Hartsel, Colorado Has a Music Festival Now

Hartsel, Colorado — the literal heart of South Park, ringed by the Mosquito Range and Antero Reservoir, sitting under some of the darkest skies in the state. For three days in August 2026 it becomes Badger Music & Arts Festival: bass, electronic beats, hand-built art, and a community that treats this land like the gift it is.

Born from Badger Bass Camp, a Denver bass institution, the festival came to Hartsel chasing space, sky, and the silence between the beats. At 9,000 feet in Park County the sound carries differently, the air runs clean, and the stars are frankly unreasonable.

On Thursday, August 13, we open with a pre-party timed to the peak of the Perseid meteor shower under a new moon — no light pollution, no city glow, just 80-100 meteors an hour streaking over the valley while the bass rolls underneath. This is exactly what Hartsel was built for.