendor row.
About 400 employees and volunteers make the festival possible each year. Most of the leads were on site Monday working to prepare the festival grounds, while the stage, which will be bigger this year than in past years, arrived Tuesday and was constructed Wednesday morning. Summers said he expects to have everything torn down and out of the festival grounds Monday.
Headlining this year’s festival Saturday night is Sturgill Simpson, who Summers said has been on his list of potential performers since the beginning. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats has also been on his list and performs Saturday.
“Tyler Childers this year is one of the most hyped on the festival,” Summers said. “He was unknown this time last year.”
Summers said Friday’s lineup is more “indie and dance,” featuring Chvrches, with Band of Horses headlining.
“It’s a shortened day, so people want to party a little bit,” he said. “That’s why we got Chvrches for this year, Alt-J last year.”
Summers described Saturday’s lineup as “Americana or Red Dirt.”
“We got a lot of value early in the lineup and Saturday is super solid,” Summers said. “Everything that is going on in that genre is happening Saturday.”
While Hinterland Festival has grown in its first four years of existence, Summers said he is happy to maintain where it is now, keeping it sustainable for the future.
The festival kicks off 5:15 p.m. Friday with Iowa band Ancient Posse taking the stage. Another Iowa band, The Nadas, opens the day Saturday with an 11:45 a.m. performance.
Headliners Band of Horses (Friday) and Sturgill Simpson (Saturday) take the stage at 9:30 p.m.