View of the main stage on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at this year's WWG festival
The annual Steamboat Springs music festival WinterWonderGrass returned for its 13th year in 2026 over its usual time, the last weekend of February/first weekend of March. The festival is a Colorado musical staple now, filled with diehard fans returning year after year and newbies alike. The event was followed by an uncommon total Lunar Eclipse/Blood Moon on Tuesday morning which was visible with clear skies in most of Colorado. We break down the best moments of this year's festival.
1) Interviewing Bonnie Paine from Elephant Revival
The best moment of the entire weekend wasn't actually during the festival at all but on Monday morning when Wildfire Reviews sat down with Bonnie Paine, the lead singer of Elephant Revival. It was one of the best interviews we ever had, and we truly enjoyed speaking with Bonnie about her upcoming solo record, her debut solo show at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO in May 2026 and her song writing process. We'll include more of the interview in a separate article. Bonnie is a wonderful and extremely talented musician, and WWG was lucky to have her returning this year with her band and being part of the experience.
2) Bronwyn Keith Hynes performs five times over the weekend
Everyone may know Bronwyn as the fiddle player from Molly Tuttle & The Golden Highway. Now, the incredibly talented young woman has two solo records, with another coming out soon. Many of the groups and artists play several sets at WWG during the weekend, but none worked harder this weekend than Bronwyn. She played an impressive and incredible five complete sets, not including the many different times she sat in and joined other musicians on stage. Each set she performed was jam packed at the tents, but perhaps the best one was when she and her band played an all-acoustic performance at the Steamboat Art Museum early Sunday morning to a group of around fifty folks. Bronwyn performed extremely well during all of her sets, and we were up front at the rail during each one of these. It was great meeting other festival goers who were also big time Bronwyn fans during the tent shows, including one gentleman who was also there with us the entire time. He was extremely happy to be there during his first WinterWonderGrass.
3) The all-acoustic shows at the Steamboat Art Museum
One thing new that WinterWonderGrass did this year was creating special morning shows at the Steamboat Art Museum. Only media and VIPers and other special guests were allowed into these shows, and unfortunately, there were no cameras or photography allowed. However, the experience was incredible with every band performing acoustic with no microphones or electronic equipment in the center of the back room of the museum on a beautiful rug. It was an amazing experience with fans surrounded by paintings and experiencing some incredible musicians on a more personal level. The best moment was when AJ Lee performed solo with her mandolin Saturday morning and covered "Red Dirt Girl" by Emmylou Harris.
4) Lindsay Lou and Kyle Tuttle's pop show at Sio's Saturday
A great thing about WinterWonderGrass is that it's one of these festivals where artists often announce special shows outside of the festival that can't be missed. Lindsay Lou performed many times and was an artist at large this year during the main festival, however unfortunately, Kyle wasn't on the line up, but he was of course there doing baby duties all weekend. Kyle did join Lindsay with his banjo during a special 30 minute set at the small store and official merchandise of WinterWonderGrass Saturday. It was a truly incredible, acoustic performance, highlighted by the duo performing Lindsay's "Nothing Else Matters". Of course, baby Bart was always nearby and enjoying the music with everyone else.
5) Decent weather for almost all three days
Although it wasn't as great as last year, this year's weather was still decent, with bright sunny afternoons both Friday and Saturday. While there was some rain on Sunday, the festival stayed mostly dry all weekend with temperatures hovering in the fifties during the day. WinterWonderGrass is always a challenge to dress appropriately because of the intense weather changes from the afternoon to chilly nights, but that's something most festival goers know by now. Still, perhaps this is a new trend where WinterWonderGrass maybe coming SpringWonderGrass in the future?
6) Speaking with many of the fans at the festival
We loved our third year returning at WinterWonderGrass because of the fan experience and speaking with many VIPers and non VIPers alike. Some diehards have been returning to the festival for ten years and even went to the years where the festival was in Avon. This is what truly makes WinterWonderGrass a special community, feeling more like a family reunion than a huge festival like Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo where it's hard to connect with other fans and artists. The festival has a great small town feeling hosting around 5,000 attendees daily and is considered a medium to small sized Colorado festival event that has been excellent and only improves every year.
While there were some ups and downs just like any festival, WinterWonderGrass is always incredible to attend. Other highlights that were extremely fun was Elephant Revival's show Sunday night on the main stage, Left Over Salmon's Will It set Saturday evening, and Sierra Hull performing earlier on in the afternoon. Of course, there are many amazing food and drink vendors at the festival annually. The festival is also unique because there's free beer and wine samples every day in the afternoons for all attendees. While the festival wasn't completely sold out this year, it was sold out on Saturday. Thanks WWG for another wonderful year!
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Photos by Jessica Lewis coming soon
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