Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival kicked off its 2023 edition Friday at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California.
I arrived at the festival grounds around 4:30pm. It was a later arrival that I had hoped as it meant missing Glen Hansard’s set, but traffic from Los Angeles isn’t predictable. Plus a stop at an In-N-Out Burger was a necessary stop on the way.
Entering the festival after the usual security check and ID check for drinking age festival goers is a large Ohana sign with flowers and foliage. A festival volunteer was on hand to help with the photo op making it less likely having strangers in your photo.
Ohana only has two music stages that are side by side named the Ohana Stage and Tiki Stage. For most of the day, acts alternate allowing festival goers to not miss any acts and keeping the break times in between short. The final two acts of each day perform on the Ohana Stage. The 45 minute break between HAIM and Friday’s headliner The Killers felt a bit long to be standing around with nothing going on.
If you needed a break from the music there’s a Storytellers stage featuring talks and Q&As about the ocean and environmentalism. During my walk around the grounds, photographer, shark advocate and shark attack survivor Mike Coots was answering questions about his experience.
The Cove Gallery curated by surf art historian Charles Adler (not the Canadian broadcaster) featured pieces by dozens of artists and photographers
With the venue being at a beach there were sandy areas in the back to have a seat in bleachers, grab a beverage from drink sponsors and even lounge around and play games. Behind the bleachers outside the boundaries of the venue was the rest of the beach where some people who wanted to experience the festival for free could find a spot for a very narrow view point of the Ohana Stage.
With a capacity of about 20,000 the festival doesn’t feel overwhelming. The stages did get more packed as the the day went, but I found there was always space to move around without having to squeeze through people and fairly good sightlines could easily be obtained. The VIP section is definitely less crowded and had shorter lines for food, drinks and a smaller merch stand. The stage view felt a bit limited though only relegated to one side of the Ohana Stage that’s partially obstructed by the stage’s speaker array.
The first music performer I was able to see was Japanese Breakfast. Michelle Zauner walked on stage in a white dress with a large white pillowy bow. She kicked off her set performing ‘Paprika’ and gleefully hit a gong at various points of the song. Ohana was her final festival show of the year.
At the Tiki Stage, Father John Misty was his usual eccentric suave self nonchalantly moving around the stage during his performance.
HAIM performed next on the Ohana Stage. It’s the second time the sisters have performed at the festival. Their first time was in 2017. Ohana was their final show for the year. At one point Danielle Haim cut off the band’s saxophonist’s solo at at the beginning of a song after noticing someone in the crowd needing assistance. After confirming the person would be okay, the music continued. Mid-set bassist Este Haim told the crowd how she had recently come down with an illness and because she has type 1 diabetes, doctors recommended she not perform the festival, but she persevered and if she was sick, she sure didn’t show it on stage.
Closing out the first day of the festival was Las Vegas rockers The Killers. In very Vegas fashion, the band’s intro music as they took the stage was Frank Sinatra’s ‘Luck Be a Lady’. The band then launched into their 2004 debut hit single ‘Mr. Brightside’. A sharply dressed Brandon Flowers bounded around the stage and stood on a riser at the front of the stage engaging the audience.
For the fourth song, Flowers invited Eddie Vedder on stage to perform Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘The Waiting’. Flowers mentioned that they rehearsed the song backstage earlier in the day. Vedder wasn’t the only surprise guest during The Killlers 17 song set. For the first song of the two-song encore, Sammy Hagar joined the band to perform Van Halen’s ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’.
Ohana Festival 2023 continues Saturday and Sunday with headliners Eddie Vedder and The Foo Fighters plus The Chicks, The Pretenders and more. There’s some rain in the forecast, but hopefully it’s short-lived.
For more information about Ohana Festival go to ohanafest.com