I first went to Bass Canyon in 2022, and it has since become a can't-miss event for me every year. Every August, the Gorge Amphitheater in the middle of Washington state hosts this dubstep and drum 'n bass festival. Not only is the music an experience, but so is the amazing view of the Columbia River gorge.

Heart Nectar is a small-scale music festival that only recently started, either in 2022 or 2023, in southern Colorado's San Luis Valley. While I've been to other events of a similar size before, this was staged in the most austere and challenging environment where I've ever found such a gathering.

In the western states there are a number of scenic railroads known as "heritage railroads" or "excursion railroads." They're not meant to get you from one place to another, they're only meant to show you some amazing scenery for a few hours, and maybe stop somewhere interesting for a while. In Colorado there are three, which I've wanted to ride for years but hadn't found the time, until now, when I finally took the opportunity to experience two of those three.

The Texas Eclipse festival could have been the biggest and most perfect festival I've ever seen. Not only would a total solar eclipse happen on the last day, but it had the most stacked musical lineup I've ever seen, along with an equally-impressive lineup of guest speakers giving some interesting talks. For those of us who often go to festivals, this should have been our Woodstock, but from what I heard later, it was turning into a repeat of that other Woodstock which isn't so fondly-remembered, which may be why it was unexpectedly canceled on the morning of the last day.