BILLINGS — Every summer, downtown Billings gets a little louder.
For four days in August, local venues fill with punk rock fans and crowd surfers during Julia Louis Dreyfest, an independent punk rock music and art festival, and organizers say it is bigger and more community-driven than ever.
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Now entering its 12th year, the festival returns Aug. 6-9 with 51 bands, poetry, visual art, and community events spread across multiple downtown locations.
For co-founder Austin Finn, that was always the goal.
"You won't feel like an outsider at Dreyfest, which is cool. It's just a bunch of weirdos, basically," said Finn.
The festival began in 2013, inspired by an independent music festival in Minot, North Dakota, called WhyNot?!
"Our friend Rob had an idea to do Richard Dryfest at Devil's Tower as like a homage to 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' movie," Finn said.
Originally known as Richard Dreyfest, a tongue-in-cheek reference to actor Richard Dreyfuss, the event was renamed in 2018 after misconduct allegations against the actor surfaced. Festival organizers held a vote and landed on Julia Louis Dreyfest, a playful nod to actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
"Our friend Josh had the idea of Emilio Estefest, which was the close second," said Finn. "But Julia Louis Dreyfest beat that out."
The festival's sense of humor remains intact, and organizers have leaned into the absurdity, even hosting a Julia Louis-Dreyfus look-alike contest each year.
"Anybody with the legal name of Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus gets at least two free tickets to the festival," organizer Ernie Fuglevand joked. "Because we don't know her, but we think she's pretty cool."
Behind the jokes is a festival that has become a gathering place for musicians and artists across the region.
This year's lineup includes acts from Montana, Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, and beyond. Performances will take place at local venues including Craft Local, Nova Center for the Performing Arts, and Kirk's Grocery.
A four-day wristband costs about $30, and organizers say proceeds go directly back to the bands.
But Dreyfest's appeal goes beyond the music.
Fuglevand, a musician who joined the organizing team this year after attending and performing at previous festivals, describes it as a celebration of community and a place where individuality is honored, and all are welcome.
"It's nice to see the old crusty aging millennial punk rockers with their spikes and whatever mingle with the younger kids that are starting bands," he said. “Just kind of bringing a bigger punk rock ethos to community organizing and events in Billings."
The festival also reflects a side of Billings that many people don't immediately see. While Montana is often associated with country music, organizers point to a deep and often overlooked music scene.
Fuglevand notes that Billings has a rich musical history, from rock pioneers such as Chan Romero, whose song "Hippy Hippy Shake" was later covered by The Beatles, to decades of local punk, garage rock, and underground acts.
"I think there's a lot of good music in Billings," he said. "There's a lot of good like indigenous, femme, queer-angled punk rock going on in Montana, and I think the festival is here to make a space that's welcome for everybody."
That local focus remains central to Dreyfest's mission. Organizers said the event is designed to give emerging artists a place to perform and connect with others. That's why Finn, who moved to New York with his band Idaho Green in 2016, still travels back to Billings each year to help organize.
"The point of this that makes it so cool is that it's not supposed to happen here, but it's like, you can do it though," he said. "You don't need to ask permission to do cool stuff."
That philosophy has helped turn Dreyfest from a small DIY experiment into a fixture of the local arts scene. While organizers expect plenty of loud music this August, they said the festival is a celebration of creativity and community, and keeping Billings' independent and unconventional side alive.
"It's kind of like the thing of like the joking about like, 'Keep Austin Weird,' like 'Keep Missoula Weird,' it's like Billings is weird," Finn said. "We should own the fact that it's weird."
"There really is something for everybody to come down in Billings and have a good time at this festival," added Fuglevand. “It'll be a little louder than usual, but that's fun. Bring your earplugs.”
Julia Louis Dreyfest returns the second weekend of August. Click here for more information.
