11 July 2025

Photo Gallery: High Sierra Music Festival | Quincy CA | 07.03.25 – 07.06.25

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY GABRIEL DAVID BARKIN | PUBLISHED ON July 11, 2025

This year’s High Sierra Music Festival may or may not be the last one ever in Quincy at the Plumas County Fairgrounds. But after all the talk last year about whether it would be the final year of the long-running, much-adored festival, the 2025 HSMF was nothing but celebratory.

Some people complained ahead of time about a lack of “headliners.” Headliners schmedliners! When Ron Artis II left the stage to play several songs in the middle of his Saturday night Grandstand Stage set, he cemented his status as a bona fide superstar by HSMF standards. ALO has long been a fest fave, and this year they showed once again why they belong at the top of any bill. And the various combinations of The Slip, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The Barr Brothers, and solo sets by Nathan Moore underscored why High Sierra is a standout among mid-sized music festivals, always delivering a plethora of kick-ass’ness in multiple formats. It didn’t hurt that Maxwell (Malik) Friedman sat in for an entire set with The Slip; the young man started playing on High Sierra stages almost a decade ago as a teen called up from the crowd to show some serious keyboard chops.

There was musical mastery everywhere you turned. Karina Rykman. Molly Tuttle. Several members of Trey Anastasio’s TAB in various and sundry combinations. Holly Bowling and her superstar tot, air guitar king Ryland Bowling. NOLA funk with The Rumble. 18-year-old funk whiz Grace Bowers. And if you blinked, there was Steve Poltz telling a long story about writing a megahit for his then girlfriend Jewel and being harassed by Neil Young for eating too many waffles during her recording session. God bless Steve Poltz!

Parades. Yoga. Drum circles. Campground jams. Kid stuff galore.

Long may you live, High Sierra Music Festival! Cheers to Dave Margulies and crew – including a special shout out to my amazing friend Theresa Hayle for running everything behind the scenes, and our beautiful BISS list publisher Pamela Gerstein for mastering the FestiveAll VIP experience.

And now, on to the pics.