The High Sierra Music Festival returns to the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, CA, on July 3-6, 2025. Tickets are available now via the festival website.
As always, High Sierra will present a wide variety of bluegrass, jam, Americana, funk, folk, and worldbeat acts. This year’s lineup includes Molly Tuttle, Lyrics Born, ALO, Dogs in a Pile, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, and rising superstar Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge. And then there’s John Craigie, The Slip, Mikaela Davis, Steve Poltz, and a very special appearance by Amy Helm and the (Levon) Helm Midnight Family Ramble.
At least four members of Trey Anastasio Band will be on hand too. Trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick will be an “artist at large,” sitting in with a number of other acts. Trombonist Natalie Cressman will play Brazilian jazz with her husband and musical partner Ian Faquini. LaMP, a high-energy instrumental jam band, features TAB drummer Russ Lawton and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski along with JRAD’s Scott Metzger.
High Sierra has something for everyone: a variety of tasty food and inventive crafts for sale, daily parades, shady and sunny venues, and even a family camping area and a Family Zone with activities for kids of all ages. Parents can even enjoy some kid-free evening time by reserving a babysitting spot with the Rockin’ Nannies, a group of qualified educators, professionals, and CPR-certified child-care providers.
This year, High Sierra is adding a new stage to its daily programming. The indoor Lagniappe Lounge will have a full musical lineup each day running alongside the well-established Vaudeville Tent and Big Meadow Stage. The Grandstand Stage, High Sierra’s largest venue, will start its programming later in the day, and will have more shade options than ever before.
In addition to daily lineups across four stages with over 50 performers, High Sierra will continue to host its beloved Playshops. These unique experiences bring together musicians and singers who typically do not perform with each other. Playshops often revolve around unconventional and offbeat themes, artist tributes, and alternative genre explorations.
Costume themes, campground décor, and tons of smiles. High Sierra lifers know it’s the happiest place on earth.
I recently met with High Sierra’s producer David Margulies to talk about what’s new and different for HSMF25 – and to revel in the magic, the "secret sauce" that makes this festival so special. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation.
Gabriel David Barkin (GDB): It looks like your lineup for HSMF25 is pretty much settled. You've got the alphabetical lineup poster and all that. Any more surprises coming?
David Margulies (DM): There's one more slot that hasn't been booked yet. The Sunday night closer is still to be determined right now, and I'm kind of holding out for something miraculous to present itself in hopes that we have some closer with a big bang. So I've left that spot open intentionally.
GDB: Seems like some people on the Facebook High Sierra Community page and elsewhere are still waiting for more, or they’re bemoaning that there's no headliner like years past – a Robert Plant, a My Morning Jacket, or a Ziggy Marley, for instance. Was that purposeful, to steer away from those big-name draws? Tell me about your approach to booking acts for this year’s festival.
DM: Well, it's really about being able to continue to do what we do. Because if we did book a Primus or a Ziggy Marley or a big six-figure-plus act, it wouldn’t move the needle for us with regard to ticket sales and could jeopardize our chance of surviving financially.
I'm looking at sustainability here, and I want this festival to continue for years to come. I'm more interested in building up the community of High Sierra lifers who really understand and get what the real prize is about High Sierra. And when you have over 50 bands, one headline band doesn't make or break the festival.
GDB: That’s clearly a different model than almost every other festival, right?
DM: People who are looking only at headliners can see those acts at places like the Greek Theater or the Hollywood Bowl. But if they're looking for a broader, deeper experience – the community and the parades and the playshops and the family village and the kickball – all of those things are unique to High Sierra. Then there’s the pop-up performances at places like Bitchin’ Kitchen, Camp Happiness, and elsewhere.
To me, “the headliner” is anybody that you're excited to see.
High Sierra has always been for serious music lovers. The way we've always curated the stages lets you peel back and dig in a little bit. You're going to find gems. That's how people found String Cheese Incident many years ago when they played on our second stage. That's how people found Yonder Mountain and the Avett Brothers and the Lumineers and Billy Strings.
GDB: That’s always been true for me. I can't tell you how many times I’ve ended up in the Vaudeville Tent on Sunday night when some big act is closing the main stage and some other amazing act is on the Big Meadow. And I’m in the Vaudeville tent with maybe 100 people watching some avant garde jazzy thing, like Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey or last year it was Scott Amendola & the Sticklerphonics.
DM: Don't sleep on the middle card and the under card at High Sierra!
GDB: So tell me about three performers who have never been at High Sierra before that you're really excited to have on the lineup this year.
DM: Where do I go with that? I mean, there's so many.
GDB: I can prime the pump for you. I am stoked you have Grace Bowers on the bill. She is going to blow people's socks off.
DM: She's just creating so much curiosity and doing everything right. She just did that Love Rocks NYC thing where she was on stage with Trey and Cher and Peter Frampton. She was on the Grammys with Chris Martin. And she's just an 18-year-old girl! I can't wait for her and someone like Bella Rayne to like trade licks at Guitarmageddon. [HSMF’s annual guitar throwdown Playshop]
She's going to love High Sierra and High Sierra is going to love her. Grace Bowers is a perfect example of “See her now before you'll be seeing her at the Hollywood Bowl.”
GDB: All right, that’s one. Who else hasn't played High Sierra yet that you are stoked to have on board?
