Tyler, the Creator, Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey are scheduled to headline this year’s Hinterland Music Festival from Aug. 1-3. This year also marks Hinterland’s 10-year anniversary. Founder and event producer Sam Summers was excited for the festival’s 10th year.
“New festivals typically really struggle, and so to be able to get over a five-year hump and now a 10-year one feels like we’ve cemented ourselves for lasting as long as we want to go at this point,” Summers said.
When Hinterland was founded in 2015, it was originally located in Des Moines, where Summers is from. The festival’s German name translates to “land beyond a river,” a nod to its rural roots.
Summers reminisced about Hinterland’s first few years, especially their involvement with the community.
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“Hinterland over the years has been very DIY-feeling,” Summers said. “You can feel that it’s run independently.”
Summers speculated that artists appreciate the independent feel of the festival as they prefer to be authentic in their performances, and the festival does its best to capture that. Developing the headlining acts for the festival has become fun for Summers as artists have started requesting to perform.
“A lot of artists we get haven’t played in Iowa or haven’t played together with these other artists,” Summers said. “You always see these unique collaborations that haven’t happened in other areas.”
Particularly with this year’s lineup, Summers sought out artists who were well-liked within their fandoms, hoping that fans of Lana would also like Kacey and Tyler and vice versa.
“We go for artists who can play on a big stage that will sound good,” Summers said. “You imagine, ‘How’s this going to sound at 9 p.m. out in the country?’”
Known for his West Coast hip hop sound, Tyler, the Creator will be headlining the first show of the festival on Aug. 1. His most recent album, “Chromakopia,” was massively popular on social media.
“Tyler, the Creator just released one of the best records this year, so we were stoked to get that booking,” Summers said.
Kacey Musgraves performed at Hinterland with Hozier in 2019 and will be headlining for the first time on Aug. 2. She is featured in popular songs like “I Remember Everything” by Zach Bryan and “She Calls Me Back” by Noah Kahan.
“She’s returning to headline, which is exciting for the folks that have been coming to Hinterland for a long time.” Summers said.
Also headlining Hinterland for the first time will be Lana Del Rey, who will be performing on Aug. 3. She is best known for her songs “Summertime Sadness,” “Young and Beautiful,” and “Video Games.”
“Lana is someone we’ve been going after for a long time,” Summers said. “Outside of Stagecoach, Hinterland will be her only festival.”
Summers hoped that attendees would be excited for this year’s festival. He emphasized that the fans’ experience was important to developing Hinterland this year.
“Last year was very hot, and there were some areas that we didn’t deliver like I would have liked to,” Summers said. “I’m very excited to get people on site to see how the grounds have grown and how intentional we’ve been with the improvements.”