St. Charles, Iowa — As he raved about the breezy plains weather, the blustery audience reception and the overriding pleasantness of his gig deep in flyover country Friday, one of the bestselling rappers of the 2020s made a not-so-nice revelation.
“I don’t even know where I’m at on the map,” Tyler, the Creator admitted during his headlining set at the Hinterland Music Festival.
A music promoter version of Iowa’s favorite slogan, “If you build it, they will come,” Hinterland has grown from a quaint and cozy festival-that-could into the Upper Midwest’s trendiest and buzziest music fest over the past 10 years. It has gotten so popular, organizers built it bigger and better this year.
The three-day festival’s footprint on hilly farmland 30 miles south of Des Moines — down by the I-35 exit signs for the Covered Bridges of Madison County — expanded to more than double its former size in 2025 to a 250-acre layout.
That’s one of the advantages with Hinterland’s out-there location: plenty of room to grow. Another selling point was evidenced this past weekend by all the young attendees in vintage store cowboy boots and expensive Daisy Duke-style cutoff shorts, who posed for Instagram selfies and TikTok videos beside the rustic wood fences and not-for-show tractors strewn around the festival grounds.
The other perks of Hinterland being held deep in Iowa — traits like the weather and the affordability and the just so gosh-darn-nice staff — also were on full display for what was arguably Hinterland’s most eclectic yet star-powered lineup yet, with Tyler, Lana Del Rey and Kacey Musgraves for headliners and such now-breaking newcomers as the Marías, Sierra Ferrell, Clairo, Role Model, Wyatt Flores and Remi Wolf. Those former names have been atop the lineups of many of the country’s top festivals, including Coachella and Lollapalooza.
While the Twin Cities’ popular new music fest, Minnesota Yacht Club, is booking acts that played the Lollapalooza tours 30-plus years ago (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day), Hinterland treats its audiences to Lollapalooza headliners from today for a cheaper and more intimate experience.
Tyler, the Creator even went straight from topping off the Lolla lineup a night later in Chicago in front of 115,000 fans to performing to about a third as many in Central Iowa. The audience size didn’t seem to matter.
In a set heavy with songs off last year’s LP “Chromakopia” — plus a couple from the album he surprise-dropped a week earlier, “Don’t Tap the Glass” — the Los Angeles instigator repeatedly marveled over the heartland crowd’s vocal accompaniment and enthusiasm.
“And there are only like three Black people here,” he noted with a chuckle. “When I come to a place like Iowa, I have no expectations. So the energy of y’all blows me away.”
Most of the performers made similar, unexpectedly lovelorn comments. Before singing her progressive anthem “Follow Your Arrow” in her headlining set Saturday, Musgraves said she loved “being around so many other open-minded people” in rural America.
“I wish every festival was like this,” she raved, and then quipped, “Also the weather is perfect. They really blew the budget on it.”
A stylishly enigmatic singer/songwriter not seen in Minnesota since 2018 — she mostly only performs at festivals — Del Rey had the biggest and loudest crowd of Hinterland 2025 on Sunday with her producer pal Jack Antonoff’s band, Bleachers, for an opener. She offered up a trio of new tunes, including the lushly orchestrated “Henry, Come On.”
Before her older fan favorites “Video Games” and “Summertime Sadness,” Del Rey made a special shoutout to a caravan of Chicagoans who apparently drove to the fest just to see her second of only two U.S. dates on the calendar this year. Never mind the many Twin Citians who did the same.
Hinterland draws heavily from Minnesota, which has several country music fests like this but hasn’t had a rock or pop camp-out festival of this size since long before COVID.
“We view it almost like a wellness retreat in a weird way,” said one of the southbound I-35 travelers, Deric Selchow of Northfield, who thinks Hinterland’s farmland setting is part of its appeal.
“The stage and the bowl it sits in is ideal for a festival of this nature, [and] the vibe is so great. We have seen a lot of free expression. People can relax and be themselves.”
There’s more room than ever to stretch out. Des Moines promoter Sam Summers of First Fleet Concerts — whose other businesses include the Up-Down Arcade Bar chain — moved Hinterland’s stage to a lower, wider section of farmland. The new layout allowed the 30,000-plus attendees to truly lie out on blankets around the natural bowl surrounding.
“No, don’t get up!” Role Model, aka L.A. pop singer Tucker Pillsbury, cracked during his lazily appreciated Saturday afternoon set.
María Zardoya of the Marías guested as Pillsbury’s dancing Sally during the viral hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” (actress Natalie Portman had filled the same a couple shows earlier). Zardoya’s own band — whose sleepy drone-pop beautifully matched that day’s hazy sunset — was one of two acts to play sold-out headlining shows in Minneapolis the night before hitting the fest, alongside the explosively colorful roots music mega-talent Ferrell. Those crossover tour-routing bookings are yet another way Hinterland is impacting the Twin Cities even for music lovers not hip to the Iowa festival’s charm.
Of course, the rural setting does have limitations. This is one festival where corn sweat is a legit factor in the weather forecast, and cow patties are a walking hazard. Also, there’s essentially just one road in and out, so traffic exiting the fest can be as backed up as the women’s restroom line at an Adele concert.
Somehow, though, cellphone service at Hinterland is better out there in the Iowa boonies than it is in downtown St. Paul during the Yacht Club festival, allowing for all those cute faux cowgirl and cowboy selfies to be posted online in real time. So really, which is the more hick of the hipster Midwest music festivals?