Music Fest Road Trip Alert: Decemberists Announce Inaugural Travelers' Fest In Montana

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 22, 2017 6:21PM

Decemberists / Capitol Music Group

We were of course expecting some big news on the music-festival beat on Wednesday morning. But we came across another announcement that might perk the ears of potential road-tripping festivalgoers.

We're putting on our Missoulaist hat to pass along news of Travelers' Rest, a two-day music festival curated by Portland lit-major-indie lifers The Decemberists in Missoula, Montana this summer. (Festival organizers, take note: the manageability of just two days is enormously appreciated.)

Befitting its founders, it leans pretty twee and downbeat (which sounds rather appealing in this perpetually harried moment, especially in a Big Sky country setting), but hardly in full. The lineup includes Belle and Sebastian, The Head and the Heart, Sylvan Esso, Shakey Graves, Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, Real Estate, and Julien Baker. More artists will be announced in the weeks ahead.

The festival—which apparently stems in part from Decemberists frontman and Montana native Colin Meloy's enduring frustration at touring bands' treating his home state as flyover country—goes down at the Big Sky Brewing Company Amphitheatre in Missoula on August 12 -13. Weekend passes go on sale this Friday morning (10 a.m.) here, starting at $79.50.