Labor Dave Weekend 2026

I’ve always wanted to see Dave Matthews Band live, so when dates for this summer’s tour were announced earlier this year, we decided to go to the Denver show.

And just before the on-sale date, we got the crazy idea to also buy tickets to see them at The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State. We’d drive our self-built camper van out there and make a bit trip out of it. Well, it wasn’t built yet, but this would be the motivation we needed to finish the build.

Dave Matthews Band plays all three nights of Labor Day weekend at the Gorge Amphitheater every year, something I learned that the fans call “Labor Dave Weekend.”

Note: If you say “The Gorge” to someone familiar with Washington, they may think you’re talking about the Columbia River Gorge. That’s on the border of Washington and Oregon. The Gorge Amphitheater is in central Washington in a town called George (yes – George, Washington). They’re not anywhere near each other.

Day by day

Monday August 31

We set out in the morning from Estes Park, stopping for lunch in Laramie, Wyoming at a cleverly-named brewery called The Library.

Our destination for the night was Firehole Canyon Campground, a Forest Service campground a little south of Rock Springs, Wyoming. Some Forest Service campgrounds are free, but this one was on the pricey side at $33. But we’d read it had showers, so thought that would be nice. So we reserved a site online a few days before the trip.

When we arrived, we found that there was no camp host and just one other site occupied. There was indeed a shower inside each bathroom, but we quickly decided we didn’t want to use them. I guess things were fairly clean for being unattended, but it wasn’t what we had in mind.

Something we learned about Forest Service campgrounds on this trip is that you can’t really tell much from how much they charge. There are free campsites that are fantastic, and there are sites like this one that are a bit underwhelming.

Still, it was a nice area and we had the place pretty much to ourselves, so not too bad.

Tuesday September 1

We made our way to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. This was a great example of what we had in mind when we built the van. We’d probably never think of visiting this place if we were taking a trip in a car, staying in hotels, because there’s not really anything around. But with the van, we could make it a destination for the night.

There’s a campground just inside the park, and it’s fantastic. It’s like you’re camping on the surface of the moon. Actually, we learned that NASA trained some astronauts here in preparation for walking on the moon. And then they went to the moon and figured out that it’s not really like this place, it just looks a bit similar.

This place is where we started to learn that the price of the campground doesn’t tell you that much about it. This campground was $15 a night, and was way better than the previous night’s $33 site.

Wednesday September 2

We did some exploring of Craters of the Moon in the morning, since we arrived pretty late in the day yesterday. Then we headed out.

We stopped in Sun Valley, Idaho (a ski town) for lunch. Michele discovered publicshowers.net – yes, that’s a real thing. And we learned that for $7, we could buy a shower at the local YMCA. It was worth every penny!

Our destination for the day was Pettit Lake in the Sawtooths. There’s a Forest Service campground there, and we planned to spend two nights. That would give us all day tomorrow to hike to Alice Lake. We’d been putting in some longer driving days in order to have a full day of hiking.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t go quite as we had hoped.

Thursday September 3

We had planned a hike for this day, to Alice Lake. And we’d stay at the same camp site again so we didn’t need to drive today. But sadly we awoke to the sound of rain.

We’ve got the gear for hiking in the rain, but that doesn’t mean it’s something we want to do. And especially not while we’re living in the van. There’s not really anywhere to spread things out to dry. So we called off our hiking plans and decided to just spend the day driving closer to Washington.

That afternoon, we stopped in McCall, Idaho to figure out just where we would go for the night. McCall was a really cute town, and reminded us of Lake Tahoe. We pored over our maps at a local brewery and decided we would continue to Riggins, Idaho. We stayed at a BLM-managed area (which means it’s free, but has no services) on the Salmon River called the Shorts Bar Recreation Area. It rained all evening and overnight so we were stuck inside the van. The photo you see is from the next morning.

Friday September 4

Today we finally got a hike in, albeit a small one. We drove just a few miles to hike the Rapid River Trail. It goes on for plenty of miles, but we didn’t have a lot of time so just hiked a couple of miles.

We drove to Lewiston, Idaho. It’s right on the Washington border, across the river from Clarkston, Washington. (There’s a lot of Lewis and Clark stuff out here.) And thanks to publicshowers.net again, we found a gas station with showers and were able to get ourselves cleaned up.

For tonight’s camping, we decided to make use of our new Harvest Hosts membership. Michele found a winery just outside of town that also served food in their tasting room, and they let you stay overnight in their parking lot. It sounded great to us, though we found that both the food and wine was just average. They seemed to focus more on hosting events like wedding receptions, and I think this was more of an events center masquerading as a winery. Still, not a bad place for the night.

Saturday September 5

This was the day before the concert. We didn’t want to go all the way to George (where the concert is) because there’s basically nothing there except the amphitheater. So we drove to Richland, Washington. As it turned out, Richland was hosting the Tumbleweed Music Festival in a city park all weekend for free.

