Imagine this: you're nestled among the towering redwoods of Dawn Ranch, the air thick with the scent of pine and the promise of transcendence. Cosmico 2025 is not just a festival; it's a pilgrimage for those seeking the alchemical fusion of music, art, and nature. COSMI Enter White Denim, the Austin-based quartet known for their genre-defying sonic assaults. Their latest album, 12, is a testament to their relentless pursuit of musical chaos and order. Tracks like "Light On" and "Second Dimension" are not mere songs; they're volatile concoctions of funk, psych-rock, and jazz fusion, threatening to ignite the very fabric of your reality. At Cosmico, where the mission is to "raise your vibration, activate your senses, and awaken your soul," COSMI White Denim's performance is poised to be the catalyst for a collective transcendental experience. Their live shows are notorious for their improvisational fervor, each set a unique journey through uncharted auditory landscapes. As the sun sets over the Russian River, and the first notes reverberate through the redwoods, expect White Denim to dismantle your preconceived notions of genre and structure. This isn't just a concert; it's a ritualistic immersion into the chaotic beauty of sound—a perfect embodiment of Cosmico's ethos of immersive, transformative experiences. So, prepare yourself. White Denim at Cosmico 2025 isn't just a highlight; it's the eye of the storm in a festival designed to shake your very soul.

You’re walking through the redwoods at Cosmico, the air vibrating with the hum of anticipation and the scent of something both earthy and electric. Suddenly, a sound cuts through the night—not loud, not brash, but magnetic, like the first rays of sunlight cracking through a stormy sky. That’s Bay Ledges. They don’t demand your attention; they steal it, slipping into your consciousness like a favorite memory you forgot you had. Zach Hurd, the mind and soul behind Bay Ledges, is a master of turning the everyday into the extraordinary. His songs feel like Polaroids of fleeting moments—riding a bike down a hill, a first kiss, a last goodbye—except every image is wrapped in layers of soulful vocals, glitchy loops, and beats that refuse to let you stand still. Their latest album, Ritual, plays like a mixtape made for the best road trip you never took. Live, Bay Ledges doesn’t just play music; they create worlds. Their shows are intimate yet expansive, the kind where you catch yourself smiling at a stranger and realize you’re both humming the same melody. Under the glowing canopy of Cosmico’s redwoods, where every shadow seems alive and every star feels a little closer, this magic will feel amplified—like the forest itself is in on the groove. Expect songs like “In Water” and “DMT” to pour out like liquid gold, smooth and shimmering, as the audience sways together in time. But don’t think it’s all chill vibes—Bay Ledges knows how to turn a mellow groove into a full-on dance party when you least expect it. You’ll go from introspective head-nodding to throwing your arms in the air before you can process what’s happening. This is the essence of Cosmico: not just listening, but feeling—your body, your surroundings, your connection to everything and everyone around you. Bay Ledges is the perfect guide for this journey, turning their set into a soundtrack for shared moments under the stars. So come ready to move, to dream, and to let the music carry you. Because at Cosmico, Bay Ledges won’t just play a show—they’ll remind you what it means to be alive.

You don’t stumble into Gilligan Moss—you fall headfirst, like Alice into Wonderland, except instead of a rabbit hole, it’s a vortex of hypnotic loops and pulsing synths, all wrapped in a warm embrace of nostalgia and forward-thinking chaos. And if there’s ever been a perfect home for their sound, it’s Cosmico 2025—a place where the redwoods themselves seem to sway to the beat. Gilligan Moss isn’t just music; it’s a state of mind. Their songs feel like a hundred conversations happening at once, with snippets of ‘90s house, funky soul, and hazy psychedelia bouncing off each other like cosmic bumper cars. Tracks like “Ferris Wheel” and “Still Wonder” don’t ask you to dance—they dare you *not to*. At Cosmico, where the air itself feels alive with intent, these two sonic alchemists will turn the forest into an electric cathedral. But let’s get one thing straight: Gilligan Moss doesn’t do “shows.” What you’re about to experience isn’t a setlist—it’s a living, breathing organism. Their live performances are like wandering into a secret party you didn’t know you needed, where every drop and sample hits like it was pulled directly from your subconscious. And Cosmico’s crowd? You wild wanderers, you seekers of high-vibe grooves? You’re the perfect accomplices for this ride. Imagine it: the redwoods are lit like fireflies, the stars above are your only witnesses, and Gilligan Moss drops a beat so deep it feels like it’s coming from the roots beneath your feet. This is where the festival’s mission—“raising your vibration”—meets its wildest crescendo. Get ready. No, seriously—*get ready.* Because when Gilligan Moss takes over Cosmico, it won’t just be another set; it’ll be a collective hallucination, a sensory overload, a joyous dance into the unknown. You’ll leave a little lighter, a little freer, and probably with dirt on your shoes from dancing too hard under the stars.

