In the good ole’ US of A, July 4th is the epitome of Americana. Parties are planned, campgrounds are booked, kegs for barbecues are reserved. If the founding fathers hadn’t pulled out their finest quills to sign the Declaration of Independence, we wouldn’t be here, so it’s only fitting that we take the holiday seriously by firing up the grill and ransacking stores of every red, white and blue-themed anything, right? 

Anyways, back to the parties. For 25 years, the best July 4th party in Northern California is the High Sierra Music Festival. Located in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town of Quincy, CA, the friendly staff and volunteers have created a haven for people who just want to enjoy a slower pace with a gorgeous backdrop from Mother Nature. Thankfully, since temps reach the high 90s on the regular in Quincy, High Sierra doesn’t ask a lot of you in terms of mental engagement. The West Coast “transformational festival” ethos doesn’t really influence the festival's programming; yoga and workshops are offered, but they aren’t the main dish on the menu. It’s all about the tunes.

At first blush, High Sierra is a jam band festival in the mountains. But like so many festivals these days, the carnivalesque spirit transcends the laid-back attitude of attendees. Subcultures meet, greet and revel. The increasingly diverse crowd of jam band aficionados, artists, Burners, tiny children, performers, and musicians bring different flavors of imagination to the table. Even the stage names evoke that big-top atmosphere; Vaudeville, Big Meadow, and the Main Stage Grandstand.

Equal parts participatory and exploratory, High Sierra allows for the curious to experience the fest's carnival vibe at their own speed – and the best way to jump in is via its musical lineup.High Sierra moves in a spiral from the breezy music of the morning, to the noodling sessions of the early evening as the sun goes down, to nighttime, when the electronically-inspired funk and bass emerge. While the lineup was top-heavy with jam bands and folk rock, once the lights lowered, everything started glowing and totems came out to play. Below, our picks for the five best musical moments at High Sierra 2015:

1. Best Overall Circus Act: The Marchfourth! Marching Band

This epic, big brass band collective Marchfourth! played once during the day and once for a late-night set, and I was SO sad when it was over. One of my fave sets from the festival, the Portland, Oregon group has garnered a cult following, and for good reason. With a horn ensemble for the ages and percussion that'll blow your hair back, this is your high school's marching band all grown up and ready to party. I tried listening to them on Spotify when I got home, and it just wasn't the same; this is a show that needs to be experienced live. Everyone in that group's got funk with a side of funky.

2. Best Guest Appearance by Locals

This one goes to the National Park Service, who parked themselves outside the High Sierra Music Hall to chat with guests on proper fire safety and land protection, and most importantly, to hand out commemorative baubles. My friends and I were en route to check out the Soul Sisters of High Sierra, a collaborative set with Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds at the helm and featuring Nicki Bluhm, The T Sisters, and Rachel Price and Bridget Kearney of Lake Street Dive, and stopped for pencil sharpeners, stickers, and Smokey the Bear tattoos. They were great sports about our questions, and seemed unfazed at the heat even with park ranger uniforms on. We gifted them one of our coveted FingerHands, and were on our merry way.

3. Best Jam Session: The Entire Festival

Everything about jam bands is like a carnival. Headliners String Cheese Incident are experts in the art of the jam; they played half of the headlining slots, with four sets topping out at six hours. I can recount five guest appearances off the top of my head, but there are plenty more I missed. Marco Benevento played solo and with his Grateful Dead cover band Joe Russo’s Almost Dead; steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph played with The Word, showed up for Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe’s excellent nighttime set, and rocked his own solo show; Lake Street Dive and folk rockers The Brothers Comatose shared band members; and the founder of Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Nathan Moore also played a solo show. The ease with which these diverse musicians pull together songs of messy coherence is nothing short of amazing. The music never feels unnaturally loose, immature or underdeveloped. Everything unfolds exactly as it should, and there are no "mistakes."

