Fire In The Mountains
Fire In The Mountains, a singular congregation of people from far flung corners of the continent, gathered upon a deep green meadow bordered on one side by the slow moving Buffalo Fork River and the other side by the Grand Teton mountain range. A family gathering of sorts, where celebration, communion and community are embraced by performers and attendees alike. Not long ago, this place was inhabited only by Grizzlies, wolves, elk, buffalo and countless numbers of their animal kin, as well as wide-ranging bands of humans who lived light upon and in accordance with the land. At this festival, we hoped to make some kind of connection to that past, in whatever small or large way we’re capable of, by celebrating artforms that carry that spirit.
Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson was tapped to curate part of this year’s festival (after a pandemic-imposed 2 year hiatus), calling his curation “On Wings Over Utgard”. The selection of performers as diverse as the wildlife inhabiting the surrounding hills and rivers. The deep forest paganism of Wolves In The Throne Room, the neo-traditional Welsh music and poetry of Sean Parry and Sacred Knot, Yob’s crushingly psychedelic odes to love and redemption, Enslaved’s relentless Norwegian progressive metal and Steve Von Till’s moody and beautiful ambient/neo-classical wilderness elegies… just a few examples of the significant diversity of performers, who can all be somehow threaded together to create a singular wholeness. One that feels like it fits together perfectly in some ineffable way.
At its core, Fire In The Mountains is built by a group of friends, motivated solely by the desire to create a moment in time, one of celebration and reverence. These aren’t career festival producers. These aren’t music industry hacks looking for the next moneymaker. FITM is a home-grown event of the heart, and you can’t help but feel it no matter what you came there for.
Guest Photographer: Bobby Cochran
