BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 wraps Sunday. Here's what to know.
The 2024 edition of BottleRock Napa Valley brings three days of music, gourmet food and regional wines to the North Bay this Memorial Day weekend with headliners Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Nicks, Maná and more.
Held during the holiday every year at the Napa Valley Expo, the music and food festival has become one of Northern California's premiere events kicking off the summer season.
What is BottleRock Napa Valley?
The first iteration of BottleRock was actually a five-day event in 2013 that took place earlier in the month, starting on May 8th and wrapping up on May 12th. With an estimated attendance of 120,000 over the five days, the event featured an array of classic rock, roots/Americana and alt-rock favorites including such name acts as Jackson Browne, the Black Crowes, Zac Brown Band, the Shins, Primus, the Avett Brothers, Joan Jett, Jane's Addiction, the Flaming Lips, Kings of Leon, the Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Ben Harper, Violent Femmes, Café Tacvba and Rodrigo y Gabriela.
While the event was mostly well received, organizers reportedly had financial difficulties that led to some vendors and companies that provided transportation and security claiming they had not been paid. The following year, Napa-based production company Latitude 38 Entertainment acquired the rights to the festival brand and have been running it ever since.
When does BottleRock Napa Valley take place?
Since the inaugural event, the festival has been held in late May, but it wasn't until the 2016 edition that the festival started taking place on Memorial Day Weekend. The festival was initially postponed until the by COVID in 2020 before organizers decided to reschedule it for the following year.
In the fall of 2021, the festival was finally held after being pushed back from its traditional Memorial Day weekend dates following an over a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite facing some challenges including two headliners (Stevie Nicks and Chris Stapleton) who cancelled due to health concerns and non-COVID illness, the 2021 staging of BottleRock Napa Valley was a rousing success that happily did not end up being a super-spreader event, thanks in part to the safety precautions taken by organizers.
This year's festival takes place Friday through Sunday, May 24-26. The gates to the festival open at 11 a.m. each day, with the first acts playing at 12 p.m. The festival has a hard 10 p.m. curfew that some acts have broken in the past, including the festival-closing set by Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters in 2017 where organizers had to pull the plug and abruptly end the show (much to the chagrin of festival attendees).
How much does it cost to attend BottleRock Napa Valley?
While 3-day general admission tickets begin at $456 per person, including fees, all 3-day GA and VIP tickets for the festival have been sold out since they went on sale in January. There are still single-day general admission tickets for Friday available for $243 each, but the individual day tickets for Saturday and Sunday are also sold out. However, the festival has partnered with Lyte to give attendees a safe and secure ticket marketplace for those looking to buy and sell their BottleRock passes. On that website, GA 3-day tickets are selling for $399, with 3-day VIP experiences ranging from $2,099 to $6,599.
Who is playing at BottleRock Napa Valley this year?
The headliners announced back in January for this year's edition to the festival include Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks and returning hip-hop diva Megan Thee Stallion on Friday, alt-rock greats Pearl Jam and acclaimed R&B singer Kali Uchis on Saturday night and festival closing songwriter Ed Sheeran and powerhouse rockers Queens of the Stone Age on Sunday.
Others notable acts on the bill include Australian rapper The Kid LAROI, singer-songwriter Dominic Fike, Latin rock group Maná, roots-rock crew My Morning Jacket, indie-rock guitar giant St. Vincent and jazzy chanteuse Norah Jones among many others. Nicks was one of the headliners for the 2021 festival, but cancelled her appearance due to COVID concerns. As has been traditional with the festival, BottleRock is including a number of local acts in the line-up such as East Bay soul/funk legends Tower of Power, Marin County alt-rock band the Alive and SF soul outfit Con Brio. Maná is also headlining the inaugural edition of the affiliated Festival La Onda that is being held at Napa Valley Expo on June 1-2, the weekend after BottleRock.
Below is a day-by-day listing of the acts performing at BottleRock. Additional information on the schedule for the nine performance areas at the festival can be found on the BottleRock website.
Friday, May 24: Stevie Nicks, Megan Thee Stallion, St. Vincent, Nelly, Miike Snow, Bebe Rexha, Jessie Murph, All Time Low, Gogol Bordello, BoyWithUke, Chevy Metal, Loveless, Pete Yorn, Royel Otis, The Moss, Say She She, Chris Shiflett, Grace Bowers, ALEXSUCKS, The Takes, Fleece, Con Brio, Akira Galaxy, Sage Bava and Sanho
Saturday, May 25: Pearl Jam, Maná, Kali Uchis, The Kid LAROI, My Morning Jacket, T-Pain, Oliver Tree, Cold War Kids, Tower of Power, Holly Humberstone, The Record Company, Jack Kays, LaRussell, Momma, Celisse, Deep Sea Diver, Mondo Cozmo, John Cruz, The Alive, Moonalice, Linka Moja, The Aquadolls, Grace McKagan, Mama Said, DJ Umami and the Napa Valley Youth Symphony.
Sunday, May 26: Ed Sheeran, Queens of the Stone Age, Dominic Fike, Norah Jones, The Offspring, Stephen Sanchez, Cannons, Action Bronson, The Beaches, Stephen Marley, Colony House, The Soul Rebels feat: Talib Kweli, Monsieur Periné, Dehd, Bully, Windser, The Scarlet Opera, MonoNeon, Brittany Davis, Tors, Forrest Day, Jane Leo, Jared Harper, Naima, The Silverado Pickups
and Sophia Zamani.
The festival is also hosting a packed line-up of aftershows happening in Napa as well as San Francisco starting Thursday evening with a number of bands appearing at BottleRock -- most notably Norah Jones, Gogol Bordello, St. Vincent, Action Bronson, Cold War Kids and Stephen Marley -- headlining their own concerts at more intimate venues in Napa and other parts of the Bay Area for those festival attendees with the energy and the funds to purchase separate tickets.
What other attractions are there at BottleRock Napa Valley?
In addition to the live bands, BottleRock also has two areas -- the Silent Disco and the Club -- featuring DJs spinning hip-hop and electronic music. Turntable artists of note include festival regular Motion Potion, member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and former Beastie Boys DJ Mixmaster Mike, Gavin Hardkiss, Kevvy Kev, Trackster the DJ and A-Trak.
BottleRock also welcomes back the always popular Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage that will present a schedule of chef demonstrations and performances that will feature an all-star line-up of chefs interacting with a variety of musicians, vitners, well-known actors and professional athletes. The stage will once again be hosted by KCBS "Foodie Chap" Liam Mayclem, who will introduce such figures as including José Andrés, Tyler Florence, Rodney Scott, Aaron May, Melissa King, Belle English, Danny DiGiampietro, Katherine Power, Andrew Zimmern and Aarón Sánchez, who will be joined by Golden State Warriors legend Stephen Curry, Bay Area baseball greats Rickey Henderson and Hunter Pence and actors Bradley Cooper and Cameron Diaz, along with musical headliners Tommy Lee, members of the Offspring, Nelly, T-Pain and more.
How do you get to BottleRock Napa Valley?
Getting to BottleRock can turn into something of a bottleneck with heavy traffic expected during the holiday weekend (especially on Friday when many people will be on the freeways early to get a head start) and the public parking for the event already sold out. But the festival encourages attendees to carpool, use rideshare services or ride a bike (there is complimentary bicycle parking near the venue at 301 1st St.). BottleRock is also providing a number of shuttle bus services traveling from San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose, Fairfield, Sonoma, Mill Valley, Palo Alto and Santa Rosa.