Concert season in Cheyenne, Wyoming will be ending on a bit of a bittersweet note this year as the beloved Edge Fest returns for its final year.
However, what has been recognized as Wyoming’s largest free outdoor music festival in recent years will be making its farewell journey with a stacked lineup including Edge Fest veteran and powerhouse vocalist Bishop Briggs as the festival’s final headliner.
In case you’re not familiar, Bishop Briggs has been taking the musical world by storm over the past handful of years with perhaps the most watercooler-worthy achievement being a first-place victory on the popular reality show The Masked Singer.
While Briggs has referred to winning the singing competition, “the coolest thing ever,” the artist’s journey prior to donning her Medusa costume was fraught with tragedy and heartache; a journey that culminated into an especially emotional unmasking at the season finale.
Bishop Briggs: A Unique Early Life
Born on July 18, 1992 in London, Sarah Grace McLaughlin and her family moved to Japan when Briggs was just four years old. It was there that she decided at an early age that she wanted to be a performer, a revelation that came to her as a young child living in Japan, inspired by the sheer joy on her father’s face while singing Frank Sinatra at karaoke.
It was also around this time that the young artist became determined to adopt a stage name later in life in order to differentiate from Canadian singer and Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan, a woman Briggs has referred to as “the queen.”
Briggs’s pseudonym was directly inspired by the Scottish town of Bishopbriggs, an area in which much of her family hails from.
The family eventually relocated to Hong Kong where Briggs and her older sister and best friend Kate attended high school before graduating and relocating to Los Angeles where the teen would pursue a career in music.
Edge Fest: All Good Things Must Come to an End
August 24th won’t be the first time Bishop Briggs has performed at Cheyenne’s Edge Fest as she previously headlined the event back in 2018, but it will likely be her last.
The festival’s name refers to the historic West Edge neighborhood of Cheyenne which has served as the setting for the festival since its inception back in 2013. Over the years, the festival grew significantly, eventually becoming the largest of its kind in the state.
Unfortunately, it has been made clear by organizers of the event that 2024 will mark the final year with a message on the official Edge Fest website encouraging the public to help them “GO BIG” on the final year.
Because of this, it’s only fitting that Bishop Briggs returns to Edge Fest as headliner once again to close out the festival’s legacy.
Bishop Briggs + the Spotlight:: Tragedy, Hope and Success
Upon relocating to Los Angeles to pursue music, Bishop Briggs experienced her first big break when her first single, “Wild Horses” was featured in an Acura commercial during the Super Bowl in 2015.
However, it would be the release of her next single, the sultry yet powerful “River” that really saw Briggs’s career take off. The success of this single would see Briggs perform on late night shows, an opening spot for heavy hitters including Coldplay and Kaleo, and her first performance at Coachella.
While things seemed to be going great for Briggs, her older sister Kate, who also served as her manager, would tragically be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This would prove to be a grueling battle for the eldest sister that claimed her life at the devastatingly young age of 30.
Needless to say, the untimely passing of her sister and best friend would prove to be a crippling blow to Briggs and something that she would struggle with greatly.
Just when everything seemed to be falling apart for Briggs, it wouldn’t be long before she would discover that she was pregnant, a revelation that brought her great joy when she needed it the most.
After an exhilarating subsequent performance at Coachella while in her third trimester of the pregnancy, Briggs would give birth to her first child in August of 2022, an event that would provide some much-needed healing following her sister’s passing.
Bishop Briggs + a Bright Future
The season finale of The Masked Singer in which Briggs’s identity was revealed and her victory was secured was filled with emotion. Briggs participated in the show shortly following giving birth and was “still breastfeeding and pumping” while competing in a full Medusa outfit.
Fresh off of her victory, Briggs has made it known that she is currently preparing to release a new album in the near future and promises to deliver a “soulful experience” complete with “a lot of sweating, jumping, and running around” at Cheyenne’s Civic Commons Park to bid adieu to the beloved Edge Fest on August 24.