You don’t just hear Paul McDonald—you feel him. He’s the kind of artist who makes your chest ache with every note, like he’s peeling back layers of your soul you didn’t even know were there. And when he takes the stage at Cosmico 2025, under the cathedral canopy of redwoods, it’s going to hit differently. This is music that doesn’t whisper; it shouts truths, breaks hearts, and stitches them back together in three minutes flat. Paul McDonald is part troubadour, part rock ‘n’ roll preacher. He doesn’t care if you’re here for the vibes, the drinks, or just because your friends dragged you along—he’s going to find you. Tracks like “New Lovers” and “Bright Lights” are emotional lightning bolts wrapped in melodies that stick in your head like glitter you can’t wash off. His raspy, Rod Stewart-meets-Ryan Adams voice is the kind of sound that feels lived-in, like an old leather jacket that’s been through a thousand nights you don’t talk about. But here’s the thing about McDonald: he doesn’t perform at you; he pulls you into his world. His songs aren’t just music; they’re maps of heartbreak and hope, inked with his own blood. And when he sings about love, loss, or the messy beauty of life, you believe every damn word. In the immersive dreamscape of Cosmico, where the air hums with magic and every star seems just within reach, this connection will feel electric. Picture it: you’re standing there, drink in hand, the redwoods glowing like something out of a fairytale, and Paul McDonald launches into a ballad so raw you forget the world outside the grove even exists. This is the kind of moment that festivals like Cosmico are made for—a shared heartbeat among strangers, a reminder that music isn’t just something you hear. It’s something you live. So, don’t come to McDonald’s set expecting background noise or a casual good time. Come ready to feel something. Come ready to let this man and his guitar carve a little space in your chest for something real.

Weaving together modern and traditional styles of American music, Never Come Down is a Portland, Oregon based 5-piece composed of Joe Suskind (guitar), Crystal Lariza (vocals), Brian Alley (banjo), Kaden Hurst (mandolin), and Ben Ticknor (bass). Their dedication to thoughtful songwriting and dynamic arrangements highlight polished technical skills and a commitment to listening to each other. Formed in 2018, the band began touring extensively- steadily cultivating a passionate fan base at home in the Pacific Northwest, and eventually around the country. NCD released their first studio album “Better Late Than Never” in 2021 and their second LP “Greener Pastures” is slated for release late 2023. They’ve toured internationally and have found acclaim at festivals such as Iceland Airwaves, John Hartford Memorial Fest, Americanafest, FreshGrass and RockyGrass.

Jason Crosby had an auspicious musical beginning at the age of two when he started playing the violin, and as a young boy, immersed himself in classical music, playing piano at a professional level. He took on the guitar, viola, French horn and trumpet and pursued those instruments with equal vigor for many years. A multi-instrumentalist with extensive and varied musical pursuits, Crosby has been a member of such bands as Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Susan Tedeschi Band, and has played on dozens of albums and toured with members of the Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, and the Meters. Crosby has also toured with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Pete Seeger, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Dave Mathews.

