YOU know what summer music festivals look like. Thousands of bedraggled fans trudging through the mud across barren fields. If you’re lucky, there’ll be trees and, at more upmarket events, glimpses of a stately home.

Well, the Trentino region of Italy is, quite literally, taking the festival season to new heights as these atmospheric photos show. Because Sounds of the Dolomites is staged up in the mountains, with most venues reached only on foot.

Running from August 29 to September 29 – and aptly now in its 29th year – the festival is opening up new venues with a view to showcase music from Mozart to Springsteen, spoken word, comedy and drama.

There’ll be 18 events across the month, with a line-up including Portuguese icon Carminho, known for her performance in Oscar-nominated movie Poor Things and being one of her generation’s most talented fado singers.

One of the highlights will be a music and literature summit from September 4 to 6 in the rocky heart of the Pale di San Martino, which promoters pledge will build a bridge between Trentino’s mountains and the American Badlands.

Guitarist-singer Pietro Brunello and cellist Mario Brunello will weave a unique narrative using the words of the writer Paolo Cognetti and the songs of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash and other Stateside legends.

Other acts during the month include singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni; violin and viola duo Clarissa Bevilacqua and Vicki Powell; soprano Lana Kos and tenor Raffaele Abete; guitarist Alessandro “Asso” Stefana and classical horn player Sarah Willis.

Among headline acts will be the Cellos of the Mozarteum and Bandakadabra, the latter a surreal “pocket orchestra” of wind instruments and percussion, with a reputation for breaking boundaries with comic-theatrical verve.

There’ll also be a special concert by the renowned Camerata Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which will be staged and timed so that fans can watch the sun rise in the mountains as the orchestra plays.

Although the mountain venues are spectacularly dramatic, four shows will be accessible for those with motor and hearing disabilities, thanks to the use of inclusive vehicles and bikes, and state-of-the-art audio-tactile systems.

The Sounds of the Dolomites is curated by Trentino Marketing with local tourism boards, The Trentino Alpine Club, Mountain Huts Association, MUSE Science Museum, Alpine Guides of Trentino, Alpine Rescue Corps and Trentino Red Cross. For full line-up and dates, see the official website.