Small town Missoula is the home of the University of Montana which, in turn, is the birthplace of the "Montana Mafia", a collection of business grads spread all over the country. The Business School offers a certification in entertainment management which includes things such as management of concerts, music tours, etc. The graduates are widespread especially to the East and West Coasts. In their jobs they apparently remember UM and Missoula fondly and they steer touring acts to the Garden City. Or at least, that's how the story goes.

Then, about five years ago a new promoter came to town and reinvigorated a beloved old lounge [u]and[/u] an old theater for music acts. A couple years later he built an ampitheater on the grounds of Kettlehouse Brewing's new brewery... it sits on the banks of the Blackfoot River. He's adding another venue in Bozeman, home of Montana State.

UM itself has a stadium that seats half-again the number of people that attend the school (the Grizzlys football team is hugely popular in the region). It also has a 'fieldhouse' that can handle about 14,000 for a concert and a much smaller theater.

In combination, all the venues add up to a nice attraction for different sized tours and more and more the town is looked at as a stopover gig for acts big and small traveling from 'real' cities to other 'real' cities.

And those of us who love live music have another reason to love Missoula, 'Surfing Capital of the Northern Rockies." https://brobible.com/sports/article/river-surfing-missoula-montana/ (if only Dick Dale had known )