Billy Strings Brings the Heat to Close Out Under the Big Sky Festival in Style

Tan lines were inevitable. So was filling up a water bottle every hour. Fortunately for the attendees who braved near-record temperatures at the Under the Big Sky music festival in Whitefish, emergency provisions were close at hand to help crowds beat the heat, without missing a beat.

Upon immediate entry to the Flathead Valley’s biggest music festival, which in its fifth year spanned three days between July 12 and 14, bowls of complimentary sunscreen, ChapStick, and hand sanitizer were available at a services tent. A few steps down the walking path, food was sizzling in food trucks. Walk a little further, around 10 more minutes, and the Great Northern Stage swung into view, furnishing attendees in an immersive, sensory musical experience ensconced in nature. Mountains contoured the perimeters of the festival, their light-blue hues harmonizing with the towering trees of the Montana landscape. Welcome to Under the Big Sky.

On 10 a.m. on Sunday, amid heat warnings of a sweltering afternoon, Under the Big Sky staffers and volunteers were up bright and early roaming the campgrounds, doing their due diligence to ensure that everything would run smoothly for the remaining 12 hours of the festival. At around 11 a.m., families started trickling into the VIP tent near the Great Northern Stage, UV-protective sun hats on heads and fans in hand. As festival staff rolled out garbage cans and vendors trudged ice to and from their trucks, the tone for the day was set: This was going to be a very long — and very hot — day. The first show wouldn’t begin until 12:30 p.m., but maintaining stamina was essential to get to through one of the most eagerly awaited summer events in Northwest Montana.

This year’s Under the Big Sky boasted an eclectic lineup: the country legend Miranda Lambert, Americana roots band Turnpike Troubadours, and the formidable guitarist Billy Strings all headlined in the span of three days. Outriders Presents, the group responsible for putting on the festival for the fifth year in a row, estimated that around 20,000 people attended per day, a similar turnout to last year. Performances by folk darlings Abby Webster and Sierra Ferrell were hotly anticipated as well, both for their raw, evocative on-stage presences and subsequent afterparties during the festival weekend.

Country stars rocked the Great Northern and the Big Mountain stages in Whitefish all weekend long at the Big Mountain Ranch, but on Sunday, the marquee performer on everybody’s minds was Billy Strings, the Grammy-winning American bluegrass guitarist and electric performer. His two-hour set scheduled at 9 p.m. would be the closing act of the night and wrap up the festival.

At 12:30 p.m., Madeline Hawthorne came out on the Great Northern Stage and strummed her notes as the first performance of the day. She wore her dirty blonde hair down, paired her black ensemble outfit with sunglasses, and delivered strong vocals on her tracks like “Night Ride,” before bellowing: “Whitefish, it’s time to wake up! Are you feeling alive this Sunday?”

With no clouds in sight, the sky stretched straight and blue for miles and miles, and the sun bore down relentlessly as twangy guitar music bumped in the background. Festival grounds were serene for the first hours. Lines moved quickly and crowds were navigable. To the uninformed passerby, it might seem as though the Under the Big Sky’s primary attraction was a themed walking trail, rather than a large-scale musical event.

Chatter ensued when the masses began converging on the festival grounds around 2 p.m. Strings’ mythos only grew. An eavesdrop or quick chat with both staff and festivalgoers confirmed the ubiquitous interest to see Billy Strings, scheduled to take the stage in a mere seven hours. People came from all over to attend Under the Big Sky, hailing from both coasts and Canada.

In the early afternoon, crowds spread out as people opted to watch performers from afar, within walking distance to the nearest available shade, cold drinks in hand. A small creek babbled by the Big Mountain Stage and people took full advantage, dipping their feet in to cool off.

Newcomers and returning artists alike would comment about the heat to the audience, remarking on how hot the day was as the sun tracked across the mantle of blue sky. Yet the horde increased in size and people began inching closer to the stage, their lawn chairs migrating to pepper the open field.

Trent Smith, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service Forecast Office, said the average temperature for this time of year is around 82 degrees, with the record high for this date in history set in 2007 at 98 degrees Fahrenheit. At its peak, the temperature hovered around 96 degrees at 5:34 p.m., the highest temperature recorded during the weekend.

At 4 p.m., as the heat started to build, the crowd was hot and alive. The neotraditional country trio The Castellows performed their pithy library of songs from their latest EP before galvanizing the audience with a cover of The Beatles’ “Come Together.”

On the other end of the festival grounds near the Big Mountain Stage, people lined up during the hottest part of the day to watch the rodeo. As the clock hit 6 p.m., the crowd grew, spilling into the open fields and crowding the trails, with throngs of people lying down on blankets and sipping beers.

Sierra Ferrell rode in on a horse with acclaimed music producer Diplo, as well as Billy Strings. People flocked to the Great Northern field, as Ferrell played hits from her latest album, “Trail of Flowers,” including songslike “American Dreaming,” “Fox Hunt,” and “Dollar Bill Bar.” Ferrell, who is from West Virginia, felt like both an amalgamation of southern vocalists like Virginia’s Patsy Cline or Dolly Parton in her floral getup, rhinestone makeup and iconic voice.

Ferrell brought Billy Strings on stage as a surprise guest. The crowd roared. A person nearby whispered — “I feel like everyone is here for Billy Strings tonight.”

Strings appeared with his brown hair untied and donning a brown button-up with sunglasses, matching the mysterious ambience attributed to him for the night. Together, the duo ruled the stage, duetting “Bells of Every Chapel” over the chirping cheers in the audience. As mysteriously as he showed up, Strings dipped away after “American Dreaming,” presumably to prepare for his heavily anticipated close of the night.

Strings wouldn’t appear again until his 9 p.m. showtime. The lead up to Strings’ performance was a marathon, a testament to patience and stamina. But Strings’ performance was nonetheless a reflection of all that endurance. Despite it being 10 p.m., Strings did not pause for a moment, gliding through his set list, which he began with “The Fire on My Tongue.” As the day bled into sunset, Strings possessed all the stamina of his audience. His long hair tied up now, he skillfully plucked and strummed away at his guitar, producing dynamic, rippling acoustics, confirming all the whispers of his forte.

On screen, Strings’ electrifying soundscapes were further highlighted with the help of strobe lights and effects, adding a visual element and additional ambience to his performance.

Full of surprises, he brought in the talents of guitarist Zach Top to shred onstage with him. Their rendition of “Freeborn Man” was the highlight of their jam session, and their passion for music evident as they elevated each other’s performances underneath the flashing blue and yellow lights.

 Sierra Ferrell joined Strings as well to close out his set, duetting three songs, one of them being a cover of Cher’s “Believe.”

Though Strings’ entire set was two hours long, Strings has a way of making even the most familiar songs feel brand-new. His cover of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” had so much melodramatic soul that you can almost forget that Strings is primarily a bluegrass guitarist, and not a seasoned jazz singer.

Proving to be a versatile entertainer, producing deep bluesy narratives to projecting tracks with thumping basslines, Strings is truly in a league of his own.

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