One of my favorite experiences this year was the Bob Dylan jam on Friday morning. Usually, noon is the time reserved for chillin’ hard at camp before you muster up the courage to face the midday scorch. However, I love Bob Dylan, so I made it over there. The log cabin venue, dubbed “Troubadour Sessions,” was dark and great for hanging out (so much so that a resourceful couple brought a mattress in there to nap). Sitting in the front with a beer, I was struck by how enthusiastic everyone was.

Many in the crowd brought their own instruments, including kids, and note sheets were handed out for anyone to follow along. Not sure about the rest of you, but I often slip into negativity when I let my busy life get the better of me. In that moment, I felt positive community. I was smiling like a happy little hippie the entire set. I even returned the following day for the jam featuring the songs of 1971 from John Lennon, Bill Withers and Neil Young. Where else can you go to a festival with an entire set of hits from just 1971? As our hosts grooved hard and soft, their chemistry transported me back a decade or four as everyone sang along and I sipped my beer.

4. Best John Butler Trio Set

...goes to John Butler Trio. Guitar virtuoso and owner of the most impressively long fingernails we’ve ever seen, John Butler can handle both six- and twelve-string guitars with equal aplomb. It occurred to me, as I rolled over to the set alone, that John Butler Trio was one of the most memorable experiences I had at my first major festival, Bonnaroo in 2007. 

Here's a little flashback: It was Sunday at noon, and everyone was recovering from the 2 am Flaming Lips set. My friends wanted to go to the Trio's set, and I begrudgingly followed to lay in the scorching, Tennessee sun. A few minutes after the show started, we looked at each other like, “Who is this guy?” Five minutes later, we were sitting upright and after five more, we were on our feet and laughing with excitement as Butler gifted us with his 12-minute, epic instrumental “Oceans.” When you can get a group of struggling young adults to their feet in the heat of day, that is the magic of festivals. Fast forward to 2015, and people have finally caught on. The crowd was amped and right there with him, dancing when the mood didn’t require silence, like for “Better Than,” "Zebra," “Livin in the City,” the fitting “Funky Tonight,” and going quiet when it did; to my delight, that moment was for "Oceans."

5. Best Home Away From Home: The Shady Grove Campground

At High Sierra, you earn your campsite. The night before the gates open, you camp out in an adjacent parking lot to prepare for the impending, chaotic landgrab. Every year, my crew clamors for one of the areas with coveted sun refuge, Shady Grove. At one point, I wandered through the heart of Shady Grove to find friends, and was sidetracked by the sight of another pal on a dance floor, in a muumuu, at a camp serving up carrot cake and blasting the best of Top-40 90s hip-hop. Front and center atop the liquor table was a stuffed squirrel. The whole scene was raucous and friendly. 

What makes attending High Sierra worthwhile is the whole package. As the experiential nature of music festivals matter more and more to today’s tech-bludgeoned society, for many West Coasters, this is the event of choice to celebrate America’s birthday. It is certainly mine. Nothing about the experience this year was new for me, but that’s exactly what I was looking forward to. Twenty-five years in, High Sierra continues its tradition of meandering, melodic, laid-back fun that’s connected to a hard-partying, music-loving counterculture. With an undeniably gorgeous setting (it's nestled among the gorgeous Sierras), energetic, unpredictable tunes, and a carnivalesque crowd, it’s nice to sit back and not worry about crafting an experience for yourself – you can let High Sierra do it for you. 

Bonus musical moments we loved: Crowd favorites Galactic played on Sunday night with Sister Sparrow, while Pimps of Joytime teamed up with The Main Squeeze. On Saturday, Marchfourth! and The California Honeydrops brought that 2 am circus-freaky heat. At one point, the Honeydrops led everyone out of the High Sierra Music Hall and paraded them around the meadow with full band accompaniment. Papadosio and Dopapod delivered their special blends of funk, jazz and trance. A man on a bike played drums welded to his handlebars, and flames leapt up in sync with the beat. As 4 am rolled around, shows let out and folks readied themselves to make it to sunrise kickball, a High Sierra mainstay.