Kaaboo 2015 The Journey into A New Festival Day 1

CelebNMusic247.com chronicles of the new addition to the southern California Music Festival Circuit titled ‘Kaaboo 2015 the Journey into a New Festival Day 1’.

Like all festivals Kaaboo Del Mar had a few bumps in the road that were easily corrected by the first day thanks to three wonderful women who held down the 370-acre property that was originally built by the Thoroughbred Club in 1937 by founding members Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien with Paramount Studios as corporate sponsor. The grounds are best known for its horse races and has been seen in several movies over the years. The Del Mar Racetrack & Fairgrounds was transformed a music extravaganza of sound, art and food.

This was the inaugural year of KAABOO Fest 2015 and we have to say it was an illustrious vision. Like BottleRock Napa, KAABOO three-day music and food marathon Festival held Sept. 18-20 at the Del Mar Racetrack and Fairgrounds hopes to fill the void of the San Diego street scene offering several twists to the festival-going experience.

KAABOO is packed with music of all sorts, great food, amazing artwork and food from high-quality cuisine from top area restaurants. But the offerings don’t stop there, the festival also includes an array of wine and craft beer to choose from.

We started out our venture doing a few interviews with artists on Friday before heading out to see what the festival offered. Being a site that covers music festivals we were pleasantly surprised with KAABOO FEST 2015.

We stated with the art that was everywhere as artists from New York and San Francisco we painting throughout the festival grounds. As huge walls came to life during the day as we ventured around the festival grounds. Del Mar Racetrack & Fairgrounds was truly transformed into a music festival goer’s delight.

We have to really congratulate KAABOO mastermind Bryan E. Gordon who had a vision and was able to bring it to life for the San Diego area. Gordon revealed back in February that he hopes to quickly match such prominent national music festivals as Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. We can say he has found his own with KAABOO – it is a little different from the above mentioned festivals, but is becoming more of the new genre music festival like BottleRock Napa who have infused music, art, culinary cuisine, wine and craft beer and numerous artists from all decades combined into a musical smorgasbord of bliss.

We kicked off our day checking out Jamestown Revival on one of the 7 stages strategically placed. It was nice that all the bands had ample start times so if someone like myself could watch as many bands possible. The best part of KAABOO is that you can continually change your surroundings by walking from one stage to the next, which we did. Each stage had its own name that was a reflection of San Diego like the Sunset Cliffs, Grandview, Zuma, Trestles, and Tourmaline. For the late night festival goers, like the San Diego street scene KAABOO offered an EDM auditorium called Encore and for the comedy club goer there was Humor Me.

We bounced around all day going to see artists like Knox Hamilton, KI, Ozomatli and Brett Dennen for the earlier part of the afternoon. By 4:25 we were waiting in anticipation for Fitz & The Tantrums who ignited the Sunset Cliffs stage (the largest stage at KAABOO) but what we loved about this area is that it was a beach surrounded with a pier like setting. Near the front of the stage was Astroturf where festival goers casually laid out blankets to get their spots to watch the main events of the festival. The crowd was great, no one was pushing, no attitudes, and just happy mellow people all there to enjoy music and to have a great time. We cover many festivals so this was awesome to experience since we were only able to shoot from the crowd. Luckily we dealt with very nice people who allowed us to get the shots we needed.

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As for our standouts of the festival, well there are many, but we will start off with Delta Rae, this is the third time we’ve seen the band from Durham, North Carolina. Delta Rae (three siblings Ian Hölljes, Eric Hölljes and Brittany Hölljes, as well as Elizabeth Hopkins, Mike McKee and Grant Emerson) blew us away with their incredible set and outstanding vocals. Each time we see Delta Rae, they get better and better.

We headed over to Zuma to check out Bonnie Raitt, who as always did not disappoint. Raitt was incredible. She was engaging, and was a true talent who graced KAABOO FEST 2015. She was the iconic offering of the festival and a definite must see.

Next up is Foster The People, who had a stage presence all of their own. Lead singer Mark Foster had the crown going wild with his Oasis-esque appeal while Jacob “Cubbie” Fink (bass and backing vocals), and Mark Pontius (drums, percussion) had the crowd going wild. Foster The People was hands down one of our favorite performances of the day 1 at KAABOO.

We had to check out The Fairground Saints who are just kicking off their first tour for their self-titled album. The Fairground Saints are new on the music scene, but way worth checking out. Their music is refreshing, their sound unique and definitely a great group.

From there we headed off to check out the Huntington Beach, California group, Dirty Heads, who is an infusion of hip hop and ska punk. Basically take No Doubt, Snoop Dogg and Bob Marley throw them in a blender and boom out comes Dirty Heads. They music is hypnotic and the audience was reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are a true Southern California style band.

After Dirty Heads it was back to Sunset Cliffs to see No Doubt, who once again blew us away. Gwen was amazing. She was playful with the festival goers and in great spirits on stage. She was taking selfies with fans and was blown away by one girl who had tattooed Gwen’s name on her arm. She also had three fans from Argentina get on the stage with her to snap a selfie saying something like, Isn’t this cool…we’re making out and taking selfies? Gwen was awesome. We saw her in May at BottleRock Napa 2015, but she had a whole new presence at KAABOO. No Doubt was out of control and we loved it.

Unfortunately we kept bouncing back and forth since No Doubt and Snoop Dogg were scheduled at the same time. We watched 3 songs then jumped to Snoop to watch him hit the stage, he was 15 minutes late but it was perfect so we were able to catch him. He drew in a HUGE crowd and blew everyone away. It was great to watch Snoop take fans through his catalog of hits. He had the crowd going wild as we noticed a lots of festival goers were going back and forth between No Doubt and Snoop. He had his rump shakers grinding by his side for a few songs and had fans jumping when he did House of Pains 1992 hit Jump Around. As always Snoop was one of our favorites to see.

After the headliners ended, we venture to Encore to check out White Panda who kicked off the EDM arena. The crowd was dancing as they breathed new life into audience goers and a long day of music. After White Panda, we got to see a little of Griz which blew us away, but we called it a night after that. The festival ran until 2:30am for the EDM and over at Humor Me, which was packed with lines wrapping around the building went until midnight. We didn’t make it there.

Now it’s off to day #2 of KAABOO, so CelebNMusic247.com will keep you posted…