With Big Sky’s Lone Peak towering behind a brightly lit stage under the stars, this year’s Wildlands Music Festival did so much more than bring together music fans. It brought together three conservation organizations and thousands of concert goers who also love the very best of what makes Montana so special – our wide-open spaces, cold, clean rivers, and majestic wildlife that call this place home.  

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition was selected alongside Wild Montana and Gallatin Valley Land Trust to benefit from the two-day Wildlands Music Festival created by Outlaw Partners. A silent auction, turned friendly competition over a Lukas Nelson signed Gibson guitar, kicked off the weekend of shows. (That guitar fetched upwards of $35,000.) In all, more than $300,000 was raised in the name of conservation for our three organizations.  

It's an understatement to say THANK YOU for the incredible generosity of the Wildlands Music Festival and the several thousand folks who bought tickets to see Lukas Nelson, Dierks Bentley, Maren Morris, and Wyatt Flores. A portion of ticket sales were then donated in part to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.  

Our work to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem takes a healthy dose of pragmatism, problem-solving, and of course – money. On behalf of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, we’d like to say a big thank you to the Wildlands Music Festival and concert goers who, like us, cherish our little corner of the world.  

—Emilie Ritter, Director of Communications and Marketing (Bozeman, MT)