A couple of years ago, my wife Holly and I were lucky enough to attend the Park City Song Summit, and it was life changing. It’s a music festival, but it’s so much more than that. We’re lucky enough to be able to go again this year, and I think you should, too.
I had the opportunity to chat with Song Summit founder Ben Anderson, and I just can’t wait to get to Park City in a couple of weeks. (This year’s event is Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 27-29.)
Now simply called Song Summit, the three-day event has changed more than its name since it debuted as the Park City Songwriter Festival in 2019. Programming has always centered around mental health, but that and other aspects of the summit have grown fast. This year, organizers are bringing more big names, including James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern.
Anderson, a musician and attorney who actively practiced law for about 30 years, was named as one of Spin magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential People in Music in 2025. What an honor it was to speak with him!
Anderson is in recovery from his “problematic relationship with alcohol,” he said. Now he’s been alcohol free for nearly 19 years. He also told me he has mental health challenges. Back in 2018, he began to notice others did, too.
“Other friends of mine in the music industry were struggling with it and we were losing people in the music industry to mental health challenges, dependency, chemical dependency challenges … trauma,” he said. “So, some of my friends in the industry were like, ‘Hey, maybe there's something, a different type of gathering we could do that's not your traditional music festival but rather a gathering of community and connection in a different way in the beautiful mountains of Utah, and we could have discussions around mental health and dependency and trauma and all different types of things that cause us to not live our best lives.”
The plan is and was from the start to still serve alcohol, but to also offer many non-alcoholic options.
“We can have recovery meetings for people that are either in recovery or supporting someone in recovery,” he said. “So, a little bit of non-traditional type of group sessions through the day, and we can start our days with some yoga and meditation and just some grounding practices for those that care to join. And we'll have both green rooms and clean rooms for artists that won't have alcohol in them, etc.”
The event is designed to be inclusive.
“People will create a safe place for everyone, right? Whether drink or don't drink; whether you are in recovery or not; whether you have mental health challenges or you're supporting someone that does,” he said. “And to create a space where we could have more discussions to bring more normalcy and clarity to mental health challenges and all that that brings with it when it comes to people's quality of life.”
Anderson said that, before the first Song Summit in 2019, there wasn’t much in-depth research about mental health challenges, suicide, suicidal ideation, overdose — “just basically things that block the light from musicians and people in their ecosystem from living their best lives,” he said, referring to the live music touring industry.
After a successful event in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic led to canceling it in 2020.
“It gave us an opportunity to re-envision what we had just experienced and how to bring it forward after … whenever the world would be back to some semblance of gathering in a more normal fashion,” he said. “That's when the name Park City Song Summit was born…”
Since then, Anderson and his crew have been able to grow in many areas including mental health connection, providing a safe space, “a place to talk about things that are going on in our society.”
“The tentacles have grown into the culinary arts, film, performance athletes, Olympic athletes and professional athletes,” he said. “We've really grown along our culinary lines. Last year, chef Andrew Zimmern was a part of our event. He is in long-term recovery. He is quite an incredible human.”
Anderson said there’s a “strong nexus” among folks in the food industry, the hospitality industry and the live touring music industry.
“We found that there are a lot of crossovers and a lot of great conversations can be had, around the music arts, the culinary arts and these other art forms, because having to perform at a high level on a regular basis and keeping weird hours and being away from your home affects a lot of professions,” he said.
Anderson said it’s worked great to address these issues with established industry workers, and they’re also able to help up-and-comers through the Song Summit Foundation’s Summit Rising program.
“We sponsor emerging artists … in the music industry,” he said, “and we have an opportunity to provide sponsorships. We've done it now for, including this upcoming year … about 100 different emerging artists who have been able to take advantage of our program from as far away as Havana, Cuba; New Orleans, different parts of the United States, different parts of Utah.
The program gives younger artists a chance to mingle and collaborate with their peers who are closer in age to them, something Anderson said is one of the things they love most.
“They are able to meet and converse with our more-established artists and to ask them questions,” Anderson said, “and to have access to something like that is tremendous. And then be inspired by them and to go to our labs and to hear how so many different folks that are older than them that have their own stories, you know, war stories of what it's like when you get out there in the world, and you're in the trenches, and you need support, that there are ways to be supported. So, people are inspired in the audience, people are inspired at the emerging artist level and even the artists themselves are — you'll see them in the audience.”
‘More than Music’
Song Summit has always been about more than just music. Its official motto is “More than Music.” One slogan on the event’s website says, “where music meets wellness.”
“If we've done anything right, it's to build a brand around love, connection, community and creating a safe space for people to come and learn from others, educate themselves on programs that are out there, and associations that are doing the hard work in the trenches, and to find out how they could go back to their communities, and hopefully not only live better lives, but also help others live better lives,” Anderson said. “And I feel like Song Summit has become a real hug for the soul and a nourishment of our spirit and a way to convene in a much different way for three days in the … Wasatch Mountains. That's amazing.”
Well said. Visit songsummit.com for more information.
