Quincy V.
Google
Hinterland 2025 was my first-ever festival experience and it was very memorable.
Hinterland is a 3-day music festival in rural Iowa, outside Des Moines. The festival hosts a mixture of local and bigger name artists. The overall vibe is lowkey, folksy and country, but some pop and alt/indie acts are featured as well.
The festival offers on-site camping options, as well as parking and shuttles. This year, the festival sold over 25,000 tickets, although it was unclear how many unique visitors attended across the three days. In addition to music, there were plenty of crafts, food, merchandise and even things for younger children to do.
The weather was just about perfect, with dry conditions and highs in the 70s each day. Iowa can be brutal in the summer and feedback from 2024 was that the heat made it very difficult to enjoy the entire festival in the hot weather.
For 2025, Hinterland shifted the venue slightly and reportedly made some improvements from past years. While they added a small canopy area for shade, the venue was entirely exposed to the sun without any relief. Fortunately the temperatures were cooler than usual this year, but I think they need to find a way to add more shaded areas for future festivals. The average high temperature for the area is in the upper 80s in early August, with highs commonly reaching the 90s.
I did not camp or utilize the shuttles, I used 1-day general parking. Since I was one of the first cars in on Sunday morning, I was able to get out quickly at the end of the night, in only about 15-20 minutes. This seemed atypical, as many people reported that it took over two hours to get out each night. There was no traffic direction, so that caused a huge mess. They either need staff directing traffic, more than one exit, and/or marked lanes of traffic to get things moving more efficiently.
There is a VIP option for tickets and I highly recommend this if you plan on attending in the future. VIP had access to premium comfort amenities, such as an exclusive full-service bar, air conditioned restrooms, a shaded structure and dedicated lines to enter the venue, access merch, showers, etc. Barricade access was split in half between GA and VIP, but probably 80% or more of the attendance was GA. This year, VIP ticket holders also got a free festival t-shirt.
Entering the festival on Sunday was very chaotic. The festival gave conflicting instructions on when and where to line up. People who were trying to get in all morning were turned away. While I appreciate that they didn’t let people start lining up before the sun comes up, it felt like there needed to be better structure for a fairer experience.
Speaking of that, the staff did not have much of a control over lines and did not seem to know what was going on. VIP was supposed to get in first, but they let GA run in and there was mass chaos as a stampede unfolded. Security felt too lax, as bag checks were inconsistent and they let dozens of people trample in without scanning their bracelets. This seems like a real security lapse and a safety hazard.
With that said, the interior security around the stage was top notch. They quickly addressed and de-escalated multiple incidents in both a professional and speedy manner. Rowdy people were escorted out. They passed out water all day and night, which was a nice plus. This will definitely help in the future when hotter weather returns for the festival in years to come.
Overall, I had a memorable experience at Hinterland Music Festival. Getting in was kind of chaotic and the music was a little bit too country and slow for me, at times, but I still found many of the performers enjoyable. The vast majority of people I encountered in attendance were very friendly and fun. It’s a highly inclusive festival and I might consider coming back, if more of my favorite artists were performing.
