The Arts Council of Big Sky has announced that the organization has cancelled its well-known free concert series, Music in the Mountains, for the upcoming summer due to the COVID-19 health crisis. Events that won’t happen include 11 Thursday night concerts, the annual July 4 celebration, the Bravo! Big Sky classical music festival, and a performance of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks.

"Without knowing what the future looks like for crowd gathering or when Montana will move to Phase 3 of the state COVID plan, we feel this is the best situation for the health of our local community, as well as for the artists, crew and audience,” said Brian Hurlbut, the Arts Council’s Executive Director. “It’s just too hard to plan without knowing when things will open up, and we feel that large crowds won’t be gathering anytime soon.”

The series was slated for June 25 to September 3, and was to showcase nationally recognized bands like Susto, Mike and the Moonpies and Grupo Fantasma, as well as beloved regional acts like Kitchen Dwellers and Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs.
           
“We were really excited about this summer’s artists, and we know the community will miss the concerts, but we feel that this is absolutely the right decision.” said Hurlbut. “Hopefully next summer we’ll return with an equally exciting lineup and be able to present another award-winning series.”

The free concert series, which started in 2008, has a reputation for introducing up-and-coming artists to Montana, many of whom have gone on to enjoy greater success on an international scale. Performers like Jason Isbell, the Infamous Stringdusters and Lukas Nelson graced the Big Sky Town Center stage early in their careers before going on to win Grammy awards. The family-friendly series draws more than 30,000 people to Big Sky during the summer.

The Arts Council is still planning on presenting its annual Mountainfilm event in September, but will continue to monitor the situation moving forward. In the meantime, the organization is offering a slate of free programs to the community, including online painting workshops, drawing classes and youth art-to-go projects. In addition, the ARTventure youth activity station that is usually at the concerts will be at the Farmers’ Market in the Big Sky Town Center every Wednesday this summer.

For more information about what the Arts Council is doing, visit bigskyarts.org or by calling (406) 995-2742.