For the Chico News & Review: BottleRock Napa Festival, Napa, Calif., May 8-12, 2013. (www.newsreview.com/chico/festive-days-ahead/content?oid=10024834)

A mantra of “build a festival and they will come” rang true earlier this month (May 9-12) as the inaugural, five-day BottleRock Napa Festival ignited the North State’s festival season by drawing up to 35,000 spectators a day to the Napa Valley Expo Fairgrounds. Anchored by a monster 70-foot-high main stage, the fest’s promoters held nothing back, offering a full-tilt extravaganza of music, food, wine, comedy and beer.

Music was at the top of most people’s agendas, and the roster was eclectic and rich with bands young and old: The Black Keys, The Avett Brothers, Primus, The Flaming Lips, Charlie Musselwhite and Macklamore and Ryan Lewis to name a few. And with so many major acts from multiple genres, strolling the grounds was a surreal experience at times as bands like Jackson Browne and Jane’s Addiction would be playing at the same time on different stages. At one point, Richard Thompson, a 45-year member of British-rock royalty spoke eloquently in the media tent about his days with Fairport Convention but paused as several yards away, Joan Jett took the stage and amplified one of her old hits, belting out “I don’t give a damn ’bout my bad reputation!”

The vibe was kind of an upscale tailgate party, with good-ol’ Budweiser devotees harmoniously sharing festival territory with trendy youth and chic fashionistas. The two major stages projected crystal clear, über-powerful audio, augmented by big-screen video.

But what made this fest decidedly Napa were the gourmet-food offerings from top local purveyors, and a staggering 42 wineries on hand. A sectioned-off food market, that included umbrella-ed picnic tables, outdoor patio heaters, and a main-stage video simulcast, included everything from wood-fired pizza and halibut ceviche to pork-belly tacos, and barbecued oysters.

First-year wrinkles? There were a few, like an oversold VIP area, gates opening late, confusion about in-and-out privileges and the logistics of shuttling tens of thousands of folks to parking lots on the outskirts of town. But those relatively minor glitches aside, the North State’s answer to Coachella kicked of the summer’s festival season in grand fashion.

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