The Bands:
Imagine Dragons, Foster the People, Portugal the Man, Young the Giant, Passion Pit, ZZ Ward, Capital Cities, Robert Plant, Snoop Dogg, No Doubt
The Scene:
We drove in about 25 minutes from Sonoma to Bottlerock daily, but there were travelers coming from SF and the Bay Area. This three day festival is much easier to access and more laid back than Coachella and you can get much closer to the bands. The venue has 4 sizable stages and a silent disco all surrounded by lush Napa landscape. Local wineries set up individually decorated tents for concertgoers to relax in and sip on wine. The crowd was a mix– wine-growing Napa residents, high schoolers, and hardcore music fans. Many attempted to lay down blankets on the grass which quickly got trampled as nightfall came. Whole Foods had a coconut tiki tent (amazing), and was a sponsor of the entire culinary garden set up of local eateries (BBQ, italian, curry, thai, wood-fired pizza, paella).
The Fashion:
This festival definitely isn’t winning any fashion prizes. We saw everything including yoga pants, ill-fitting high waisted shorts gone wrong, and high school t-shirts. We did meet girls who designed their own line of rave attire, Rave Naked, which was actually really cute– they were wearing matching purple short and top combos.
The Music:
Imagine Dragons had amazing energy to close out of the first night of the festival, made us realize how many songs I love of theirs. Portugal the Man was a new band for me, but I really like this sound. ZZ Ward is a bit of a Taylor Swift lookalike, she had great energy on stage and rocked it. Capital Cities performed Safe & Sound, but they don’t really have too many other hits. Passion Pit did a lot off their new album which isn’t really up to par. Snoop Dogg played what people wanted to hear, he sampled a lot of songs that weren’t even his throwing in some Joan Jett. He’s great at commanding a crowd. No Doubt finished out the festival and Gwen debuted a new style with jet black ends to her blonde hair. People went wild when they played their hits like “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak”. She has a great stage presence and took a photo with a girl onstage who had Gwen’s face tattooed on her inner thigh– true fans.
The Sounds:
