Festies

Ep. 23 Festies Recap: SF Jazz Festival and Stern Grove 2025

• Sunny Balopole, Vanessa Gutierrez, Clark Lawson

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This one’s for our Bay Area Festies! We’re recapping two totally different but equally iconic San Francisco summer festivals: the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Stern Grove Festival.

From legendary jazz sets in the city to blanket dancing in the trees, we’re sharing the full behind-the-scenes of our weekend. Sunny and Clark hit up SF Jazz Fest on Friday and Saturday, and Sunny went back on Sunday to celebrate Father’s Day. Meanwhile, Clark kept the music going at Stern Grove with friends. We’ve got stories, standout moments, and all the little things that made this a classic Bay Area festival weekend.

Artists we saw:

Mark Lettieri Salami Rose Joe Louis Kassa Overall Charles Lloyd Jahari Stampley Trio Somi Theo Crocker Ms. Lisa Fischer Stanley Clarke & Gonzalo Rubalcaba Brandon Woody's Upendo Tyreek McDole Orrin Evans Dave Holland & Lionel Loueke Patrice Rushen The Dip California Honey Drops

Sunny's Festival Corner:

Hinterland Music Festival

Neon Nights Country Music Festival

Rhyme Fest

Sunny:

Hey Vanessa,

Vanessa:

yeah Sunny?

Sunny:

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Vanessa:

Hmm, I guess you'd call them Festies.

Clark:

Music, festivals, friendship festies

Vanessa:

so tired

Clark:

why are you so tired?

Vanessa:

because my sister thought it would be a great idea last night to go hike Mission Peak this morning.

Sunny:

Oh, this is a last minute decision.

Vanessa:

It was a last minute decision.

Vanessa:

Yeah, no, we had not been planning this. She texted me and she was like do you work tomorrow? And I was like, no, but I'm recording. At like two she was like, oh, I was going to say we should go hike mission peak tomorrow. We've been saying that for a while but we've just never done it and I've never done it. She's done it like when she was in college, so I just know it's really hard.

Sunny:

Where is it?

Vanessa:

It's in fremont, I think, or like in between fremont and milpitas, but it's like three miles just straight uphill

Sunny:

oof. Yeah,

Vanessa:

yeah

Sunny:

, was the view worth it?

Vanessa:

Yeah, but you can get the same freaking view from like a mile

Clark:

it's about the photo at the top With the little Climb on the little thing.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Sunny:

you got that photo.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I got the photo. Honestly, though, we were like 0.5 miles left and I was ready to give up, because the last half mile is rocky and straight uphill. Honestly, if it was just straight uphill and it was like the same path it had been the whole way, it'd be fine. But it's so rocky and like narrow, I was like fuck this, let's turn around. But I was like no, we didn't come all this way just to come all this way, just to come this far.

Vanessa:

We didn't come all this way to come this far far to come this far,

Sunny:

come my lady

Vanessa:

what is the thing I? Said it right earlier, we didn't come

Clark:

all this way

Vanessa:

we didn't come,

Sunny:

oh my god,

Vanessa:

no. we didn't come this far, just to come this far. No?

Clark:

no, that's not. That is not a thing humans say

Vanessa:

yeah, it is. I've heard that.

Clark:

No, I I'm not saying it doesn't make sense. I'm saying that's not the phrase, I'm pretty sure it's. We didn't come this far to give up now

Vanessa:

no, uh, people say the other one. I swear to god

Clark:

okay, hey, festies out there in your, in your review of this episode. Tell us if people say that

Vanessa:

anywho,

Sunny:

I think they do

Sunny:

well.

Sunny:

Thanks for still making it

Vanessa:

yeah, I was like god damn, this is like because it's six miles, like this is like running a 10k and it was beautiful, like it wasn't too hot, it wasn't cold, it was like perfect temperature,

Sunny:

it's breezy?

Vanessa:

But christina was like who fucking thought this would be a good idea? Like you, bitch, you text me last night, this is your idea. But poor her, poor knees hurt so bad, so like what we thought was gonna be like way quicker getting down the hill was like almost longer

Clark:

should it take, really

Vanessa:

because she had to go really slow because it's all downhill and her I was like just walk backwards.

Vanessa:

She's like I get dizzy, so like we couldn't. She'd walk backwards for a little bit and then have to stop. I mean I felt super accomplished. I think two miles in I had like a hiker's high. She was like hiker's high is crazy. Like who says that?

Clark:

It's runner's high and crack high.

Vanessa:

But then, like 2.5 miles in, I was like let's just go back.

Sunny:

It didn't last very long,

Vanessa:

yeah. But then, once we got to the top, there was a girl that started at the same time we did. She took pictures of us and then we took a picture of her. She was really nice. But there was the cattle roaming on the path by us and in front of us and I played the Vaca song for them. La Vaca.

Vanessa:

I don't think they liked it though. I thought they were going to start shaking their booties, but they didn't.

Sunny:

It's like that video of the cows and a guy walks up with an amp and a bass and he plays a slap bass solo and then all the cows run away.

Clark:

I know that feeling. I've lived that.

Vanessa:

I was going to show you the video of me playing that song to them. There was one point where one of them was just staring right at me. I was like oh, you don't like your anthem.

Sunny:

They're like you're not the first person to do this.

Vanessa:

I walked right past that, like one of them walked right in front of me

Sunny:

it's running from you

Vanessa:

, yeah

Sunny:

I can't believe you got that close.

Vanessa:

Oh, I know christina was like Vané she was kind of ahead of me because I was like trying to play this song for them. She got ahead of me, yeah, and I was like they're not, they're freaking vegetarians. They're not going to eat you.

