The Golden Trident

By Hailey Bland

Photos courtesy of IMDb, Trisha Paytas (TikTok), Spotify, Gray Wise

Summer 2025 was a blast, but like all good things, it must come to an end.  The Golden Trident is excited to get into another great school year. Let’s talk about some of the big activities that happened this summer, with events like celebrity drama, chart-topping movies, and many local events.

Movie theaters were filled with must-see movies. The most disappointing release, in my opinion, was Jurassic World Rebirth, which was considered a bit underwhelming dinosaur-wise.   The movie didn’t deliver everything that was promised, falling short in many areas, with characters and the fear factor of the movie. Superman fans kept their expectations low for this movie, but were thoroughly surprised. The movie was a phenomenal remake, and the actors could not have been better picked for their roles. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, this movie was well written and produced, but a bit too simple. It lacked the action that the past movies had. Happy Gilmore 2 was a highly anticipated movie. Although it disappointed production-wise, it proved that old humor can survive even nowadays. How to Train Your Dragon, the live-action remake, wasn’t seen as life-changing; it simply did its job, being nothing more than a live-action interpretation of the original movie. Elio is an amazingly animated movie. It had the top-tier quality of all Pixar’s past films while exposing children to more than just traditional families and their dynamics. The millions of streaming services had their hand in mass-producing shows and movies.  Some of the fan favorites being KPOP Demon Hunters, which was an amazing take on newer animation styles while also including new-age music that you could get stuck in your head without even being annoyed about it.  The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 3), despite the major excitement with the new season, was seen as a disappointment by many of our couch critics.  With the dramatic event after dramatic event, it left a lot to be desired and little closure. Love Island (season 7), the show took over the Internet, being formatted the same as last season, yet having better challenges and contestants for you to fall in love with. These movies/shows have been a staple of the summer and have filled many people’s days with enjoyment.

The celebrities have also had their hand in creating entertainment for everyone. Trisha Paytas finally had her baby. She decided on Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon. The baby’s name and her other children’s names created speculations that the name was being used as an alias to cover her children’s identities, though unlikely, it’s better than thinking she chose such odd names. Trisha also continued the tradition of announcing her babies with the “Don’t Give Up Quickly” sound. Continuing with celebrities and babies, Blake Lively has announced her pregnancy, yet continues to act weird when congratulated about it.  It’s led the media to be confused about why she announced her pregnancy in the first place. There was also drama in the influencer world surrounding Ashley Barnes, who faces charges for sexually assaulting her peers. To top this all off, Ashley’s ‘apology’ video was simply her turning the attention away from her and saying that the public lost all of its positivity, making the apology more of a deflection than anything meaningful.

The Music industry, which is a key part of setting the summer mood at any event, has blessed our ears once again. Tyler, the Creator released a surprise album on July 21, 2025, called “DONT TAP THE GLASS”. The album features 10 songs, with guest appearances by Pharrell Williams, Madison McFerrin, and Yebba, which is considerably fewer features than his last album, “CHROMAKOPIA,” which had seven features across 14 songs. The most popular song from this album was “Sugar On My Tongue,” getting 23,437,427 streams as of 07/30/25. The album, overall, is seen as perfect to match the summer vibes.  It delights our ears with a disco-type beat and humorous lyrics. Lorde, who hasn’t released an album since 2021, released a new album, called “Virgin.” The most popular song from the album, with 102,872,217 streams as of 07/30/25, is “What Was That.” The song is about vivid memories Lorde shared with her ex. The album is a nice change from her typical music, having much more serious tones and loopy sounds. Overall, the album is very fitting, focusing on more mature topics.  Last but certainly not least, Lady Gaga confirmed that her seventh album is in the works at the end of the Gaga Chromatica Ball concert. 

Colorado comes alive in the summer; everything that has been hibernating all winter long comes out to play, including the people. Every year, Colorado has a variety of farmers’ markets, as well as art fairs. This summer, Buffalo Bill Days were surprisingly lacking, to say the least. Once the city cancelled the mutton bustin’, all that was left for the crowd was the parade.  Luckily, the parade did not disappoint. It had amazing, well-decorated floats and energetic participants. Yet the only job the city had was to figure out the spacing, and that was completely off. The spacing left long waiting periods between each float, which considerably brought down the tone of the parade. 

The Renaissance Fair came back for another run of fun.  Guests were able to step back in time and enter the world of knights, jesters, and kings.  From turkey legs, glitter goblets, to sword fighting.  The only complaint this summer was of the overcrowding, which, of course, created longer lines for gift shops, concession stands, and even the line to enter the event. The Greeley Stampede is one of Colorado’s biggest events every summer. It’s a 12-day festival featuring concerts, rodeos, fairs, carnival, and many other less common attractions such as a demolition derby. Red Rocks hosted many concerts this summer.  Some of the bigger ones are Mumford & Sons, Charley Crockett, and Pierce The Veil.

This summer, like every summer, was no less drama-filled. Colorado provided concerts and fairs to fill the days. All music lovers were able to fill their hot summer days with albums like “DON’T TAP THE GLASS.” The long summer nights were filled with films like Love Island and How to Train Your Dragon.  Overall, the summer of ‘25 was a huge success in every way, and we’re sad it has to come to an end, but excited for this upcoming school year.