Grooving at Bottlerock Music Festival
My mom and I are music lovers and wanted a little festival getaway in wine country where the sun was shining and the dance moves were abundant!
Trip Recap
- Day 1: Mom and I road-tripped to Napa Valley, enjoying In-n-Out along the way!
- Day 2: Sipped sparkling wine, danced at Silent Disco, and saw some bucketlist artists at Bottlerock festival!
- Day 3: Energy was high day two of the festival, it was exuberant with incredible music, sneaky piercings, and yummy street tacos!
- Day 4: Heavenly massages, sunny pool time, boutique shopping—perfect final morning getaway!
Highlights
Seeing all the artists!!!
Feeling sophisticated drinking wine at a music festival
Being in wine country!
The constant sunshine
The convenience and comfort of the Meritage Resort and Spa + massages at the spa
Exploring little towns like St. Helena
Day 1
My mom flew into SFO and picked me up from Santa Clara University, and we road tripped about 2 hours up to Napa Valley (stopped for In-n-Out on the way of course), where we had a delightful check-in at the Meritage Resort and Spa and settled into our room.
Day 2
Waking up at a leisurely hour, we headed down to for a coffee breakfast at the Blend Café, connected to the hotel. We then had a fun getting ready sesh listening to good music and getting excited to venture to the festival.
We ended up ubering to the festival (~25 mins + a short 15 min walk) and got there right on time for Natasha Beddingfield playing her hit songs. I got to live my childhood dreams and saw "Unwritten" live (may or may not have shed a tear). The festival is super awesome, tons of food and beverage options, with four main stages plus a Williams Sonoma Culinary stage (walked by and saw Dave Grohl casually throwing back a tequila shot).
On the first day we saw Natasha Beddingfield, Chaka Kahn, Papa Roach, Borns, Lorde, and Men at Work!! What a lineup, so many awesome genres and bucket-list artists. The stages are somewhat close together so it's not hard to run to catch multiple artists who have overlapping set times.
Gotta say Chaka Kahn was my favorite, she can still kick it and hit those high belting notes effortlessly.
In between sets, we galavanted over to the wine tents to retrieve a carafe & glass (reusable) of sparkling wine from Napa Valley, and it was delicious. There are plenty of tents to choose from so short lines, and easy to get refills. We had plenty of room to sip while dancing to Chaka (important). We also tried out the Silent Disco dance floor and the DJ was amazing, we kind of laughed at everyone silently dancing from afar until we tried it and dancing was inevitable... you just don't get it till you try it!
Day 3
We were psyched for day 2. This music festival is incredibly energetic and chill at the same time, so we were up and attem the next day and not too worn out.
This day we started our day with Flipturn, ventured to find a yummy cocktail, and I'll admit got our cartilage ear piercings tipsy inside the beauty tent. A few months later and we don't regret a thing! We then went to LCD Soundsystem on the main stage (seeing them in the daytime and not the headliner was a trip, didn't stop them from being once again one of my favorite live shows of all time), and they of course exceeded my expectations and I did indeed dance myself clean. We then stayed put to save our spots before Foo Fighters, which was an amazing show as well. Everlong live was bucket list. We ended our night with some good street tacos outside the venue, walking to find the hotel shuttle.
Highly recommend this festival-- it feels fun, hip, unplugged, energetic, and easy.
Day 4
Our final morning began with the Meritage spa where we got heavenly massages, followed by a couple hours soaking up the sun at the pool drinking Bloody Marys.
Midday, we headed up toward Cloverdale and stopped in St. Helena (magical little town) for some boutique shopping-- and were not disappointed! The drive was serene, windy, and absolutely beautiful. So many lovely vineyards and quaint towns.
Anything you would add or do differently?
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Bring tiny hand sanitizers, most likely by mid afternoon the sink / hand sanitizers for the porta poddies will be out.
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Drink tons of electrolytes
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The free shuttle from the Meritage to the festival is awesome, but you need to find the schedule and time it right so you aren't waiting a while (this is why we ubered there).
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Start getting ready for the festival extra early, as it always takes longer than expected and you may miss some artists you want to see
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Many drivers (uber or not) try and upcharge drastically at the end of the night before you reach the shuttle area, so keep walking and wait for the shuttle, it's worth it.
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Bring a picnic blanket of sorts, many people love to sunbathe in the main stage area near the wine and food in between seeing artists.
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Make sure your phone's fully charged-- if not, there are portable charger vending machines where you can rent a portable charger and return it end of the day-- so awesome!