DM: Well, we can talk about Karina Rykman, for instance. She’s primarily an East Coast player and she came into the scene playing with Marco Benevento. She’s developed a fairly strong following, and she puts on an incredibly dynamic and highly energized show.
GDB: OK, that’s two.
DM: The thing I'm probably most excited about is the Midnight Ramble Band with Amy Helm. All those players that played with Levon Helm doing a tribute to The Band and Levon Helm on Saturday night. It's going to be an incredible legacy act.
It’s squarely in our rootsy Americana wheelhouse, and it’s something that is highly unique and has never been at High Sierra before. They've never done this outside of the barn in In Woodstock. This is the first festival that they're doing. So it's incredibly special.
GDB: You mentioned “legacy.” High Sierra has its own amazing legacy, which includes performers who come every year, who have become part of the festival’s fabric. So I have to ask: are you going to have a Nathan Moore / Steve Poltz smackdown? You know, you've got Nathan, the “Mayor of High Sierra.” You've got Poltz, whom you literally crowned last year as the “Crown Prince” of the festival. You’ve got to get them together!
DM: I’m hoping to have the two of them in a Troubadour Session one night. [The Troubadour Sessions are acoustic singer-songwriter circles held each night in an intimate venue.] And, you know, that's a big one for us – to be able to bring back not only Nathan Moore, but also Surprise Me Mr. Davis, along with the Slip and the Barr Brothers. Surprise Me Mr. Davis [a “supergroup” featuring Moore and The Slip] formed at High Sierra over 20 years ago!
GDB: But no Marco Benevento this year, who also plays with Surprise Me?
DM: Marco wasn’t available.
GDB: My wife will be very sad to hear that.
Another legacy act is ALO, who by virtue of their name just happens to be first on the bill when you look at the alphabetical poster. They’re part of the legacy too. For some High Sierra lifers, they count as a “headliner.”
DM: Yes, and it’s not like we shied away from a bigger headliner. My philosophy is if there was a bigger headliner that made sense, like a Goose or a Trey or a My Morning Jacket, someone who really landed squarely in the wheelhouse, who matches the musical values of High Sierra, we would certainly spend the money. But to chase after a headliner for a headliner's sake is not necessarily a wise business decision. Primus fans, for example – as great a band as Primus is, they're not driving four hours plus to come camp in Quincy, California for four days.
We have to be smart about how we spend money. Every line item in our budget has gone up by about 30% since the pandemic! That's why we almost went out of business. And we're not raising our ticket prices this year.
GDB: Yeah, I hear you on that. We've seen all these festivals that aren’t going forward. And I'm not talking about the joke-worthy Fyre 2 Festival, obviously, but about all these good people in California and elsewhere that can't make it work anymore. So many festivals that can’t go on.
When I did my own back-of-the-envelope calculation on what the four headliners in 2024 must have cost you, I'm figuring you could have come in much lower on ticket sales and still do better.
DM: The idea is to lower the budget and come out okay even if our ticket sales are lighter than last year.
GDB: We heard rumors last year that 2024 might be the final High Sierra. Obviously, it wasn’t. But I think this year is the last year of your contract with the Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy. Is that true? What are you thinking about for the future?
DM: Everything is up in the air right now. I want to see how we do this year.
We love Quincy. We love being part of the community there. However, our audience is aging. We're not the same people we were when we started this festival. We were in our 30s and 40s, and now we're in our 50s and 60s. A lot of people who are High Sierra lifers either have families, or maybe they’re done with sleeping on the ground. They want creature comforts. So the lack of available lodging in Quincy is a real issue for a lot of people. They just won't camp anymore and it's too difficult or expensive to rent an RV or find an alternative.
GDB: So what are you doing about the heat this year?
DM: We're adding more shade structures into the Grandstand meadow. We're also starting the music in the Grandstand later in the day. Instead of noon or one o'clock, we're starting it at four o'clock.
We’re also opening up what was the old Funk’n Jam House [a fairgrounds building] to be a lounge that is a fully operative stage, with programming akin to what the Vaudeville Tent will have. It will go from noon until two in the morning, like the Vaudeville Tent does. It's going to have a lounge vibe. We'll probably put some couches and chairs either inside or right outside with some speakers and create some shade to get out of the sun and chill out. People will be able to see and hear great live music like Rainbow Girls and Whiskerman and Handmade Moments. All of the second-tier bands that are playing the Big Meadow and Vaudeville Tents, many of them will also have a shot at playing in the Lounge.
We're calling it the Lagniappe Lounge, which is a Louisiana French word that means, “a little something extra.” We're actually increasing the number of bands and the amount of programming that we're offering this year.
GDB: I can’t wait. You always bring in new discoveries that become some of my favorites.
DM: My intention this year was to really lean into artist discovery and present bands that are on par with the Galactics and the Dumpstafunks of the world. Just like how we had Cimafunk last year, who nobody really knew, and who just ripped the roof off. We've got The Rumble coming from New Orleans, and there's this Afro-Latin band led by percussionist Mitchum Yacoub – he's got a nine-piece band that is just going to blow the doors off the Vaudeville Tent
Spots matter at High Sierra, and timing matters. If you're in the right spot at the right time, you'll have that magical moment.
Want to lean into artist discovery? Check out the High Sierra Music Festival 2025 on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0of3qIa61OR2dByVuXCApx
For tickets and more information, visit https://www.highsierramusic.com
