How Hinterland's 2022 lineup came to fruition

Hinterland has grown from a two-day event to a four-day festival this year, featuring some big names in the industry and all of your favorite new artists.

• Axios spoke to Sam Summers, owner of Hinterland's operator First Fleet Concerts, about what it takes to book the music fest, which will run Aug. 4-7.

Behind the scenes: It starts pretty simple. Summers works with his wife to pick which musicians to bring to the Avenue of the Saints Amphitheater in St. Charles.

• They think about the music they're listening to and list which bands they'd like to see in spreadsheets.
• Then, Summers figures out what he can make happen.

For choosing headliners, Summers sees who's free and considers if they'll sound good in a field. He also thinks about who the attending bands would be "stoked" to have at Hinterland themselves.

• "If you're hanging out with all your friends and then you're gonna go onstage, you're probably going to have a really good time and people are gonna know it," Summers said.

Fun fact: Summers said he considered booking Billie Eilish in 2017, when she was still starting out.

• He talked with her agent and asked for live footage because Eilish hadn't performed publicly at that point. (That's definitely changed now.)

What's next: Tickets go on sale Friday. The festival will be sold to capacity.