Honestly, they had me at Lizzo.
Four of my favorite things — great music, delicious wine, fabulous food, and the beginning of summer — come together for Memorial Day weekend at the annual BottleRock Napa Valley Festival, which I’ll be traveling to next weekend. With three days of live music, wine, food, and festivities on three music stages — plus a culinary stage — I’m looking forward to sharing a fun travel adventure with our readers.
Some of the big names involved include headline artists Lizzo (yes!), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Post Malone, Duran Duran, Lil Nas X, and The Smashing Pumpkins, as well as Billy Strings, War, Leon Bridges, Carly Rae Jepson, Japanese Breakfast (coincidentally, I’m reading frontwoman Michelle Zauner’s sad but beautiful memoir Crying in H Mart right now), Wu-Tang Clan, Caamp, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos, The Struts, and the list goes on and on. There are more than 70 bands playing over the long week, and that includes the most recent announcement of the reunion of Keanu Reeves’ grunge-era band, Dogstar, making its first public performance in more than two decades.
In addition, there’s what promises to be a highly entertaining Williams Sonoma culinary stage featuring top chef and celebrity mashups. For example, in 2019 Chef Masaharu Morimoto broke the world record for making 100 3.5 ounces pieces of sushi at the BottleRock Napa Valley Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The culinary stage is known for having chaotic cooking demonstrations and celebrity chefs.
“Billboard recently recognized BottleRock’s food and wine programming as the best of the top 50 festivals, which is a definite reflection of the efforts we put into our culinary offerings,” stated Jason Scoggins, Partner, BottleRock Napa Valley. “We continue to integrate Napa Valley’s and Northern California’s renowned culinary talent, bringing some of the best food, wine, craft brew, and craft cocktails to perfectly pair with the amazing musical lineup.”
Presenting sponsor JaM Cellars, best known for their easy drinking Butter Chardonnay, hosts the main stage, as well as their own JaMPad venue. They’ll be pouring all weekend long, some of the region’s heralded wineries, craft brews, seltzers, and top shelf creative cocktails.
Here’s a video teaser of what’s in store: https://youtu.be/_MJZIXYf9ww. Stay tuned for my own adventures at BottleRock 2023.