Sam Summers on the Hinterland Music Festival

This year, Iowa’s Hinterland Music Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary. The first incarnation took place in 2015 at the Avenue of the Saints Amphitheater in St. Charles, just south Des Moines, where it continues to be held today, and featured a mix of indie and roots music artists like TV on the Radio, Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Brandi Carlile. Since then, it’s continued as a fantastically curated three-day lineup where you can catch artists right on the cusp of stardom alongside cultural icons.

This year’s festival takes place Friday, August 1, through Sunday, August 3, and has headliners Tyler, The Creator, Kacey Musgraves, and Lana del Ray with the likes of The Marías, Scowl, Gigi Perez, and Royel Otis, among others. We hopped on Zoom with festival founder Sam Summers, who also owns Des Moines clubs Woolly’s and Val Air Ballroom, to discuss Hinterland’s legacy and future.

The Pitch: Every year, you slot in an artist who is on their way up and then just explodes in popularity, most notably with last year’s lineup and Chappell Roan. What happened between when you booked her and when that performance happened?

Sam Summers: I mean, it definitely lets us experiment with artists you know, by having this small club in Wooly’s, but I would say that, obviously, Chapell was probably a generational artist as far as getting someone on early in the lineup and then having them blow up like that. I would say that’s like, maybe back in the early days when like Lolla[palooza] had Lady Gaga or something like that.

When we booked it, we also had it booked at the club. I remember, our club show was at like 200 and some tickets and then it was in February, March when it really turned a corner and then we sold out the club. We’d also announced the festival already with her on it and then we moved it up to Val Air Ballroom, which is 2,500. That sold out instantly.

We’d seen how all these other festivals had backed into sellouts through Chapell. Maybe they were like 50% sold out and then Chapell took off and then it got to the finish line. We were already sold out with Hozier and Noah [Kahan], so I was very curious to see like, are we gonna have this same like pink crowd that some of these other festivals we’re seeing? And yeah, I mean, she made a lot of fans, so Sunday was our craziest day we’ve ever had. The day she played, that was the Noah day, also.

I like to think that this year we’ve got something close to that with Role Model or Gigi Perez. Role Model’s certainly has been everywhere online. Gigi Perez is one that I was kind of late on and then I listened to it and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I missed this.” I feel like that one could easily get up to headline.

The Hinterland lineup’s evolved over the years. It was alt-country and folky in the early years and has evolved where, on this year’s lineup, you have Tyler, the Creator and Scowl who are both very definitively not in that rootsy Americana subgenre. What’s it been like adjusting to that, while still crafting a lineup which still feels strangely Midwestern?

I kind of remember the year [2022] that I started going off in a different way. We put Turnstile on to replace Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and then people really liked it. When you have something that people really like and they go to and they buy tickets and stuff, you don’t wanna rock the apple cart.

My music tastes had changed a bit, and what was coming out in country wasn’t really doing it for me at that time. After we got past the Tyler Childers, the Sturgill Simpsons, the Zach Bryans, and whatnot, it was like, “Well, what’s next?” ’cause a lot of this stuff doesn’t make sense. If you look at our crowd, they’re not gonna like that stuff.

You’re celebrating your 10th anniversary this year. When you started it, did you even foresee it lasting this long?

No. When I started it I thought it was just gonna be a one-off concert. I was putting together a bunch of the band, we were doing outdoor shows at this place called Simon Estes in Des Moines and I was feeling like these bands sound similar, I like these bands, let’s put these bands together. I didn’t think that we’d be able to continue doing  those sort of complimentary bands for that long. Now that I think we’ve evolved our lineup, it feels like it can last a lot longer, but no–didn’t think we were building anything, and I don’t think anybody could plan on it.

Now what’s happening is like we’re getting artists that we’re getting artists that are requesting to play, like big artists and, and then some of ’em don’t fit the festival and the other side of me as a promoter is like, “My gosh, this band would sell out an arena and I’m not gonna offer? I gotta be polite here.”

You get this kind of imposter syndrome. I’m in Iowa creating this lineup here that said legendary band wants to play and I’m not gonna give them an offer because we are gonna stick to what we’re doing and that part has been challenging as I continue to try to like build up, you know, my clubs and you know, the overall music scene in Des Moines. But it’s so far it’s worked out and I haven’t upset any agents.

But the thing I just go back to is, “We’re a single stage. We don’t have much to offer. We’ve got 18 to 22 offers that we can put out every year, and we have to be intentional with all those, or there won’t be a festival in the future for you to want your bands to play,” you know?

Hinterland Music Festival takes place at the Avenue of the Saints Amphitheater in St. Charles, Iowa, from Friday, August 1, through Sunday, August 3. More information is at hinterlandiowa.com.