In his opening remarks to the session “Mountain Festivals: The Representation, Marketing, and Consumption of Mountaineering Cultures,” co-convener Harald Höbusch (U of Kentucky) will provide a brief introduction to the phenomenon of mountain festivals – their history, their most prominent types and manifestations, their scholarly treatment to date, and their potential for future research. The intent is to set the stage for the subsequent exploration of this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, including, but not limited to, questions of selectivity and diversity, inclusion and exclusion, gender, mainstream vs. counterculture, the regional vs. the national, etc. with an eye to encouraging a fruitful exchange between session participants from around the globe.