Looking back at the 2024 year in Alaska, we are highlighting some of the big events that defined the year of entertainment in the state, and it includes a once in a lifetime concert from Hope Cassity atop Matanuska Glacier.
The Alabama-born and Nashville-based singer-songwriter played the concert along with Alaska’s biggest country music star Ken Peltier , and other artists on Matanuska Glacier for the Rhythms and Blue Ice that took place back on June 16th, and it resonated with Cassity.
Cassity collaborated with Heli Alaska, Northern Media, Everett’s, and other sponsors to put on the event, and BMW chipped in by providing transportation for the band.
“‘Epic’ is the biggest word we can come up with,” Cassity said, according to Anchorage Press. “It was definitely a big, big, big adventure. It was just really cool.”
“All of the Alaska business that gave me support helped me,” Cassity said. “Thanks to these combined efforts, a select crowd of concert-goers were able to fly out to the Matanuska Glacier to watch Cassity, Peltier, Adam Stewart, Mark Lonsway, Dan Galysh, Tim Hall on the saxophone and Tito Walker perform live amid an immensely picturesque setting. Cassity said Native Alaska dancer Carol Sullivan also, “made it truly Alaskan and memorable.”
“It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience,” Everett’s/Mat-Su Resort director of operations Amber Glasser said. “It was really well put together and just being a part of it was really special.”
“This is all an act of kindness,” Cassity continued. “I had called to honor my dad on a bucket list trip, and Janessa and Rob decided to help. It’s not a story of Hope Cassity, yet one of the strength in numbers mentality that we all had together.”
“A conversation and a group of angels in the outfield of Alaska became the conduit for this unexplainable joy that came from this event,” she added. “It was a kind act that snowballed into a concert bigger than we all could have dreamed of because of how big everyone showed up to support us. It took every person who laid hands on it. We ended up filming a documentary and growing a huge event out of what was originally planned as a short 45-minute songwriter acoustic show with a guitar and a small amp that became thousands of pounds of gear and all of the logistics.”
“I’m humbled and honored,” Peltier said of the event. “It was beautiful, the first one ever that I know of.”
“She’s fantastic. She has a very powerful voice and writes great songs,” Peltier said. “They say dynamite comes in small packages.”

