West End Fest is the kind of gathering that Atlanta does best: a celebration of community, history, and one of the city’s most enduring creative forces, Brent Hinds. For decades, the guitar player, songwriter, and restless spirit whose work with Mastodon, Fiend Without A Face, Four Hour Fogger, and West End Motel shaped the heavy-fisted country, punk, hardcore, surf, and metal outer limits of Atlanta’s musical identity.
Hinds died in a motorcycle accident in August 2025. West End Fest celebrates his birthday kicking off at 3 p.m. with a full roster of music, toasts, and eulogies—equal parts heartfelt and hilarious—setting the tone for a day that’s as much about storytelling as it is about volume.
By 6 p.m., the amps are on and the music rolls through the evening, wrapping up by 11 p.m. with plenty of time for reconnecting, reminiscing, and raising as many glasses as one can muster with friends old and new.
The Night the Sky brings their expansive heft to the stage. Michael Rudolph Cummings (of Backwoods Payback) taps into raw, road-worn intensity. Ironbound, Lefty & His Right Hand Men, and the almighty W8ing4ufos add their own distinct flavors to the mix, before Black Daniels teams up with Kevn Kinney (of Dryvn N Cryin) for what’s sure to be a memorable collaboration. West End Motel closes out the night, grounding the celebration exactly where it belongs.
At its core, West End Fest is about honoring a creative lifer and the scene that grew up around him—a reminder that Atlanta’s music culture thrives in shared spaces, long drunken conversations, and nights like this one.
The Night the Sky
Michael Rudolph Cummings (of Backwoods Payback)
Ironbound
Lefty & His Right Hand Men
W8ing4ufos
Black Daniels & Kevn Kinney
West End Motel
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