RendezVan 2026: There Is No Age Limit on Loving Live Music

A festival at a ski mountain requires a slightly different packing strategy.

Music gear. Snow gear. Camping gear. Dog stuff. Something you will absolutely forget and end up borrowing from somebody three vans down.

RendezVan took over Mt. Bachelor’s West Village near Bend, Oregon, April 16–19, bringing live music, RVs, camping, van life, and the end of ski season into the same weekend.

It is a weird little combination that works.

The advertised schedule included The 502s, Kitchen Dwellers, and DUG on Friday, followed by Andy Frasco & The U.N., Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, and Vincent Antone on Saturday. Thursday’s local showcase featured Rum Peppers and mamasboy. There was also a silent disco, yoga, dog races, and plenty happening away from the stage.

That mix is exactly what makes RendezVan interesting to me.

People arrive for different reasons

Someone comes for the mountain.

Someone comes for Kitchen Dwellers.

Someone comes because their friends have an RV and said, “Get in.”

By Saturday, those reasons have usually started bleeding into each other.

That is one of my favorite things about festival culture. A lineup can tell you who is playing. It cannot tell you why everyone showed up.

The people do that.

RendezVan also gave me a good setting for a conversation I think live music needs more of: what does it look like to keep choosing this life as you get older?

You do not age out of the scene

Live Music Besties has created a community around women, friendship, and continuing to show up for live music through different stages of life. One of the conversations around RendezVan centered on women over 40 still traveling, dancing, camping, discovering bands, and building friendships around music.

Which should not be radical.

People do not turn 40 and suddenly stop wanting adventure.

They might have jobs, kids, aging parents, mortgages, divorces, new relationships, old knees, or a much stronger opinion about where they are sleeping that night. The logistics change.

The desire to feel part of something does not necessarily go anywhere.

I do not want to frame women continuing to go to festivals as some inspirational exception. They are allowed to be there because they want to be there. Full stop.

That is part of why spaces like RendezVan are fun to document. Music is only one entry point. Camping is another. Skiing is another. Friendship is another. A ridiculous dog race is apparently another.

There is room for different versions of participation.

Who can picture themselves here?

That question follows me through a lot of my work now.

Who looks at a festival and thinks, “That could be me”?

Who sees people their age? People with their responsibilities? People who did not grow up inside the scene but want to find a way in?

Girls in the Pit is interested in the artists, but I am just as interested in the people building lives around art and music. The fans, photographers, crew, organizers, friends, and communities that keep making the trip.

A photograph of a band can show you what happened onstage.

Sometimes the better story is standing twenty feet away, dancing in snow boots.