Carrying our Florida Gators camp chairs to the park along the Columbia River, I heard someone shout “Go Gators!” as we passed by. Wherever you are, you can always find another Gator.

After enjoying a bit of the free music fetsival, we decided we’d find a hotel for the night. We already had a hotel lined up for the night after the concert, but we wanted to do some laundry, and after the concert we wouldn’t be getting to our hotel until quite late. That was one way to rationalize a hotel.

We had dinner at a winery’s tasting room, did our laundry back at the hotel, and had a nice leisurely evening.

Sunday September 6 (concert day!)

It’s concert day!

We arrived in George several hours before the concert to avoid traffic, especially since this was the first time we’d ever been to this venue. The Gorge Amphitheater is basically in the middle of nowhere. There’s a campground next to it, but we couldn’t stay there because they would only sell you the entire Labor Day Weekend and we just needed one night (plus they wanted about $600 for camping for those three nights). We had booked a hotel, but all hotel options are a bit of a drive. We’d be staying in Ephrata, which was maybe 30-45 minutes away, after the show.

As luck would have it, one of the very few things near the amphitheater was a winery. Cave B Winery was right next door, so we visited there first – as did hundreds of other concertgoers. Turns out, decades ago the owner of the winery also owned The Gorge Amphitheater, which is why it’s next door. But then it was sold to corporate owners, and today is owned by Live Nation, because of course it is.

After visiting the winery we parked at The Gorge, but we were still several hours early. But that’s part of the experience. A lot of the fans just hang out next to their vehicle, set up tables, have some drinks, play music, even cook food, and have a good time until the show starts. So that’s what we did. With the van, we had a table, chairs, even a fridge already right there with us.

Something we didn’t expect is that many fans had gifts. Especially when people heard it was our first Gorge show ever (and only our second Dave Matthews Band show), they would give us a little something. Maybe a sticker, or a keychain, or a bracelet, or little figurine that somehow tied in to some song.

I’d heard that this happened at Taylor Swift concerts, but I didn’t know it happened for Dave Matthews. It definitely didn’t happen at the Denver show, so maybe it’s just a thing at The Gorge. Actually, someone told us that Saturday afternoon of Labor Day weekend at the Gorge at 4:30 PM on the lawn is the time that people meet up and swap their trinkets.

The Gorge is a really amazing venue. There are seats up close and a general admission lawn farther up. We had bought seats because we didn’t want to have to go in as soon as doors opened to get a good spot on the lawn and then sit there for hours. But a downside of the seats is that you’re so low that you can’t see the river behind the stage. So we first went up to the top of the lawn to see what the view looks like from there, before finding our seats.

It had been so long since we bought the tickets that I didn’t remember anything about our seats, but Michele told me she thought we got really good seats. Turns out, we did, and the show was fantastic. We were going to skip the opening act (actually, there were two openers), but someone told us not to miss the second opener – Jesse Welles. That was a great tip, because he was amazing.

Dave Matthews Band played for probably two and a half hours or maybe a little more. Here’s the setlist if you’re curious. I made the mistake of checking the setlist from the night before and saw that they played Led Zeppelin’s “Fool In The Rain” with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. I should not have looked at that. But still, this set was awesome.

It felt like we were among the DMB superfans at The Gorge. When we mentioned to someone that it was our first time at The Gorge, someone sitting in the row in front of us who overheard us just turned around and handed us some stickers. There was a father who was there with his sons, the youngest of which was probably 10 years old and told us this was his 33rd time seeing Dave Matthews Band live. We definitely felt like we were in the minority for just seeing one night – most folks we talked to were there for all three shows of the weekend.

After the show, we slowly made our way back out to the van, and then we very slowly made our way out of the parking lot and on to our hotel for the night in Ephrata. That’s when we realized this was the first time we’d ever driven the van at night and that its headlights were ridiculously dim. On high, they were just “pretty dim,” so we drove like that to the hotel and made a note to replace the headlights after we got home.

We were glad to have spent the previous night in a hotel and gotten our laundry done, because we arrived after midnight and needed to get up fairly early to hit the road the next day, so there wouldn’t have been any time for laundry here.

Monday September 7

Back in our working days (that’s fun to say), for a while Michele worked for someone who lived in Spokane, so we met up with him for lunch in Couer d’Alene, Idaho. It’s just over the Idaho border and really close to Spokane.

We were staying at a campground in Couer d’Alene for the night, and so we planned to just spend the day there. It’s a nice little town on a big lake with lots of outdoor activities. Except that it rained pretty much all day. So we visited a few shops in between rain showers.

As luck would have it, we found a cocktail bar that was fantastic. One of those places where they don’t serve food, don’t have TVs, and they don’t let people stand at the bar. Really nice.

