BREAKING: Gordy’s HWY 30 Music Fest to Cancel 2025 Idaho Event
In a completely predictable, but tragically unfortunate event for artists, bands, and patrons, Gordy’s Hwy 30 Music Fest in Filer, Idaho will be canceling their 2025 event scheduled for June 18-21. An email went out Monday morning (4-28) to booking agents for the performers, notifying them of the cancellation (see below), though the festival is asking performers not to make any announcements until 4:00 pm Mountain time.
With headliners Ole 60, Aaron Lewis, Luke Grimes, and Morgan Wade—along with some 30 total bands scheduled for 2025—this leaves these performers in the lurch for their summer plans, with many routing their touring around their Gordy’s HWY 30 appearance. Performers also had to deal with an aggressive radius clause, which didn’t allow them to plan any other appearances in Idaho and surrounding areas around their appearance at the fest.
An email obtained by Saving Country Music from numerous booking agents reads in part,
“After a very thorough meeting with our team this weekend, it is with a heavy heart that we are reaching out today with difficult news regarding Hwy 30 Music Festival. Due to economic circumstances beyond our control and Gordy’s continued decline in health, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel Hwy 30 Music Festival 2025. After 12 amazing years of bringing music to our community, this decision was not made lightly, and we understand the disappointment this will cause for everyone involved…”
As one booking agent told Saving Country Music Monday morning, “Everybody’s pissed. We have signed contracts. These people [Hwy 30] have just tugged at heartstrings, and made people feel bad for them.”
Sundance Head who was scheduled to perform posted on social media Monday morning,
Well Hell…… i need a date in Idaho june 19 urgently!! my entire month of June was routed around this date …. HWY 30 has cancelled – super shi**y thing to do it was my anchor date!! It puts me and many other artist/families in a huge bind. When I accepted the offer to play this fest I immediately took a lot of bad mouthing from fellow artist and others in the business for accepting the contract.
They had cancelled HWY 30 Texas and it burned a lot of people. I am a man who has seen many things change and I believed that Gordy was trying to make good. That’s what I told people and I actually defended him in most cases saying hey – people can change and sometimes they just need a helping hand – I mean look at my life and how it has turned around with the support and guidance of family and friends that lend a helping hand.
Unfortunately I am loyal to a fault and this time the silver lining turned out to be sinue!! I am truly sad that this has happened – I wanted Gordy to make good and I believed in him. I am sorry that we will not be playing the show and look forward to seeing you again down the road. All I can say at this point is – good luck GS I hope that you can find peace and solitude in your spirit.
On February 13th, Saving Country Music posted an in-depth investigation into Gordy Schroeder and HWY 30 Music Fest, stemming from the cancellation of their planned 2nd Annual festival in Texas in the fall of 2024. After losing an estimated $1 million on the initial 2023 Texas festival, they attempted to go forward with the 2024 festival, especially after selling some 3,000 early bird tickets for the 2024 event.
In 2023, Gordy’s HWY 30 Music Fest decided to expand into Texas, and announced a massive lineup for the 4-day event at Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway in October. Zach Bryan, Cody Jinks, Koe Wetzel, and Dierks Bentley were announced as headliners. It was one of the best festival lineups in country music all year.
However, after the 2023 Texas festival became a financial debacle, Gordy’s HWY 30 was blacklisted by many of the major booking agencies. The 2024 Texas fest then had trouble finding talent, eventually booking performers like Nelly, Vanilla Ice, Color Me Badd, along with a host of up-and-coming bands to try and fill the roster. Then after a public backlash against the lineup, Gordy’s HWY 30 eventually postponed the 2024 Texas festival entirely.
Since the 2024 Texas festival was officially postponed instead of cancelled, ticket holders were not receiving refunds, nor could they petition their credit card companies for refunds. Meanwhile, further investors who came in trying to save the 2024 Texas festival eventually got fleeced, including some losing $500,000 and more by fronting deposits for artists, bands, and equipment.
Despite Saving Country Music’s February 2025 exposé and warnings from other booking agencies, multiple artists, bands, and booking agencies decided to move forward booking the 2025 Gordy’s HWY 30 Music Festival in Idaho.
On February 19th, about a week after SCM’s investigation was published, Gordy’s HWY 30 posted the following message on social media.
A Message to Our Hwy 30 Family:
Over the past 12 years, Hwy 30 Music Fest in Idaho has grown into something truly special – a celebration that brings together thousands of music lovers like you, creating memories that last a lifetime. We’re incredibly grateful for the community we’ve built, and will continue to build, together.
As many of you know, our venture into Texas presented unique challenges that ultimately led to the difficult decision to postpone last year’s festival. While Idaho and Texas have always operated as separate entities, we remain committed to the values that have guided us from the beginning.
Putting on a music festival takes countless hours of planning, coordination, and dedication behind the scenes. Our commitment has always been, and will always be, to deliver an unforgettable experience that brings people together through the power of live music. We’ve secured an incredible lineup with 95% of our acts already confirmed – you can check out the full roster that has been released so far at hwy30nation.com/Idaho.
To our loyal fans who’ve been with us through it all: thank you. Your support means everything to us, and we can’t wait to welcome you all this summer.
See you in June!
Gordy Schroeder started Gordy’s HWY 30 Music Festival in Idaho as a fundraiser in 2014, and it eventually morphed into an annual multi-day music festival. It since became a mainstay in the independent country and Southern rock festival space. Through his financial woes, Gordy has claimed health issues with himself and his wife.
Meanwhile, as efforts are underway in Texas for ticketholders and investors attempting to recoup their losses from the 2024 Texas festival, fans in Idaho will be hoping for refunds to the 2025 event, while representatives for the artists booked at the festival will be seeking any form of restitution for their clients.
