BottleRock Napa 2015 Public Enemy ROCKS Day 1!

This year at BottleRock Napa 2015 ROCKS Day 1 with hip hop icons Public Enemy. This year the Northern Cali Music Festival showed major improvement as soon as we stepped onto the BottleRock experience.

The music was on point as always with a great lineup that rocked the Intel Stage this year. This time the layout and the stages had you glued thanks to the better organization for the stages.

Intel rocked all day with Pion 2 Zion kicking off Day 1 with an amazing set, followed by Zella Day who didn’t disappoint, Courtney Barnett who kept us glued. Then Intel got wild and crazy with Cage The Elephant as its leader Matthew “Matt” Shultz ignited the stage with a high energy set that got the crowd going crazy. From crowd surfing to pandemonium, Cage brought it.

Next up was Foster The People, who had a perfect set, except for the guys in the group, just standing in one position playing their music. It was a perfect time for some heavy lights and visuals, but the sun was still setting in Napa Valley.

Finally, the headliner for Intel, Imagine Dragons, who killed it. They’re like our modern-day replacement for RUSH. Dragons music was explosive, the set was the perfect blend and the visuals brought us back to the days of RUSH. One of the best bands to see, because not only did they covers Alphaville’s “Forever Young” then trotting out their mega-hits, including “It’s Time,” “Demons,” “Radioactive,” and ” I Bet My Life.”

Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds kept the fans engaged as he not once but two times during their one hour and fifty-minute set, he ran through the crowd as they hoarded and groped him. Dragons are truly memorizing to watch. And in traditional Imagine Dragons fashion, the band who has been touring for seven years straight, once again, Pays Tribute to Ben E. King Again.

As for the Jam Cellars stage, it was everything, Afrolicious started off the day with their Talking Heads style of music getting festival-goers enticed, while Kopecky took over the crowd. The Mowgli‘s was a fun slice of heaven, giving fans an unbelievable set, which we truly loved. Followed by Big talk, but it was Public Enemy who DOMINATED and ClAIMED the Jam Cellars stage.

Chuck D, Professor Griff, and Flavor Flav hit the stage with their PE 2.0 crew and DJ Lord on the turntable took over the festival. They killed it and Flav brought all the Flavor. It was a stellar and historical moment at BottleRock Napa 2015. The Long Island, New York native MC’s, who has to enlighten the airwaves, liberated hip hop heads and started a cultural movement, played all their hits like “Bring The Noise”, “Fight The Power”, Don’t Believe The Hype” and more. It was truly Awesome.

Lastly is Michael Franti & Spearhead who lit up the Jam stage closing out Day 1 of BottleRock with an awesome set. Franti spends a lot of time in the crowd during his BottleRock set, but his longest trek lasts about 10 minutes.

Franti ventures well past the midway point of the crowd, and the big-screen cameras even lose him for a while, settling for the crowd and band shots instead. While in the crowd, he puts a fan’s Golden State Warriors on his head, to rabid applause, then takes a San Francisco Giants hat and puts it on top of that.

Michael Franti & Spearhead were the crowd-pleasers at Day 1 hands down.

This year we didn’t make it to all the stages as Intel and Jam were loaded up with heavy hitters that ALL gave a memorable performances.

What can you expect at BottleRock 2015?

Here are the upgrades:

The VIP is fully its own domain and connects Intel to Jam so you never have to leave. Truly great change. The next level up is the Sky VIP, which is living the life, This level has great viewpoints its own food and bars along with a private bleacher area where you can sit back, chill and watch the show without hassle. The seats all have vantage points and are lined up to the stage perfectly.

The Platinum package is always great if you got the loot, the vantage of this is being right at the band’s feet as they perform, or you can watch from a stage point of view and there are risers that you can enjoy within the festival grounds that are exclusively for Platinum only. Plus they have FULL ACCESS to both levels of VIP.

The bump in the road this year is that the parking is .5 miles away, but you only have to walk 5 blocks, which is about 10 minutes. It was way better, more convenient, and easy. You don’t have to wait hours for a bus to take you to the parking lot like years 1 and 2, so we are very happy the parking was worked out. If you are handicapped, this year the parking was very close. The handicap parking was in a special lot close to the festival for ease of entrance. ADA parking was located on the corner of Third Street and Silverado Trail. Once inside handicap has great risers and platforms for people to watch the show at each stage.  Plus the festival grounds were way more open and very easy to get around.

The festival itself is cleaner, more open with vantage points to was the stages while you eat. The food is delicious and the choices are wonderful. The art around the festival is great, and the stage layout is smart. BottleRock 2015 has fixed all the mistakes from years two and one, our hats are off. Great work Latitude 38 and everyone involved.

Love Love Loving it!