The 6th annual BottleRock Napa Valley kicked off on a cool, cloudy (and sometimes drizzly) Friday. Weather in Napa, California is supposed to progressively heat up as U.S. Memorial Day long weekend moves along. After a six and a half hour drive from Los Angeles, I arrived at the venue at around 4:30 pm. Music starts at noon each day and ends at 10:00 pm. The reason for the early end time is, much like outdoor festivals in Victoria, this festival is also in the middle of a populated area.
As a first-time BottleRock attendee, it was a bit of an adventure figuring out just where my wristbands would allow me to be. So much of the Friday’s photo coverage was me looking for good vantage points to shoot from.
There are four core music stages that are separated enough that there isn’t too much sound bleed, but not so far that you feel like you’ve walked a marathon between stages. In addition to those core stages, there are two smaller stages which host 20 minute acoustic sessions with various artists in the main lineup and a culinary stage where celebrity chefs do cooking demos with famous sports figures, musicians and other celebrities.
Friday, I mostly stayed with the JaM Cellars Main Stage and the secondary Midway Stage. Saturday and Sunday will have more opportunities to explore the other stages and the rest of the grounds.
I’ll go more in depth on my experience at BottleRock in a full review later but, for now, here are some photo highlights from day 1 of the festival featuring Muse, The Chainsmokers, Phantogram, Incubus, Mike D, and Earth Wind & Fire.
This is as close as I could get for The Chainsmokers. The VIP viewing areas at the Midway Stage were at capacity.
