By Andrew Travers
Few cities on earth have been founded on music in the way modern Aspen was in 1949. That was when Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke organized the Goethe Bicentennial Convocation and Music Festival in the largely abandoned mining town, bringing thousands of visitors from around the world here for conversation and concerts. That event led to the birth of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School, the cultural pillars on which this postwar utopia would rise.
Aspen would cultivate the mind, body, and spirit, they envisioned, with outdoor recreation in the mountains complementing symphonies, recitals, and seminars.
“We wanted to find a place where the human spirit could flourish,” Elizabeth Paepcke reflected in 1980, “where the music would be of such a quality that it would lift us out of our usual selves.”
From that core sprang a diverse ecosystem of Aspen music, with generations of pop music legends coming here for inspiration and performances at an ever-evolving patchwork of venues and pop music festivals.
There was 1950s jazz, with local bandleader Freddie Fischer drawing crowds and touring musicians like Billie Holiday playing the Red Onion.
The rock revolution that followed flooded Aspen with counterculture and pop icons who were drawn to play the cool, young rock club scene (or to escape, hide out, and make music). Among them were the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the Eagles, who played a month-long stint of gigs at the Gallery Club at the base of Aspen Mountain in 1971 to tighten up their sound before recording their debut eponymous album. Eagles members then made Aspen home and chronicled it in songs like “Rocky Mountain Way.” Aspen was a similar catalyst for Stevie Nicks, who wrote “Landslide”—and saw someone’s reflections in its “snow-covered hills”— in Aspen during a lonely stay here in 1973 just two months before joining Fleetwood Mac.
Jimmy Buffett lived here for three summers in the early 1970s as he broke out as a star, then stayed for the winter of 1975—76 to learn to ski. He then built a rustic, creek-side, two-building property in Old Snowmass, where he split his time with the Florida Keys. He would later sell it to the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, who converted Buffett’s log-built garage and office into the famed Mad Dog Ranch + Studios in 1986.
John Denver, of course, has been Aspen’s unofficial poet laureate since the late 1960s and epitomized its idyllic spirit in song. His performances at the annual Deaf Camp Picnic in the 1970s defined Aspen’s outdoor pop music festivals and provided the template for all that have followed.
The granddaddy of them all is Jazz Aspen Snowmass’s Labor Day Experience, which since 1995 has brought the biggest names in pop music to Snowmass Town Park—from Sting and Stevie Wonder to the Black Eyed Peas and the Allman Brothers. Jazz Aspen’s June Experience brings the top acts in jazz to small venues across town and helped spur support for the must-visit new addition to the music scene: the Paul JAS Center, a jazz club that oozes throwback cool and has remained the hottest ticket in town since it opened in late 2025.
It complements and competes with Belly Up Aspen down the street, a 450-capacity club known to book bands that are used to headlining arenas. Belly Up has helped redefine and revive the Aspen music scene since it opened in 2005, returning Aspen to its glory days at the center of the pop music world. The 2025 launch of Belly Up’s new summer festival, Up in the Sky, along with the JAS Center, heralds yet another new era for Aspen music.
And more than 75 years since that first summer, the Music Festival remains the musical heart of Aspen, annually hosting the world’s most promising young classical musicians and eight weeks of concerts—with Sunday afternoon symphonies in the Music Tent remaining the most treasured community gathering of the season.
Paul JAS Center
The latest and hottest of hot spots on Aspen’s music scene, New Orleans’s Trombone Shorty played the 200-capacity club’s grand opening in December and kicked off a run of jazz, blues, soul, gospel, and world music that continues this summer.
JAS June Experience
Jazz Aspen kicked off with this annual summer showcase in 1991. It has evolved over the years into its current format with four days of multi-venue concerts downtown, where patrons can club-hop and sample the newest in jazz. This summer’s lineup includes Shaboozey, Tim McGraw, and Bonnie Raitt (June 25—28).
Aspen Music Festival and School
The first mover in Aspen music and still its main international draw from July 1 to Aug. 23, the iconic Aspen Music Fest experience is picnicking on the lawn outside of the music tent for the Sunday afternoon Aspen Festival Orchestra performances (soloists like Renée Fleming, July 5, premieres like Matthew Aucoin’s Symphony No. 1, July 19, and classics like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Aug. 23, are highlights). But purists might argue that a recital inside the adjacent Harris Concert Hall is the ultimate experience (high points are violinist Augustin Hadelich, July 16, pianist Daniil Trifonov, July 26, and Gil Shaham with Akira Eguchi playing Beethoven’s violin sonatas, Aug. 6—11). And everyone loves the free, all-ages community gatherings at the tent for the annual Mariachi Celebration (July 1) and Fourth of July Concert.
Up in the Sky Music Festival
Inaugurated in August 2025, Up in the Sky (Aug. 7 & 8) is the summer counterpart to Belly Up’s winter Palm Tree Music Festival, bringing to the slopes of Buttermilk a pop and EDM-slanted lineup. Last year’s event included Rüfüs Du Sol, Kacey Musgraves, and Glass Animals. Year two boasts Empire of the Sun and Passion Pit.
JAS Labor Day Experience
Arguably the most beautiful festival setting anywhere, Aspen’s largest annual festival brings 10,000 music lovers into Snowmass Town Park to hear chart-toppers and legends over three days of shows and toast the end of summer. The 2026 lineup includes Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Tim McGraw, and Shaboozey
(Sept. 4—6).
Wheeler Opera House
The most historic venue in town, the Wheeler has hosted live music since Aspen’s brief mining heyday in the 1880s. In summer, it hosts the Aspen Music Festival’s opera lineup (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, July 20—22) and the rest of the year welcomes a variety of comedy and live music.
Mountainside Music Festival and Free Concerts
The inaugural, three-day Mountainside Music Festival (June 11—13) brings acts like the Talbott Brothers to Fanny Hill in Snowmass. This summer’s line-up of free Thursday-night concerts at Fanny Hill include North Mississippi Allstars, July 9, and Abraham Alexander, August 20. Sunday afternoons bring a similar vibe to the top of Aspen Mountain, where the Sundeck hosts free bluegrass concerts from regional and national pickers all summer long.
TACAW
As Basalt and the Mid-Valley have become a population center, live music has followed. The 2021 opening of this 10,000-square-foot, net-zero venue was a game changer, bringing a world-class performance space to the area. Last winter, folk acts like Josh Ritter and Donavon Frankenreiter, and a standing gig with William H. Macy, kept crowds coming.
Belly Up Aspen
When Rolling Stone named Belly Up among the best clubs in America in 2013, it codified what locals—and a growing number of global pop stars—already knew. An artist and fan favorite, any show in this pristine and intimate setting is a memorable one. But the family-run club is always trying to top itself. This summer’s lineup is no exception.