(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo prepared the following extensive report on this year’s edition of the Fire in the Mountains festival. All photos except where noted by Jacob Juno.)

Like more than a few who will read this, the experience of the 2022 Fire in the Mountains festival left an indelible mark on me. That July weekend in the Tetons, now over three years in the rearview mirror, gave more than just a weekend of music in the wilderness to everyone in attendance. It took what easily could’ve been a risky one-off experiment and turned it into something decidedly different. Its success can be measured entirely by the community it built over those three unforgettable days.

Some of it was the incredible lineup, which included Enslaved, YOB, Wolves in the Throne Room, Wayfarer, and many others. Still more of it was the beautiful setting just outside Grand Teton National Park. But so much beyond that felt intangible, as if any human tongue lacked the words necessary to describe how it felt to be there.

I thought about all of this as I finished packing up my Subaru to the brim with camping gear two weeks ago. The wait was over. After three long years of uncertainty, the Fire in the Mountains festival would finally be making its triumphant return in a new place, rife with the potential for new beginnings.

And even though I didn’t know it at the time, the 2025 edition of this festival would not only obliterate every expectation I had for it, but it would signal the dawn of a new kind of heavy ceremony, paving the way for yet another weekend for which I’d struggle to find the words to describe.

The following recap is me trying anyway. Continue reading »

(Today our friend Gonzo brings us his third and final report on the recent Fire in the Mountains festival in Wyoming, along with a few of his own photos. You can find the first two installments here and here.)

Day three of any festival hits different. It’s no longer a matter of going balls-to-the-wall for 12 consecutive hours. It’s an endurance contest. It’s a marathon you’re running against yourself. One minute you’re staring bleary-eyed at the roof of your tent before the sun comes up, and the next, you’re chugging espresso you made in the back of a Subaru Outback in desperate hopes of being able to slog your way through the rest of the weekend.

And that’s just the first two hours.

But never mind that. No point in wasting any time lamenting your mental condition, I thought to myself as I threw some extra clothes into my backpack. Today would first be spent outside the confines of our beloved festival, and into the mountain range that we’d only been able to admire from afar. Before any music, we’d be taking a side quest to Grand Teton National Park. Continue reading »

(Our Denver-based contributor Gonzo was fortunate enough to be at the 2022 edition of Fire In the Mountains, which took place in the shadow of the glorious Teton Range in Wyoming. Today we present the first of his reports about the festival.)

I stepped out of the car and gently shut the door. Raising my arms over my head and interlocking my fingers, palms facing skyward, I stretched my body as if I’d never stood up on my own two feet before. Sitting on my ass for over 7 hours in a Subaru Outback through desolate landscapes and wide-open highways with barely another soul in sight for miles does tend to drain you after a while. And looking around now, it was almost fair to wonder if we’d driven through a portal to another dimension.

That otherworldly dimension, for our purposes, was known as Fire in the Mountains, a deeply unique festival experience that was just about to kick off its first occurrence in three years. Set deep within the Wyoming wilderness just outside of Grand Teton National Park, this gathering of metalheads, artists, hippies, weirdos, psychonauts, and anyone in between had gained a lot of buzz throughout the US festival circuit. Some called past incarnations of it “loose as goose shit,” while others described it simply as the best weekend they’d ever experienced in their lives. High praise for a festival that attracts just over a thousand people each year in a setting that requires you to pack in your own water.

Now that we’d arrived, the anticipation that had been building since 2020 was palpable, like a thunderstorm slowly looming over the mountaintops in the distance. More cars were slowly beginning to pull in, sporting license plates from as far as Canada, Ohio, Florida, California, Minnesota, and more. It was clear this was a destination for many. It was time to set up camp and let this experience take us wherever it would lead us. Continue reading »