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Bozeman, Montana for the Tony Polecastro Acoustic Life Festival

Last updated on September 9, 2018 By Millennial Boss 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you purchase through my links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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My friend Emily made $375,000 on Etsy in her first 2 years selling digital products. She's a new coach in the E-Printables online course teaching you how to get started with this side hustle too. She's a mom of two kids and does this part-time. Join us?

My friend Emily made $375,000 on Etsy in her first 2 years selling digital products. She's a new coach in the E-Printables online course teaching you how to get started with this side hustle too. She's a mom of two kids and does this part-time. Join us?

My husband has been part of the Tony Polecastro Acoustic Guitar community for over a year now.

He logs in to the website every night to do the daily practice and interact in the forums.  If he practices every day, he is entered in the monthly guitar giveaway.  I think he’s missed one month of entries in the past year!

tony-polecastro-acoustic-life
Tony Polecastro

He also listens to the Acoustic Tuesday podcast and their YouTube channel.

  • Tony Polecastro Acoustic Challenge
  • The Acoustic Tuesday Podcast
  • Acoustic Life YouTube Channel

Acoustic Life Festival for Guitar Geeks in Bozeman, MT

When the opportunity came up to attend the Acoustic Life Festival in Bozeman, MT this summer he jumped on it!

And he bought me a ticket too.

  • Tony’s Acoustic Life Festival Recap

There were two small problems with him buying me a ticket.

  1. I don’t play guitar.
  2. I don’t have a guitar.

We solved number 2 by getting me a very basic model Seagull guitar.

Bozeman MT Guitar Festival Review | Seagull Guitar for beginners

#1 was the real issue though.

Given that I have a podcast, and a blog, and an Etsy shop, I don’t really have much room in my life for extra hobbies.

I knew I would have to go to the guitar festival without playing experience.  

And by “festival” I really mean workshop since the days of the guitar festival were spent playing and learning with other attendees.

So off I went.

How was the Acoustic Life Festival?

Despite my lack of playing abilities.  I had an absolute BLAST!

I learned how to strum a few chords over the course of the weekend and even participated in a performance with my “band” that consisted of my husband as the lead singer, me on backup vocals, a few other amazing and patient band members strumming away, and all of us playing guitar.

Learning to Play Guitar in Bozeman MT | Tony Polecastro Acoustic Challenge

The song was “All for You” by Sister Hazel.

Now, my playing was just strumming the A and D chords whenever they came up because that was all I knew but hey, I did it!

Everyone attending the festival was so nice and the open mic performances were awesome!

There was one woman about my age who got up and did a newer country song and watching her was super inspiring to me.

What was Bozeman Like?

Bozeman is a really cool place.

So cool that my husband and I looked up the real estate prices and then almost fell out of our chairs.

The old historic homes close to downtown are in the $500,000’s.  I didn’t see any huge big-name employers there so not sure how the economy is supporting their housing market.

Bozeman MT old houses

 

Where to stay in Bozeman?

We stayed at an Airbnb in walking distance to downtown Bozeman and The Rialto which is where the festival took place.

Bozeman Airbnb Review

We very rarely stay at hotels anymore because we want to eat some of our meals in and get a true “feel” for the place we are visiting that I don’t think you can get in most hotels.

If you haven’t tried Airbnb, here’s a $40 CREDIT off your first stay.

Where to eat in Bozeman?

We definitely sampled the Bozeman restaurant scene and were pleasantly surprised with the prices.  It wasn’t a cheap place per say but it was nice to see entrees under $20 at most places (even the fancy ones).

Restaurant Highlights included:

  • Blackbird:  You can watch them make your delicious food.
  • Bisl:  Delicious & great portion sizes for a fancy restaurant.
  • Co-Op:  Good for quick & cheap Whole Foods-style grab and go lunches.
  • Backcountry Burger Bar:  We like big burgers and we cannot lie.

Here are some pictures from Blackbird:

blackbird-bozeman-montana blackbird-bozeman-montana-2 Bozeman MT Restaurant Scene

And this is Bisl:

Bisl Bozeman Bisl Bozeman Bisl

And this is the Backcountry Burger Bar:

burgers in Bozeman MT

Backcountry Burger

Last but not least the Co-Op:

Bozeman Food and Restaurants Co Op Downtown Bozeman

Acoustic Life Festival Performances

Friday and Saturday nights of the festival consisted of performances from guitarists from the US and Canada.

Hands down these performances were worth the cost of the festival ticket times 1000.

The Rialto is a really small venue and the concerts were closed to our group.  It felt really intimate and cool to watch these performances with a bunch of guitar geeks who were super into the music.

The musicians were:

  • Caitlin Canty:  My new favorite artist.  I play her on repeat on my Echo at home.
  • Trey Hensley and Rob Ickes:  So, so good together.  Rob plays the dobro and Trey is on guitar and vocals.
  • Antoine Dufour:  I’ve never seen or heard guitar picking like Antoine’s before in my life.  Just wow.
  • Cara from The Small Glories:  She is a talented folk musician and songwriter and really funny.

Tony and team did a great job putting together a line up of guitarists with different approaches to playing guitar.  It was cool to see the different styles (and I definitely appreciated the playing more now that I am a guitar player – with my 2 chords LOL).

Caitlin Canty
Caitlin Canty
Trey Hensley
Trey & Rob
antoine-dufour
Antoine Dufour
tony-polecastro-dobro
Tony got on stage to play some dobro with Cara!

The first night my husband and I were sitting with two musicians from Montana and they were so nice!  It made the experience extra cool to talk to two people who were musicians themselves (see Michelle Rivers music).

I learned that there are songwriting festivals all around this part of the country and you can win scholarships to them.

Takeaways from Acoustic Life Festival?

  1. I need a non-digital hobby and maybe guitar is it.
  2. I will need to practice ALOT to be decent.
  3. It’s fun to see my husband in his happy place with guitars.
  4. Musicians are cool people.
  5. I like music.

What did we do after visiting Bozeman?

We drove to Yellowstone National Park!

Bozeman to Yellowstone Drive

The drive from Bozeman to Yellowstone is not too bad – only 3 hours!

Bozeman to Yellowstone Drive

Bozeman to Yellowstone

See more pics on my Instagram @millennialboss.

 

Have you visited Bozeman?  What do you think?

Things to do in Bozeman, MT | Bozeman Trip Report | Bozeman Music Festivals | Bozeman Places to Eat

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Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.
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Filed Under: Guitar, Travel, Trip Report

About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.

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Comments

  1. Thomas says

    March 29, 2019 at 7:26 am

    Hi J,
    I have come here by searching about acoustic life festival and found your cool blog. I fully agree with your takeaways and next time I will definitely visit Bozeman and of course the festival, too. Thanks for the pics and inspiring me.

    Reply

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About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle. Learn more..

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About Millennial Boss

Millennial Boss is a lifestyle and personal finance blog created by Julie, who paid off six figures of student loan debt and is now on the path to financial independence and early retirement through side hustles. She lives in Seattle and teaches others how to start blogging and sell printables on Etsy.
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