The Evolution Of Jackson’s King Concerts

Going into its third season, it’s no secret that the King Concerts Series atop Jackson’s Snow King Mountain has become one of the hottest summer events in town. Made possible by Snow King’s newly installed gondola, the series offers a truly unique concert experience with sweeping views of the Tetons, Gros Ventre mountains, and downtown Jackson Hole. The King Concert Series is part of an infrastructure improvement effort from Snow King Mountain, Jackson’s local ski hill. For its third iteration, the King Concerts lineup offers an array of shows appealing to all music tastes, from bluegrass and country to hip-hop and reggae, and extends from June to early August. The panoramic views from the newly installed gondola and the 8,000 foot high summit stage are worth the price of admission alone. We caught up with Ryan Stanley, Snow King’s General Manager to talk about the evolution of their concert series, new improvements to the experience, and what to expect heading into the third summer of King Concerts.

So years ago, we had the JH Live summer concerts at the base of the SK, and those seemed to kind of fizzle out around Covid, but was it always sort of a thought “Like man, it would be cool to have shows up on the summit” once the infrastructure, AKA the gondola, was there?

Yes, it has been something on my mind for a number of years observing the success of shows at the base. With the new gondola and road access to the top, larger shows at the summit became a reality and we decided to give it a try.

It was after the first winter season of the gondola you presented the first iteration of the King Concerts with Duane Betts and Friends. What sort of logistical challenges did those first shows present?

That was effectively a trial run to see what the level of attraction would be for shows up there, and how we could make it work. It turned out to be quite a success even with it being such a small production, and it got the town talking. We towed up a small stage for that event and organized a show in the middle of a dirt field. People had a great time and I figured we could make it work on a larger scale and do it better. So we upped the game from there. For that first event, the logistics were fairly easy, but we have complicated it a lot since then.

And still as somewhat of a work in progress, but it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen live music, up there with venues like The Gorge, how did you feel shows last summer were received? And was it a goal to keep progressing the guest experience?

Definitely. All the feedback was super positive, and it was pretty easy to see a path forward in terms of the improvements that we needed. For last summer, we made quite a few upgrades that we felt were needed like the stage, more tents, and vendors. For this summer we have a nice grass field with a sprinkler system and an improved site for the stage to sit on amongst other things. Hopefully, the experience will just keep progressing.

From there did you feel like it was somewhat of a no-brainer to keep them going with more shows and bigger artists?

Yeah, to some extent. I think that’s what can differentiate us, having some bigger-name artists in a spectacular one of a kind venue. You can’t replicate our views! There’s always going to be a limit to the number of people that we’re willing and able to put up top so that caps out where we can go in terms of the level of artists, but it also provides a special experience you don’t get at a stadium or larger venue.

Once you reached out to that sort of next tier of artists what was the process like reaching out, and were they mostly pretty stoked to play up there?

Well it's kind of similar for many of them, from bigger to smaller levels of acts, they have a team that represents them, you work through their team, and try and get them to understand what they’re getting into with our unique location. In reality, I don’t think the artists or their crews truly know what they’re getting into until they show up the day of the show and see we are going to load them and all their gear on a gondola!

Yeah, these bands have a lot going and this is just a piece of their busy summer schedule.

Exactly, and we really want to make sure they have a smooth experience, so they can tell others how great our venue and crew is.

Snow King has been going through a progression of infrastructural improvements over the last several years. Has the progression of the concert series seemed to coincide with those improvements naturally?

For sure. By the end of the year we’ll have completed all the major improvements we set out to make when we finish the new summit building adjacent to the gondola. The new facility will have a spectacular restaurant and bar, bathrooms, an outdoor glass enclosed deck, and roof top deck. Next summer we will be able to incorporate it into the concert experience. Then the new Observatory & Planaterium is opening June 1, which we’ll incorporate with all the concerts this summer. Next year we’ll truly look our best up there after we’re fully done with all the landscaping, and reseeding, the grass is grown and we’re not digging in the dirt and doing construction up there anymore.

What can we expect for this summer? And was it a goal to have it be a fairly diverse lineup of shows through the summer?

Diversity in the lineup for this summer was definitely the goal, and I think we can keep going in that direction for future seasons.

What else can we expect this summer as far as the artist and guest experience?

Well, we’ll have grass up there which is going to make it way better. We got nice sod laid down there last fall along with a sprinkler system. So by the first show, if the snow ever melts, we should be looking good. We’ve obviously got a late-season snowpack, but the plan is to get a nice new concrete pad for the stage, which will make setup and the experience for the artists just better in general.

Who are you most excited to see atop the King?

I’d say I’m most excited for the last show for sure. But I’m quite stoked on every single show.

Yeah I mean just going off of last summer’s lineup, I loved all the music but the music was almost just like a bonus to the backdrop. It’s definitely a super unique place to see music and showcase our beautiful town and valley.

Yeah totally. Hopefully, we can get the word out about how special it is. I mean there are some great venues, but the experience of being able to go up the gondola and see the views while being right above downtown is definitely differentiating us. And this year when the weather’s going to be good there’s going to be a late-night DJ after the show from KHOL. So that's another aspect we’re adding this year, hopefully, to keep people there for a bit, to not feel like they need to rush to stand in line to get down the mountain.

And then for a small group of people who are interested, you will be able to add on a stargazing experience in the new observatory and planetarium after the show.

How did the new planetarium come about? Was that always in the plans?

The observatory and planetarium was really driven by Max Chapman, our board chairman at Snow King, who has a real passion for astrophysics. It really developed over the last few years, but I think it’s going to round out our offerings for Snow King on all fronts and meet more people's interests. It’s a public education facility first and foremost, but it can be used for research as well due to the high quality of all the equipment. I think people will be kind of blown away if we have a clear night on a concert if they stick around to do some stargazing in the new facility. There’s nothing really out there quite like it in the world right now at the top of a ski resort. It’s pretty incredible, when you do long exposures with the cameras attached to the telescope the images you can see are mind boggling.

Full list of shows with available tickets: