The String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon share the stage at Campout In The Pines

The String Cheese Incident returned to The Pines Music Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin for this year's Campout In The Pines, bringing fellow Colorado band Leftover Salmon along for a weekend full of onstage crossovers between the two groups.

Leftover Salmon opened the festival with the first set on the main stage, and The String Cheese Incident guitarist Bill Nershi made his first appearance of the weekend when he joined Leftover Salmon during a cover of the Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post." Leftover Salmon guitarist Vince Herman handed Nershi his instrument mid-song and switched to washboard to close out the collaboration, punctuating the set with his signature "festival!" shout to cheers from the crowd.

The two bands built to an even bigger moment near the end of The String Cheese Incident's first Friday set, when Herman and three more Leftover Salmon members, mandolinist Drew Emmitt, percussionist Alwyn Robinson, dobro player Jay Starling and banjo player Andy Thorn, joined the stage for an eleven-person jam that opened with the rarely played "Zombie Jamboree" and rolled into a joint take on "Colorado Bluebird Sky."

The Campout In The Pines lineup also featured Eggy at the late-night Backwoods Stage on Friday, and continued Saturday with two more String Cheese Incident sets alongside Lettuce on the main stage and Dogs In A Pile closing out the Backwoods Stage, rounding out a weekend built on cross-band collaboration within the jam and rock scene.