Vertex Music Festival – Colorado’s Newest & Best Fest

August 5th, 2016 my life was changed by way of Vertex Music Festival. Blossoming in the fields of Buena Vista, surrounded by the gorgeous continental divide, music lovers, festival enthusiasts and all-around amazing people gathered to experience the inaugural Vertex Music Festival.

Colorado local Madison House, and AEG Live Rocky Mountains truly put together a magical and all encapsulating festival that won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon. These are the same people that bring the marvelous and unparalleled Electric Forest to life every year! Picking such an amazing and open space to hold Vertex was a brilliant addition to the mind-blowing lineup they had in store.

First of all, the 1.5ish drive from Denver was beautiful. You can’t really go wrong view-wise driving around Colorado, you know, unless you’re headed east. Regardless, anyone who had their heads buried in their phones on their way up were SERIOUSLY missing out on some spectacular views on the twisty ride up to Buena Vista. After a long dirt road path to the actual grounds the moderately sized campgrounds of the beautiful Cottonwood Meadow immediately greeted you.

Praise be the festival gods for Vertex having their camping and parking in the same spot! While most would be concerned with space, we were at first for sure, our crew set up our shantytown right where we parked. Lets be real, no one wants to carry 1000 pounds of camping gear almost a mile just to set up and then finally go party. Vertex obviously had the foresight for this.

After our little villa was assembled it was time to head in. After you weaved your way through the campsite, large marquee letters greeted you into the festival. Past security you were immersed in a colorful village of tiny fairy-tail like houses. Victorian-style and totally random these houses were a whimsical touch to the festivities. The balloon house had to be my favorite, and a favorite amongst the kiddos.

The time and thought put into making Vertex such a success showed as soon as you walked in. Scattered throughout the trees were tiny birdhouses filled with little surprises. Colorful marbles, googly eyes, and slips of paper with pretty clips and phrases were found inside of the little homes. And that’s just to name a few, different surprises waited throughout the day for those who were curious. There was also a lovely Victorian-meets-Mediterranean style lounge area, a lovely spot to “write a letter leave a letter,” and this guy in a dress chillin in a house…

Friday was pretty gloomy weather-wise in the beginning. With a few sprinkled showers eyebrows were raised if a possible Tomorrow World 2015 situation was about to go down. This wasn’t the case at all. The sprinkled showers were a much welcomed cool-down from all the dancing going down for Big Wild – the first act we caught. The rest of the afternoon was a blur of amazing music, exploring the grounds of Vertex. What capped it all off was watching the festival transform into a dancing slurry of glowing lights, projections and fire breathing robots.

Friday night held performances by beautifully bluesy Alabama Shakes, up and coming smash Jai Wolf, and ever-funky Gramatik.

Alabama Shakes, the Grammy-winning blues-rock band drew a huge crowd of fans. The audience was just begging for the smooth and soulful sounds of Brittany Howard. Home girl sang with so much passion and talent it was hard not to listen to the bands sound. While albeit a bit slow for the fest, I think the band would have been better to close out the night, letting everyone sleep with sweet blues in their ears and heart.

Immediately after Alabama Shakes, Jai Wolf hit the stage and was everything I was hoping he’d be. After heartbreakingly missing him at Decadence, Vertex was finally my chance to hear some of my favorite songs live. It was refreshing to hear he didn’t play exact versions of those songs you’ll hear on his SoundCloud. I think more artists should improvise on stage like he did to really showcase their talent. Needless to say I danced and sang along the whole show.

Gramatik’s show was just… I have no words. The perfect end to the first night the hip-hop, jazz and electro sounds called for plenty of grooving and lots of good times. His last two songs hit so hard I wish I knew what the second to last one was. No one seemed to know but the bass spoke to me on another level.

Saturday was on another level. Besides great jams and good vibes Vertex also offered field trips. Take your pick of rafting, yoga, or a hiking trip. All of that sounded great, but we were interested in hitting up the Beach and the wonders awaiting us there. Next to the main festival grounds, through the trees, lived a beautiful lakeside beach (which also shined with the glow of 1000 raves at night). The beach was filled with great music and amazing people. Cooling off in the water was a welcome luxury from the sun blaring down on us. Check out Vertex’s short-clipped recap video

The rest of the weekend was filled with great acts and a harmonizing mix of funky jam bands like Lettuce and bouncy-housy EDM courtesy of Duke Dumont and Rufus Du Sol. Sunday was packed with two highly anticipated back-to-back sets by the Trey Anastasio Band, Dopapod’s earlier set, and of course Seven Lions. But in this writers opinion, the best set of the whole weekend was Odesza.

Odesza wrapped up Saturday night with another absolutely amazing performance. Like their Red Rocks show Odesza brought on the Colorado Symphony strings and CU drum line to accompany them. Becoming one of my all-time favorites and after seeing them 5+ times now, we were literally holding people, stopping them from leaving before they came on state for their famed encore to play their untitled trap song. This night, they threw in another new jam to go along with it, and I’m still on the desperate search to find out what it was.

All and all Vertex was a humongous success. The acts we heard, the production we saw, and the memories we had will last a lifetime. People always say the first festival is the best festival and this couldn’t be truer. Vertex, you were a phenomenal experience. Such a well put on festival with a great lineup and even greater vibes plus, an absolutely GORGEOUS Colorado location. Can’t wait to see what you’ll have in store for next year!!