Total Fest was born in 2002 with every intention of being a one-time event and little consideration of the future.

Now, 14 years later, festival founder and organizer Josh Vanek announced that Total Fest 2015 would be the final year.

What started as a small, one night event grew into a community-wide, three day festival that drew people from all over the state to share music with friends and family as favorites performed.

Member of local rock band Wojtek, Alex Hibala, described the event from an attendee’s standpoint, defining Total Fest as a “town wide music fest, [with] lots of cool out of town bands plus some local support.”

Hibala was not wrong about the local support. The festival grew immensely over the years from seven bands to the 48 band lineup of 2015. This was all accomplished by dedicated volunteers and unpaid staff that worked hard to make the event bigger and better year after year, with the help of local businesses and establishments.

As a successful event, it was no wonder the community wanted to know more about the decision to shut down. Vanek was quoted by The Missoulian saying that when the event launched, there was no plan for the festival’s future, yet it continued. Described as a “labor of love,” it made sense to close up shop before there was any real threat of animosity toward the event as other priorities worked their way into the lives of those involved.

Former event planner, Travis Morss, had similar sentiments to those of Vanek. “We’re all getting old, man,” he said as his sons ran by, “we have families and kids.”

As a regular attendee of the festival, Hibala seemed confident that the event would be replaced by another of a similar sort, although he lamented the loss of a “long reigning event” like Total Fest.