The second full-length from singer/songwriter Logan Ledger, Golden State is steeped in so many of the ineffable qualities embodied by California: wild-eyed idealism, uneasy unpredictability, the infinite promise of rebirth and renewal. In keeping with the refined ingenuity first revealed on his T Bone Burnett-produced self-titled debut, the Bay Area raised, Nashville-based musician also leans into California’s legacy of restless reinvention, continually cross-pollinating his vast reservoir of influences to create entirely unexpected musical idioms (including, at one point, a glorious collision of British folk and rowdy surf rock). Anchored in his captivating baritone and poetic lyricism, Golden State ultimately matches Ledger’s rich sense of history with an unfettered originality, arriving at a body of work both elegantly composed and endlessly surprising. Produced by Shooter Jennings (Tanya Tucker, Brandi Carlile, Kelsey Waldon), Golden State marks a stylistic departure from the timeless country noir of Ledger’s critically lauded debut (a 2020 LP featuring such luminaries as avant-garde guitarist Marc Ribot). This time around, Ledger worked with musicians like Cage The Elephant guitarist Nick Bockrath, pedal-steel player Russ Pahl (Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers), Jennings’s longtime bassist Ted Russell Kamp and drummer Jamie Douglass, and Jennings himself (on piano, Wurlitzer, organ, and celeste), dreaming up a lush and spirited sound partly inspired by the California country-rock scene of the late-’60s and early-’70s. Mainly recorded live at the famed Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, the result is a sublime setting for Ledger’s layered meditations on loss and despair and the search for transcendence. Opening on a moment of symphonic grandeur, Golden State begins with the lavish string intro to its title track, the first of several songs exploring California as a metaphor for personal metamorphosis. “It’s about trying to find your way to contentment or self-actualization and never quite getting there, but understanding that the quest itself is still important,” says Ledger. Centered on a soulful vocal performance that telegraphs both weariness and hope, “Golden State” illuminates his rare gift for expressing complex existential questions with a poignant simplicity (e.g., “Out where they’re laughing in the sun/Way back in the land where I come from/But every mile feels longer than the last/Like slowly getting dragged back by the past”). Meanwhile, Ledger and his fellow musicians offset the track’s heavy-hearted mood with a bright and bristling energy, thanks in part to the propulsion of Douglass’s double-time drumming and the shimmering tones of Pahl’s pedal steel. Next, on “There Goes My Mind,” Golden State slips into a loose and lively country-rock groove as Ledger looks inward to examine his own limitations (“Always slipping out the backdoor, running like a thief in the night/But in my defense/Nothing ever really makes much sense/Thoughts are just always taking flight”). A full-hearted reflection on love lost, “All The Wine In California” sets its sorrowful outpouring to a swinging backdrop built on hard-driving train-beat rhythms, robust harmonies, and a fantastically nimble guitar solo from Ledger, lending a certain radiance to the most melancholy lyrics (“All the wine in California couldn’t drown my memory/I might put away an ocean, but I never would be free”). “On one level it’s a song about a sadness so deep that even alcohol can’t make you forget,” says Ledger. “But on another level the wine could represent all the pleasures of life—all the things we do to distract ourselves that never manage to erase our pain.” From there, Golden State fully surrenders to the all-consuming heartbreak of shattered dreams on “Midnight in L.A.,” a gorgeously sleepy slow-burner adorned with hypnotic guitar riffs and Jennings’s warmly understated piano work. “It’s about watching a chapter in your life come to a close, whether it’s a relationship or the pre-pandemic world,” says Ledger. “As a California exile, it also has something to do with the end of the mythology of the Golden State, that idea of California as a land of plenty where everything is roses. There’s definitely a lot of sadness to that song, but hopefully with the end of an old dream there’s the birth of a new one.” One of Golden State’s most mesmerizing moments, “Some Misty Morning” kicks off the album’s second side with a luminous duet between Ledger and singer/songwriter Erin Rae. In a callback to the opening track of his debut—a darkly charged lullaby called “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me,” on which the song’s narrator daydreams of his own death—“Some Misty Morning” inhabits a mood of lovely desperation as the two vocalists yearn for long-awaited relief from their heartache (“Some misty morning/When the wind whistling by/Sounds like mermaids singing in the ocean/Sorrow will come to an end”). “I tend to write songs that can be interpreted either spiritually or secularly, so that song could be either about looking forward to the afterlife or about waiting for a reunion with someone you love,” says Ledger. In a thrilling turn, “Some Misty Morning” breaks from its folky splendor at the bridge, drifting into a divine frenzy fueled by Bockrath’s electrifying guitar work. Later, on “I’m Not Here,” Ledger takes a cue from Roy Orbison and offers up a cinematic piece of mid-century pop beautifully suited to his innate talents as a crooner. “I’ve always been inspired by those Roy Orbison songs that feel like mini-symphonies,” Ledger points out. “They just continue to build and build instead of repeating any parts, and it was fun to start at the lowest part of my range and work my way up to those big notes at the end.” And on “Where Will I Go,” Golden State closes out with a wistful rumination on rootlessness, intensifying the track’s bittersweet tone with Ledger’s tender vocal delivery and a soul-stirring string arrangement from composer Kristin Wilkinson (Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss). “In a way that song sums up the whole theme of the record—that feeling of uncertainty and wondering how to move forward,” says Ledger. “There have been so many changes over the past few years; parts of me have died and I’m never going to get them back. I feel like I’m a new person now, mostly for the better, but there’s still that question of what to do now and what happens next.” Once again revealing what he’s described as an “archaeological impulse with regards to music-making,” Golden State emerged as Ledger tapped into a goldmine of longtime inspirations: Western swing songwriter Cindy Walker, Gene Clark’s 1974 cult classic No Other, Bakersfield legends like Buck Owens, baroque-pop iconoclast Scott Walker, the most obscure and eccentric corners of early-20th-century folk music (as curated by bohemian polymath Harry Smith), to name just a few. Growing up near San Francisco, Ledger first discovered his expansive musicality by learning to play guitar at age 12 and soon began writing songs informed by country/blues artists like Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt. Within several years of graduating from college (where he hosted a bluegrass show on the campus radio station), he moved to Nashville and played in a series of cover bands while working in local bars. After a demo of “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me” made its way to T Bone Burnett, the culture-shaping producer reached out to Ledger, striking up a collaboration that soon led to the making of his auspicious debut album. With his latest output including a sweetly languid rendition of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” (a standalone single spontaneously recorded during his sessions with Jennings), Ledger continues to thrive on uncovering new possibilities within longstanding musical traditions. “Making this record really reinforced that I don’t ever want to do the same thing twice,” he says. “In the future I might make a crazy Western swing record or an ’80s country-pop record, but no matter what I do, I always want to combine different eras and styles and come up with these strange hybrids. I’m not much of a purist and I don’t have any interest in just repeating the past.” He laughs, “I guess we’ll see what the future has in store.”

