Summertime Sadness

When They’re Home for 24 Hours & Gone for Weeks: Surviving the Summer Tour Season

WRITTEN BY LAURA LANDERS (CO-FOUNDER OF SST)

It’s that time of year again—summer shows and festivals are in full swing, which means our partners are home for a blink-and-you-miss-it 24 hours each week... if we’re lucky.

While I’ll be visiting family to break up the solitude, let’s be honest—maintaining a marriage (let alone your own mental health) in this lifestyle can feel relentless. Some of us uproot and stay somewhere else for weeks just to stay sane. Others dive into work to dodge the creeping loneliness. And often, even those “inside” the music industry don’t fully get what this life looks like from our end.

We’re expected to push through without support. To “figure it out” because, hey—thousands of other musicians and their families are doing it, right?

Every time you think you’ve figured out how to handle their back-and-forth, it pulls you under again. 

Living a life committed to your partner, while spending the majority of it without them—often in cities where you have no family or strong community—can chip away at your well-being.
Because as strong as we may be, we aren’t built to endure everything alone.

That’s why Side Stage Tour exists. It’s a space created for you—the partner of a touring musician—so you don’t have to navigate the emotional weight, relationship strain, or isolation alone.

This is where your support system starts.
→ Join the community here

- Laura