Bottlerocking in '26
- Cheryl Alterman | The Music Soup Editor
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Another year of an amazing three day musical festival in the beautiful Napa Valley.
For the last thirteen years, every Memorial Day weekend in the Napa Valley there is a huge celebration of music, called Bottlerock. More than 80 musical acts played on four stages. With plenty of gourmet food and drink to partake in. The musical headliners this year were, Lorde, Foo Fighters, Lil Wayne, Teddy Swims, Sombr, Ludacris and Backstreet Boys.
This festival attracts both the slightly older demographic, affluent and many involved in the wine and food industry as well as the younger crowds. It's famous for offering some of the best festival foods and there are some weird upscal specialty items on offer, such as cavier topped lobster corn dogs. Something I've never heard of, let alone seen at any music festival! To pair with your lobster corn dog you can indulge in fine Napa Valley wines and spirits. There's even a Williams Sonoma Culinary stage which hosts 'cooking shows' that include the artists who are performing in the weekend, like Dave Grohl, Ludacris, The Backstreet Boys, Tre Cool and more.
The drawbacks for the Bottlerock festival is that tickets, food, and drinks are notoriously expensive. Prices for wines and gourmet meals are well above the standard festival prices for the convenience of partaking on premises at the festival.
Due to the nice mix of the affluent older and younger demographic, the crowd seems to be considerably tame for such a large festival. Which is not a bad thing considering there's a lot of alcohol served throughout the weekend. In fact, this was my 12th Bottlerock festival that I've attended and considering how many people were drinking (a lot) of wine and spirits there, I don't think I've ever seen a brawl or a drunk person acting seriously vicious, enough to be thrown out. Did I see inebriated festival attendees...absolutely-many, but they were just having a good time with friends, dancing and enjoying the music.
As a photographer, most of my weekend is being escorted to the photo pits for the first three songs, and escorted back to the media building to wait for the next artist. During the down time of waiting to be escorted to the pits, I make my way through the crowds to the smaller stages and check out other acts too. Whilst traveling through the crowds its always nice to see people I know and say hello. This year, my fave performers were the Foo Fighters. As usual! I've seen them many times, and they never get boring.
I also loved a band I've never seen before, BUSH with Gavin Rossdale, lead vocals and an insanely great, big rock drummer, Nik Hughes. I loved BUSH! Gavin Rossdale jumped into the photo pit to connect with his audience. That's always fun. And I will absolutely see them again. Then there was Chevy Metal, a mostly cover band with Shane Hawkins on drums. Shane is Taylor's 19 year old son. And Shane is an amazing drummer just like his dad. Nearing the end of their set,
Danny Clinch (left), music photographer extrodinaire, joined them on stage, playing harmonica and then for the last song, (a Black Sabbath cover)...none other than Dave Grohl joined and sang lead. I imagine Shane is like a son to Dave Grohl as Taylor and Dave loved each other so much. I predict in a couple years, when Shane reaches 21, he may take the throne of his late father and become the drummer for Foo Fighters.
I also liked Borns, Joan Jett, LCD Soundsystem, Slightley Stoopid and Paris Jackson. I did not get to see so many that I had planned to see. But if I could cut muself in three I would've been able to see more bands. As at any festival. The highlight of my weekend was all Foo related. Being a huge Foo Fighters fan, I was at the culinary stage when Dave Grohl joined Chef Jose Andres onstage to assist in cooking, and he had a go on the brass drum set to the side of the stage. That was fun!
I also loved the Foo Fighters set starting at 7.45 on Saturday night. I've seen them play Bottlerock three times now, and they put on a great set each time. I will never forget that in 2017, Napa city pulled the plug on them at 10. When this happened, the entire audience sang without any music and it was so much fun being a part of that. This time, they stopped precisely at 9.45! I imagine the band may get fined for going on later than agreed.
Bottlerock is one of my favorite music festivals. I love seeing the same team every year. If you like music festivals and haven't been to a Bottlerock, I suggest attending...if you can find tickets that is, as they've been selling out pretty fast in the last few years! Also if you are not in your twenties or thirties and see the bands playing and don't recognize most of them, try not to let that put you off. Music discovery is all part of the fun!
As always, be kind to each other. Love with your whole heart. Forgive and apologise easily. Make amends. Connect with each other. Greet each day with love in your heart. And never regret anything that made you smile. Remember...life is short. With love and gratitude, (and always turn up the volume on that music!) Cheryl at The Music Soup❤️✌🏻🎵 If you'd like to purchase any photos please contact: AltermanImages@gmail.com Hundreds of artists and many sizes available. Artist gallery quality, high resolution prints, signed. Framed or unframed. Limited editions.
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©Cheryl Alterman Photography 2026