BottleRock amps up for fourth year with promise of more to come

BottleRock has proved a major success for the past two years, drawing blockbuster music acts and serving as a showcase for many of the region’s restaurants, breweries and wineries. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend this year’s festival, which essentially launches the Bay Area’s music festival season, to catch over 60 acts that are scheduled to perform during the three-day weekend, including the Lumineers, Death Cab for Cutie, Lenny Kravitz, Walk the Moon, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ziggy Marley, Grouplove, and Michael Franti & Spearhead. Attendees will notice several improvements around the grounds this year, including larger stages, more video monitors and easier navigation paths between the different areas of the festival. The festival will also heat things up around the culinary stage, hosted by Liam Mayclem, where star chefs and rock stars partner up for food-based fun. The dizzying array of eats and drinks will return too, with stalls offering libations from vintners like JaM Cellars, Silver Oak and Miner Family, to pair with delicacies by Morimoto, Bouchon Bakery, Oenotri, Mustards Grill, Bistro Don Giovanni and more. Most of the upgrades come for the high-end ticket holders, including bigger VIP suites, a stage-side double-decker sky deck with open bar and private acoustic sets by many of the acts playing the main stages in the luxury Platinum Pass hospitality tents. While the festival sold out months ago, people might still be able to score passes through Lyte, a ticket exchange platform that has partnered with BottleRock to allow fans to buy or exchange tickets (www.uselyte.com/bottlerocknapavalley). Over the next few weeks, the region will see an abundance of festivals, live music series and major touring acts come through.