FAIRFIELD — Known for its convergence of music, wine and food, BottleRock Napa Valley seeks to double down on all three this weekend during the festival’s fourth installment.
A beefed-up lineup for its culinary stage features world-class chefs cooking with celebrities, including “Hell’s Kitchen” star Gordon Ramsay, Food Network host Tyler Florence, “Man v. Food” host Adam Richman and “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto, with a side of athletes, celebrities, other chefs and more.
Last year, overstuffed crowds packed the small stage, leading promoter Dave Graham and his Latitude 38 partners to reassess, expanding its roster and redrawing the festival map for a bigger viewing area.
“This was just one of those ideas that you have and you think, ‘Well, this could work or this could bomb. Best case scenario, if it works, we’ll be OK’ and, fortunately slash unfortunately, we got it wrong,” Graham said with a laugh. “Demand was much greater than we anticipated. We figured that we’re going to need a bigger boat. So we built a bigger boat this year and we’ve raised the bar in terms of who will be on that stage.”
The sold-out festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Napa Valley Exposition, brings Michigan soul legend Stevie Wonder, English art pop rockers Florence + The Machine and Los Angeles alternative rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers to Napa along with more than 70 other artists.
Musicians will participate in making dishes, including Keith Jeffery (photo below), singer and guitarist for the Australian pop rock band Atlas Genius, best known for the hits “Stockholm” and “Trojans.” Jeffery, a vegan for the past five years, is looking forward to showing off his culinary skills.
“I think my biggest passion with food, as a vegan, is finding ways of recreating things that, basically, taste the same as what a meat-eater would want it to taste like, therefore eliminating the excuse that, ‘I can’t go vegan because I’m going to miss so-and-so-food,’ ” Jeffery said.
It’s a stage that fans also can view from an improved VIP area, Graham said. A raised deck will allow VIP ticketholders to see both the main stage and the culinary stage. Other VIP upgrades include an improved roster of musicians playing the VIP lounge, more than doubling the number of on-stage suites and building a doubledecker skydeck for the main stage. Also, the festival’s exclusive platinum lounge is adjacent to the main stage.
For those with general admission tickets, the main stage will look different this year, too. Latitude 38 has increased the size of the main stage as well as added larger video monitors.
The 2016 installment also marks the return of after shows for the first time since the inaugural BottleRock in 2013. This year’s after shows include appearances by Gogol Bordello, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Foo Fighters side project Chevy Metal and more.
Graham is proud of the lineup inside the festival grounds, too. Joining Gogol Bordello, Rod and Gab, Atlas Genius, Wonder, Florence and the Chili Peppers are Death Cab for Cutie, The Lumineers, Lenny Kravitz, Ziggy Marley, Buddy Guy, The Joy Formidable, The Pharcyde, Walk the Moon, Grouplove and many more.
“We feel like it is a world-class, eclectic mix,” Graham said. “There’s something there for everyone from your classic Red Hot Chili Peppers to your big-time indie rock bands like Florence + The Machine and Death Cab for Cutie to your iconic artists like Buddy Guy and Ziggy Marley and then some of the best up-and-comers around from Nothing But Thieves to The Struts, who could very well be the next Chili Peppers.”
Graham said, for him, although the bottom line matters, he will know the festival is a success when it has delivered on the promises of the lineup card, the food, the wine and the experience of coming to the Napa Valley.
“When I see someone walking around with a smile on their face and a big glass of wine and, call it a big Morimoto rib, or some piece of food that is indicative of or comes from a local restaurant, a Napa restaurant, that’s stuff’s fun for us to see,” Graham said. “Or the crowds going nuts. … I can’t wait to hear and see people watching Gogol Bordello, screaming ‘(Start Wearing) Purple.’ ”
All days of the festival are sold out for the first time in BottleRock history. For more information, visit BottleRockNapa.com.
Gordon Ramsay photo courtesy Dave Pullig
Keith Jeffery photo courtesy Alexa Stickler
Bottom crowd photo from 2015 BottleRock by Robinson Kuntz for Daily Republic