BottleRock turns up volume on luxury in its 5th year

The promoters of BottleRock Napa Valley, the music festival that is built around the luxury experience, went all out this year. Aside from booking a trio of world-class headliners — Maroon 5, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Foo Fighters — with about 80 other eclectic acts, the organizers behind the little-music-festival-that-could offered improvements in just about every other detail of the three-day concert, which took place at the Napa Valley Expo over Memorial Day weekend from Friday through Sunday, May 26 through May 28. From the acres of fresh turf on the grounds and the extensive regional food and wine tastings to the long list of VIP perks that included elevated platforms overlooking the main stage and artist meet-and-greets, BottleRock presented a utopian vision of the Northern California lifestyle in its fifth year. Maroon 5 and Petty kept the crowds at the main stage — estimated at 40,000 people each day — singing and bouncing throughout the day and well into the night with their decade-spanning hits on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Along with Vallejo-born rapper E-40, who sparked a “Choices (Yup)” sing-along during the cooking demo, actress Tamera Mowry made a quick guest appearance and Curry’s husband, Golden State Warriors All-Star Stephen Curry, also made a cameo, bringing out Roaracle-like screams. On the same stage Saturday afternoon, “Foodie Chap” host Liam Mayclem managed to keep order over a chaotic cooking lesson by chef José Andrés and a trio of multi-platinum bass players— Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo and Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan Lessard, who were joined by Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum. A silent disco party Saturday, purported to be the biggest ever in the United States, with nearly 5,000 participants, saw rapper Big Boi of Outkast splitting the DJ duties with masked electronic dance music producers the White Panda, as a crowd shuffled under a huge tent that earlier in the day hosted a fiery set by the soul singer Mavis Staples and electronic pop duo AlunaGeorge. There were also more than a dozen after-hours parties that saw festival acts such as Dirty Heads, Bob Moses, St. Lucia, the Shelters and House of Pain doing double duty, playing small Napa clubs after their daytime appearances at BottleRock. For $3,500 for the weekend, a ticket opened access to the Platinum Lounge, with front-row access to stages, gourmet food and drinks, private parking and meet-and-greets with musical artists. Platinum Lounge DJ Rotten Robbie wore a Fyre Festival T-shirt Saturday, an apparent reference to the recently botched Caribbean “luxury” music festival of infamy.