I flew out to Jackson Wyoming to meet my buddy Bucky, and attend the Fire in the Mountains festival. This wasn't my first metal festival, having been on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise 2018 and 2019. Nor was it my first camping music fest, having been to Minnesota Bluegrass Festival. Death metal and bluegrass? What can I say, I have eclectic musical tastes.

I grew up camping and backpacking, and I am an Eagle Scout, so this was hardly a new experience. But I've softened a bit, and this was tougher than I've grown accustomed to. While it thankfully never rained, and we were assured that the bugs weren't as bad as years past, otherwise it was rather brutal. It was in 90s during the day, and we had ice on the tent at night. And sun was just inescapable, I'm not tuned for such conditions.

Highlights of the festival were seeing Dreadnought and Wayfarer. And like many at the fest, I'm a big fan of Austin Lunn's Panopticon project. Black metal meets folk/bluegrass is like chocolate and peanut butter for me, couldn't go together any better. So seeing Austin perform an accoustic set, backed by two fiddle players was such a treat.

Nor was theirs the only folk set. This is my kind of metal festival. One that is rooted in deep ecology, with an open mind both to what defines both the metal genre and we as individuals. This isn't a tough guy space - this fest has statements of inclusion of race, gender, and sexuality. It was great to see.

On my layover in Salt Lake City, I happened to bump into Austin Lunn. After some casual conversation about the fest, we got lunch together with some of his friends. What a humble human being, I couldn't have been more pleased by such serendipity.