UPDATE (4/28 – 11:30 am CDT): Ticketholders are receiving emails notifying them of the cancellation, and saying that the will receive refunds “within 90 days.”
More information on this story when it becomes available.
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April 28, 2025 @ 9:17 am
I just have to say that beyond everything else, I am absolutely heartsick about this whole damn thing. This was entirely predictable, and entirely preventable. This event should have never moved forward, and now there is an entirely new set of victims who just like Sundance Head said in his statement, believed in this guy and this fest, and were even trying to help him out, and have now gotten burned too.
How as a music community did we allow this to happen? Where was the media to alert the public? Where are the government organizations that are supposed to protect consumers? Arguably this is even worse than Fyre Fest, because we all knew what was coming.
I hope that ticketholders get refunds here.
April 28, 2025 @ 10:02 am
You may want to update the story. You called him “Sunday Head”.
April 28, 2025 @ 10:07 am
I called him Sundance Head. Spell checker decided that was incorrect. 🙂 . Thanks, it’s been fixed.
April 28, 2025 @ 9:51 am
Sad. After last year, it really does seem preventable. I cannot see the artists being compensated and one can only hope that the fans get their money back.
April 28, 2025 @ 9:53 am
Fool me once, shame on you…Fool me twice…
April 28, 2025 @ 10:04 am
Thank you Trigger for being on this issue. Not sure anyone else cares but I’m grateful that this site exists and does good work like this
April 28, 2025 @ 10:15 am
A lot of scum still in this business. Social media and streaming has neutralized a lot of the bad actors in the recording side of the business, but a lot of people with no business running these kind of events are still out there.
I’m seeing tickets on the secondary market for concerts and sporting events really cheap (at least in my region) meaning that post pandemic splurge is over and people are being more judicial about their spending money.
April 28, 2025 @ 11:30 am
Also that bots for resale sites are buying more than they can offload…..which isnt a bad thing.
Re: Highway 30. Hopefully this is the kill shot. Sucks for the artists and I don’t know where all the degenerate fans are going to filter to but this is one festival that needed to go away.
April 28, 2025 @ 4:54 pm
You hit the nail on the head about degenerate fans, and I hope they stay away shows in the Boise area. We attend 30+ shows/festivals a year and have never had as many problems as we had at Highway 30 with drunk/obnoxious fans. Though I feel for the artists that will mostly get screwed, I won’t miss this festival.
April 29, 2025 @ 5:05 am
They need to stay the hell away from Challis.
April 28, 2025 @ 11:24 am
This is a lot of money going up in smoke. I wouldn’t be surprised if lawyers get involved sooner or later.
April 28, 2025 @ 12:12 pm
Given they have not issued refunds for the texas version that was cancelled in Oct 2024, I would be skeptical about any refunds related to this one.
April 28, 2025 @ 1:48 pm
Who’s worse, Gordy Schroeder or Mikel Knight?
April 28, 2025 @ 6:52 pm
I don’t think Gordy is an evil guy. I think he got ahead of his skis in Texas, made it worse by still trying to do the show a 2nd year instead of taking his losses, and then lost all touch with stuff as everything started to implode around him.
But whenever someone puts their personal name above everything else, that’s never a good sign.
April 28, 2025 @ 5:53 pm
Fascinating behavior.
April 29, 2025 @ 5:04 am
I’m disappointed by the response, especially here in southern Idaho. The irrational defenders have come out in full force with every explanation possible. Gordy is a conman and anyone with a modicum of critical thinking should be able to see it. I will not be surprised to hear that refunds haven’t been issued 90 days from now. He will say there’s some sort of technical error and his legion of idiot supporters will give him a pass. The country music scene will be better when he’s finally out of the picture. And considering the Highway 30 office space is officially gone, that seems to be happening sooner than later.
May 3, 2025 @ 6:19 am
The HWY30 office was home before they even started to announce they were doing this again. As far as ticket holders and other people getting on getting money back they better not hold count on it because I can see him filing for bankruptcy before that 90 day date is up.
April 29, 2025 @ 5:11 am
This will be a net positive for the music scene. Gordy ran a poorly organized 4 day binge drinking event that happened to have some music artists. I won’t be surprised when people are still asking about refunds in 90 days and he comes up with yet another excuse.
April 29, 2025 @ 6:45 am
They got sued by Ariat in March so that’s likely the reason for the cancellation
April 29, 2025 @ 7:31 am
Something tells me Ariat has better lawyers.
April 29, 2025 @ 10:36 pm
You can’t trust a car salesman what will happen is the will have more so called health problems, take out bankruptcy, go on disability and again screw everyone!!!
May 1, 2025 @ 5:51 pm
I have reached out to the Texas AG and Governor in hopes they would do something. This was totally predictable given all that happened with the Texas concert. Good for Ariat and I hope someone brings them to justice!
May 7, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
This would have been year 4 for me. I liked going for the smaller crowds and great lineups. I did what I could to avoid the party hardy crowd, though I certainly remember that same change when Koe Wetzel came on a few years back! This festival was one of my first real forays in to live independent/red dirt groups, and I really didn’t have much to base the full experience on. I prepurchased right after getting back last year on a promo code. Seems I’m now on the hook for the hotel and the tickets. Squadup (ticket partner) referred me to the festival website for inquiries, which now has zero contact information after they announced the cancellation. Highly unlikely that any refunds will be coming. Unfortunate for a lot of folks, and the businesses in the Twin Falls area no doubt. I’m open to suggestions within a two state boundary for another festival to fill the void if anyone here has suggestions!
May 15, 2025 @ 1:04 pm
Check out The Valley Music Festival in Sun Valley, ID! Their lineup is FIRE, in my opinion! 3-Days, 50+ Artists.