The BottleRock Napa Valley music and culinary festival took over Northern California’s wine region once again for the fifth consecutive year, with The Chainsmokers, Muse, The Killers, Snoop Dogg, Bruno Mars and Halsey among the performers taking to the stage for a weekend of dining, dancing and drinking.
As expected, The Killers brought fresh energy to Saturday night with their hits such as “Mr. Brightside” and “Somebody Told Me” as Brandon Flowers flew across the stage. But it was their tribute to 2017 headliner Tom Petty — who played at BottleRock just five months before his death — with a moving performance of “American Girl” that really sparked wild emotions.
Snoop Dogg was lit as usual when he played the Midway stage Saturday night.
Earlier in the day, Snoop fired up the crowd at the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage in a very different way by breaking a Guinness World Record for the biggest cocktail ever (with a little help from Warren G and “Top Chef” winner Michael Voltaggio). Needless to say, the giant drink of choice was “Gin & Juice.”
“Bad at Love” singer Halsey didn’t miss a beat during her set Sunday evening despite informing the audience that she was suffering an asthma attack onstage. The 23-year-old later tweeted that she’d ended up in the medics’ tent after her set.
There’s a reason why Bruno Mars is always such a hit at Super Bowl halftime shows — he can take over a stage of any size and bring a crowd to life.
The pyrotechnics show during a few of Mars’ songs — including “Uptown Funk” — went off with such a loud bang that some people in the crowd double-checked that there wasn’t a real gun going off.
Meanwhile, on Friday night it was The Chainsmokers who were lighting the Midway stage on fire with a real flame show.
Billy Idol brought a dose of British glam rock to the wine country as the “White Wedding” singer strutted his stuff in a leather studded jacket.
Idol was “Hot in the City” as the temperatures rose in Napa on Saturday afternoon.
Earth, Wind and Fire made the older crowd happy from the outset on Friday.
Olympic snowboarder Shaun White whipped up some giant balls of cotton candy with “Cake Boss” Duff Goldman at the Williams Sonoma’s Culinary Stage.
A member of boxing royalty and a celebrity chef in her own right, Laila Ali cooked a New Orleans crawfish boil on the culinary stage.
Located in the heart of Napa village, it’s no surprise that BottleRock has the best wine list of any music festival, featuring bottles from Miner Family winery, Silver Oak, JaM Cellars and Domaine Chandon. Oh, and there’s also a spa, because it is Napa after all.
While many concerts serve up warm beer and cheap liquor, BottleRock offered craft cocktails from Hendrick’s Gin, complete with special bartenders in retro costumes entertaining customers while they waited for your drinks.
