Local Music Festivals

One thing I really missed during the strictest COVID lockdowns was getting to see live music with big crowds. I love going to local music festivals around here – obviously for the music itself, but also for the art, food, drink, and friendship that comes with it!

I’ve included a few photos from my past trips to BottleRock Music Festival in Napa below, but wanted to also share 7×7‘s Best Music Festivals list from a recent story they wrote. Here’s what they have:

Mill Valley Music Festival (Headliners: Fleet Foxes, Greensky Bluegrass) – May 11-12 in Mill Valley

Cosmico (Susto, Sam Grisman, Nicki Bluhm) – May 17-19 in Guerneville

BottleRock Napa Valley (Stevie Nicks, Megan Thee Stallion, Peral Jam, Ed Sheeran) – May 24-26 in Napa Valley

Festival La Onda (Maná, Fuerza Regida, Alejandro Fernandez, Junior H.) – June 1-2 in Napa Valley

California Roots (Ziggy Marley, Damian Marley, Stephen Marley, E-40, Too Short, Ice Cube, Rebelution, Lupe Fiasco) – May 24-26 in Monterey

Stern Grove Music Festival (lineup coming late April – FREE!) – mid-June to August in San Francisco

Mosswood Meltdown (B-52’s, Pure Hell, Big Freedia, Redd Kross, Hunx and his Punx) – July 6-7 in Oakland

Fillmore Jazz Festival (headliners not available yet) – July 6-7 in San Francisco

Festival Napa Valley (Lionel Richie, Pretty Yende, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Ray Chen) – July 6-21 in Napa Valley

Outside Lands (lineup coming soon) – Aug. 9-11 in San Francisco

Unfortunately, I will not be at BottleRock this year as my son is graduating from Kellogg/Northwestern from his MBA program, and I am heading to Chicago for his graduation. I did hear there is another festival coming from the organizers of BottleRock a week after Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park – excited to see the lineup. Are you going to any? Let me know in the comments and maybe I’ll see you there!

Get your music on!

Here’s a fun thing to do in the Bay Area summers: go see live music! I love going to Bottlerock Music Festival in Napa every spring, and if you’ve never been to a proper festival, you really are missing out on a cultural phenomenon.

Sunshine, good music, unique eats and drink vendors everywhere? What could possibly go wrong? Here are some music festivals coming up in the second half of the summer in Northern California:

Stern Grove Music Festival

I encouraged everyone to check out this free festival in San Francisco in a previous blog, and my urging stands! It goes through mid-August!

Festival Napa Valley

This takes place from July 12-21, so you still have time to squeeze it in! Opera, jazz, wine, food, and a gala hosted by Seal. Seriously! Check it out.

Guitarfish Festival

From July 25-28, you can enjoy live music in a family-friendly setting on the banks of the Yuba River near Truckee. What a scene! More info here.

Petaluma Music Festival

On August 3rd, you can benefit the Petaluma public school system by attending this one-day festival with four stages of music. Very cool!

Outside Lands

This is the big one – the annual 3-day festival extravaganza in Golden Gate Park is worth every penny! This year, enjoy Paul Simon, Childish Gambino, Twenty One Pilots, and more! Visit the website here.

New mural at the Lesher Center

Did you know that any 25,000-plus square foot buildings in Walnut Creek are now required to spend at least 1% of their funding on a public art project on their property? There is a new initiative in Walnut Creek to make more publicly visible walls and surfaces into works of art. And the new mural at the Lesher Center certainly express this well!

Artist Kristin Farr did a wonderful job hand-painting this beautiful mural with no guidelines whatsoever! She is inspired by the meshing of colors and folk art, and that is definitely reflected in her work. This specific mural is entitled “West Coast Prism Sign,” and is done with acrylic paint on Dibond panels. I love that this contemporary geometric painting now occupies a formerly bland piece of concrete in a highly-trafficked area of downtown Walnut Creek.

If this mural looks somewhat familiar to you, it may be because Kristin has painted a couple utility boxes in Walnut Creek, too! As the public art projects move from minor to major canvasses, keep an eye out for other familiar paintings going up. I’ve featured her utility boxes on this blog before, in fact. They are located across the street from this mural, and are two of the more colorful utility boxes we’ve seen painted downtown!

Kristin Farr has painted her awesome works all across the country (and even the world – she has a piece in the Philippines!), and has been hired by Pinterest and Facebook headquarters to paint on their walls (no pun intended). You’ll see her work all around the Bay Area, or if you head to Bonnaroo or Outside Lands music festivals.

I applaud Walnut Creek City Council and their quest to make Walnut Creek and more interesting town by supporting and displaying art throughout the city! I will end this blog with a few quotes about art!

Art, Freedom & Creativity will change society faster than politics ~ Victor Pinchuk

Art is the highest form of hope ~ unknown

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Road Trips: Summer Festivals

One of the best parts about summer in Northern California is that it’s pretty much perfect weather all the time. Even the notoriously-chilly San Francisco has a legitimate summer for a couple months at the tail-end. If you’re a fan of music like me, this is a perfect season for festival-hopping!

Last weekend, BottleRock in Napa took place and they had another fantastic lineup. I went on Friday which was a birthday gift from my friend Veronica. It is one of my favorite festivals – more to come on a future blog. Between the music itself and the amazing Napa-esque food and drink scene, you can’t go wrong at BottleRock. There are a few other great festivals in the Bay Area you should definitely check out, too. Here are 5:

Outside Lands (Aug. 10-12 in San Francisco): Another wildly popular festival that attracts top names in the music circuit to its stages in Golden Gate Park. This year, you can see Florence and the Machine, The Weeknd and Janet Jackson atop the list.

Stern Grove (June 17-Aug. 19 in San Francisco): Stern Grove is a free (!!!) annual festival that has hosted names as big as Stevie Wonder in the past. This year, two of the biggest names will be M. Ward and Ziggy Marley, also playing in Golden Gate Park.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (Oct. 5-7 in San Francisco): I’m pretty sure Hardly Strictly used to be literally strictly bluegrass. But nowadays, the free show in – you guessed it – Golden Gate Park welcomes all genres. This year’s lineup includes Brandi Carlile and The Wood Brothers!

Country Summer (June 15-17 in Santa Rosa): Let’s mix it up a bit. Florida Georgia Line, Little Big Town, Toby Keith and Maren Morris are the highlights of this country festival in Santa Rosa. I’ve never been, but if you like country, this line-up kicks it!

Berkeley World Music Festival (June 1-3 in Berkeley): We can’t have an arts/culture/music blog without including the funkiest Bay Area town around. This is going on RIGHT NOW, but it’s free and you can bring the kids to experience music from all over the world!