When we got to the campground, it started raining a bit harder. So it was another one of those nights where you just close everything up and you’re in the van for the night at 6PM.

Tuesday September 8

In the morning, we took advantage of the shower at the campground (I think this makes for three days in a row of showers!) and hit the road. We didn’t bother to make breakfast in the van so we could save time. Really it’s not the breakfast that takes so long, but making coffee. And really it’s not making the coffee but cleaning the things used to make the coffee. So we stopped on the road at one of those drive-through coffee huts. I want to mention this one specifically – Basecamp Coffee in Kingston, Idaho – because their breakfast burrito was fantastic!

Later in our drive, the van’s check engine light came on after we hit a bump in the road. Our van is pretty old (it’s a 2010), but it’s low miles, and a reliable year and engine, which went into our decision to buy this particular van. So we were a little concerned. We were an hour-ish from Missoula, Montana, and Michele was able to call around and find a mechanic who could fit us in.

Amazingly, Shane at Honesty Auto in Missoula had us back on the road probably an hour after we arrived. The connection on the oxygen sensor had come loose, that’s all. I didn’t know how serious the issue was, but Shane gave us a tip – usually if the check engine light isn’t flashing, and you don’t have any driveability problems, you’re good to drive and get it checked out later. Good to know!

We then had a late lunch in Missoula, and drove a bit further to spend the night at a free Forest Service site near Butte, Montana.

Wednesday September 9

We started the day driving along the Gallatin River in southern Montana. That stretch of road (US 191) was particularly scenic. There were countless pulloffs right next to the river, so we stopped and had lunch at one.

Our route was going to take us right through Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately, we were going to miss Old Faithful by maybe 10 minutes. But there are lots of geysers and pools in Yellowstone, so we stopped at Fountain Paint Pot Trail to walk along the boardwalk and see some of them. I hadn’t been to Yellowstone since I was a kid, and while this wasn’t really a visit so much as a drive-through, it was really nice to see.

We ended the day in Moran, Wyoming, at a Forest Service campground just outside Grand Teton National Park. The campground is right next door to a tiny resort with its own restaurant and bar, so we were able to walk over and enjoy a beer. I can’t think of any other Forest Service campground where you can do that!

Thursday September 10

We again decided not to cook breakfast in the van, and drove on to the small town of Dubois, Wyoming and had breakfast at Village Cafe. We were craving a diner, and it was exactly what we were looking for – a big breakfast, and endless coffee in thick brown mugs. As we were checking out, the watiress told me “I’m glad you didn’t come by tomorrow” and went on to explain that the following day, the entire town (of about 1,000 people) would be without power all day for some electrical system maintenance.

From there, we drove to Rock Springs, Wyoming where we decided to get a hotel for the night. This would be our last night of the trip. We got some groceries as a head start on the first few days at home post-trip, found a local brewery (of course!), and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then had ourselves another leisurely hotel evening.

Friday September 11

Rock Springs, where we ended the previous day, is very close to where we stayed on the very first night of the trip. So to finish the trip today, we’d basically be doing the first day’s drive in the opposite direction.

Unlike the first day of the trip, though, today the drive on I-80 was very windy. I’ve since learned that this part of Wyoming is frequently windy, and even that “windy” in Wyoming might mean incredibly windy. There were signs on the Interstate saying that you shouldn’t be driving today if you have a tall camper, which we don’t, and I could see why. Even with our standard-height van I could feel the wind gusts pushing us around.

We traded off driving because it was strenuous and stressful, and we took frequent breaks, just pulling off at a rest stop or an exit (like the one in this picture). What Google said should be a five hour drive took us about seven and a half hours, but we eventually made it home to Estes Park. This was definitely the most difficult day of driving the van, so it was great to not have to get up the next day and drive some more.

Things we learned (in no particular order)

We planned more days than we needed to get to Washington, and could have used one or two more days for the trip back. We had to pick our trip dates pretty far in advance in order to arrange a pet and house sitter, but we should have done a little route planning before settling on them.

For us, the ideal time for a hotel night would be after three or maybe four nights in the van. That would keep us from getting worn out from the van routine.

We thought we’d use Harvest Host a lot to find places to stay, but we only used it one time, and that was a bit underwhelming. Maybe we’ll use it more in the future, we’ll have to see.

We brought along some portable solar panels, which were a free gift with the power station we bought, because we weren’t sure how our power needs would go. But with the solar panels and the alternator charger, plus our system having 9kWh of battery, we never touched them. In fact, the battery never got lower than 75%.

If I went to The Gorge again to see Dave Matthews Band, I’d make some stickers or something to give people. And I’d also pay for some upgraded parking. What you’re really paying for is making it easier to get out after the concert.

Idaho is quite beautiful. I guess I was just expecting potatoes. (They definitely have potatoes, but they also have lots of other things.)