Sam Summers planned Hinterland Music Festival in noisy coffee shops, at kitchen tables with his wife, over phone lines with his brother, and in the hallways of offices. Not Hinterland\u2019s \u2014 but Summers\u2019 offices for his other music endeavors: the popular Des Moines live music venue Wooly\u2019s,<\/a> Up-Down, a bar and an arcade,<\/a> and First Fleet Concerts<\/a>, which brings shows to Des Moines and other Midwestern cities. Summers owns those organizations.<\/p>\n But for Summers, it still wasn\u2019t enough. Over the past year, he\u2019s pushed to launch Hinterland, yet another testament to Des Moines\u2019s booming music scene. And the festival\u2019s first year looks like it won\u2019t disappoint. He\u2019s locked in bands like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, TV on the Radio, and St. Paul and the Broken Bones for the show. He booked his location: The festival will run this year from July 31\u2013Aug. 1 at Water Works Park, Des Moines\u2019s version of Central Park. And Summers has his stage \u2014 that\u2019s stage, singular \u2014 so that festival goers won\u2019t miss a single note of the 12 bands scheduled to play.<\/p>\n But he also wants festival goers to do more than listen to music. He wants them to camp. To knock bottlenecks with friends. To taunt the opposing disc golf team. And sometimes, he wants them to leave. Re-entry is not only allowed, but encouraged, and Summers is renting 20 bikes from the Des Moines Bicycle Collective<\/a>, an organization that promotes biking in Central Iowa, so performers can explore Des Moines with their fans.<\/p>\n On the first day tickets went on sale, VIP sold out in 10 seconds. And by day\u2019s end, Summers had takers from 25 states \u2014 including Alaska \u2014 and even from Great Britain and Canada.<\/p>\n For a first-time festival to go international in a day, it took some strategic planning. These are the 11 steps that Summers took to get Hinterland off the ground.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been trying not to do that thing where you go and copy other festivals. I\u2019ve been trying to brainstorm independently \u2014 sometimes it\u2019s tough to not rely so much on what\u2019s been done before. But it\u2019s what makes your festival different.<\/p>\n With some of the camping stuff, I\u2019ll go around and see what the best practices are at different festivals, because I don\u2019t know much about camping. But when we\u2019re talking about ideas and activities, I\u2019m trying to meet with people who have creative minds in Des Moines and say, \u201cHey, there are no boundaries \u2014 come up with some ideas.\u201d For example, I\u2019m working with Ramona Muse from the Des Moines Art Center<\/a>. I gave her full reign of programing the Kid Zone, which will be an activity area with a creative arts element.<\/p>\n But there are some things that are tried and true about festivals that are probably going to be the same as everybody\u2019s. But I think it\u2019s important to brainstorm before you look at what everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n I do all the shows down at the Simon Estes Amphitheater [an outdoor stage on the Des Moines River]. We do a lot of Americana and jam band type stuff down there in the summer. I have all these bands coming through every year, and I thought, \u201cHey, why don\u2019t we put some of these bands together all in one place? Or, are the bands too big to play at the amphitheater?”<\/p>\n I always wanted to do a festival at Water Works Park<\/a>. The only thing holding me back was the fact that it\u2019s flood-prone. If it is late enough in the season, the rivers have receded for the most part, and things are a little bit dryer. It\u2019s a beautiful park and underutilized \u2014 a lot of people are not aware of it.<\/p>\n I started out going for a more folky, bluegrass vibe. Then I had these other opportunities to put more of an indie-folk element into it. Just knowing my personal music taste, I know I can get into Americana and bluegrass \u2014 more reggae stuff like that. But I also listen to a lot of indie stuff \u2014 specifically indie folk. So I thought, these bands kinda make sense together. Especially Edward Sharpe. He\u2019s the glue that holds it all together. He has a folky sense and also describes that whole indie scene. With that, I expanded it to put bands like TV on the Radio<\/a> and Future Islands<\/a> on [the lineup]\n This festival is a niche thing. What I was going for was my taste and creating a festival around that. Because, then, it\u2019s an honest festival. I know what I like, so if I build a festival around what I like, I have a pretty large common denominator taste when it comes to underground music. No one is doing this blend of indie, folk, Americana, and bluegrass.<\/p>\n I think there are two kinds of festivals. One is the travel festival, where there are a bunch of bands in a particular niche \u2014 which is what I think Hinterland is. A lot of our bands fall in the same world. It makes it worth the trip. And then there\u2019s the festivals that are community based, where they are a cross section of all the tastes in the market and they provide a little something for everyone \u2014 which is what I think an 80\/35 <\/a>is or a Lollapalooza<\/a>. I did the niche festival because I wanted to differentiate myself from the others.<\/p>\n It\u2019s my first year of the festival, so it was hard to get agents to take me seriously. I went to the agents with what I wanted, where normally what you\u2019d do is ask, \u201cWhat kind of submissions do you have for my festival?\u201d I knew what type of brand I wanted to create, so I was very particular about the bands I wanted. I didn\u2019t bother emailing anyone else.<\/p>\nSTEP 1:<\/b> When brainstorming your festival, don\u2019t copy.<\/h3>\n
STEP 2:<\/b> Immerse yourself in various music scenes.<\/h3>\n
STEP 3:<\/b> Think Smart About the Venue.<\/h3>\n
STEP 4:<\/b>Pick your vibe.<\/h3>\n
STEP 5:<\/b> Become your vibe.<\/h3>\n
STEP 6:<\/b> Populate your stage. Stage, singular.<\/h3>\n