Jason Bentley is back at Cosmico, and let’s just say—we couldn’t be more excited. If you were here last year, you already know: Bentley doesn’t just bring the beats; he brings the whole vibe. His 2024 set was one of those “did you feel that?” moments—the kind you’re still talking about months later. But here’s the thing: this year, Bentley isn’t just returning to the stage; he’s been instrumental in helping us shape the festival itself. Cosmico is all about discovering the best new music, about crafting an experience where the next great artist might just be playing on a stage tucked into the redwoods. That mission? Bentley gets it. Not only does he have a finger on the pulse of what’s breaking, but he’s also got a deep appreciation for what makes music festivals like this special: connection, discovery, and moments you can’t plan for. His input this year has helped us fine-tune that magic, and we couldn’t be more grateful. What makes Jason Bentley the perfect fit for Cosmico isn’t just his legendary status in the music scene—it’s his curiosity. He doesn’t settle for what’s trending; he digs deeper, finding tracks and artists that challenge, inspire, and move you. His sets are like a masterclass in music discovery, blending deep grooves, left-field gems, and the kind of tracks that make you wonder, “How have I never heard this before?” So yeah, it’s a big deal that Bentley’s back—not just because he’s one of the best, but because he’s become part of the Cosmico family. His set this year? You already know it’s going to be a highlight. But more than that, his presence helps set the tone for what Cosmico is all about: raising the bar, pushing the boundaries, and celebrating the thrill of discovery. Thank you, Jason, for helping us make this year even better. Now let’s dance.