Vanessa:

They're vegan,

Clark:

they're gentle,

Sunny:

Gentle cows.

Vanessa:

Anyways, that was fun. Christina was like let's do this every week. I was like I was down until the last 0.5 miles, yeah, but I burned 1500 calories,

Sunny:

nice,

Vanessa:

so that was fun.

Sunny:

Telling you about the bass story, the cows and the bass player. This is my little transition. We went to the SF Jazz Festival

Vanessa:

oh whoa,

Sunny:

I took my dad and one of the headliners was Dave Holland, who's a legendary bass player.

Vanessa:

Oh really?

Sunny:

And my dad and I like miscommunicated and I thought he wanted to see him. He thought I wanted to see him.

Vanessa:

Oh my gosh.

Sunny:

Neither of us wanted to see him. I was like I just assumed because he's like a legend jazz musician. He was like, yeah, but he's a bass player.

Vanessa:

Oh sorry Clark.

Clark:

No, it's true. I mean like it's true.

Sunny:

When it started I was like just what everyone wants An hour and a half of stand up bass solo.

Clark:

That's hard. That's hard to listen to.

Sunny:

So I hate that, that we miscommunicated like that.

Vanessa:

So you all watched the whole thing.

Sunny:

Actually, we both fell asleep.

Vanessa:

Oh my God,

Sunny:

I was going to save this story for sort of the end, but yeah, we both fell asleep. It was Dave Holland and this other guitar player. He had a lot of guitar pedals and then he would I don't want to say beatbox, that's, I feel like no, there's a better word for it

Clark:

he does like mouth percussion.

Sunny:

Mouth percussion yeah,

Vanessa:

oh okay,

Sunny:

that's what I want to say.

Vanessa:

Beatbox

Sunny:

that was really impressive to see, but we both fell asleep

Vanessa:

did you miss someone else because you stayed at this?

Sunny:

Yes, yeah, and it was someone else that my dad was like I really wish we could have seen more of. Uh, I think his uh Tyreek McDole I think was I think was his name.

Sunny:

And I was like we could have stayed there. This is how we found out. I was like we could have stayed there and he's like well, I thought you wanted to go see Dave Holland. I thought you wanted to see Dave Holland, so womp, womp.

Vanessa:

Oh no.

Sunny:

I was upset about it for kind of like a half hour but I was like, ok just let it go, yeah. So just like I can't believe I misread that, you know,

Vanessa:

yeah,

Sunny:

but yeah, I digress.

Vanessa:

So SF Jazz was three days or two days

Sunny:

Three days

Vanessa:

. Oh wow. Yeah, and where was it exactly?

Clark:

SF Jazz Center, which is a block away from Civic Center.

Vanessa:

Okay.

Clark:

And UN Plaza and stuff and then one block over from that they got one of the parking lots and a smaller street.

Sunny:

On the corner of Franklin Street and Oak Street.

Clark:

Franklin and Oak.

Clark:

And they had a tent with a stage there and then, the street was blocked off and the street had three different food trucks every day from off the grid,

Vanessa:

oh, uh-huh.

Clark:

And then they had a different like group of DJs playing in this little beer garden.

Sunny:

So you would be going back and forth from the actual SF Jazz Center to the tent. The SF Jazz Center is like a really prominent jazz venue. It's like one of the only of its kind that's dedicated to jazz.

Clark:

Yep,

Sunny:

it's a special place and Clark and I have been very lucky because my dad became a member of the SF Jazz Center.

Sunny:

I don't know how long ago,

Clark:

a while ago,

Sunny:

a few years ago.

Sunny:

And with the membership you get to buy tickets for the season before everyone else does and you have no fees. So he's just been letting us get the calendar and we circle what we want to see and then he'll get tickets for us and he'll go with us and we've been able to see a lot of great live music.

Clark:

Yeah,

Sunny:

Thanks to that

Clark:

and in the actual building, the sf jazz building, they have a main auditorium, the minor auditorium and then they have a lab. Imagine like a small jazz club style too. So, total, there were three stages.

Clark:

They were having music on

Sunny:

this was the first year of this new format of where you could be at the sf jazz center and at this tent and go back and forth, so they kind of kept mentioning that that, like you know, be patient with us, this is new, but to us it went off without a hitch. It was kind of fun walking past people, as you like, walked across the street, and a lot of those musicians are super tangible. Is that the right word? I don't know, but you would see all the musicians walking around as well.

Clark:

Yeah,

Sunny:

at one point

Vanessa:

Easily accessible.

Sunny:

Accessible.

Sunny:

Thank you, that's a good word,

Clark:

which is cool, because you could see a band that you just saw in the tent and they had a great set. And then they were walking over because they wanted to see whoever was in the minor auditorium at SF Jazz, so you'd be walking next to me. Oh hey, that was an amazing set. It was so great to see you guys perform.

Sunny:

Yeah, you're really good about that. I brought my dad on Sunday because it was Father's Day. He was talking about one of the musicians and he was like that guy just needs to have a little bit more dynamic. He's just balls to the walls right away and the whole time. And then I was like, well, he's coming this way, so you could tell him right now. He was literally like 20 feet in front of us.

Vanessa:

Oh my gosh.

Sunny:

So we just laughed at that. Super funny. I just happened to email the head of press and media for the SF Jazz Center and I told him who Festies are and said we would love to come cover the festival and, with no hesitation, just put us on the guest list. And so we got two GA wristbands, which, those were worth $650, by the way, where's the outrage? That's how much Coachella is

Vanessa:

For one ticket. It was $600?

Sunny:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

Wow.

Sunny:

Yeah, I would say that was. Our only issue with the festival is there was so many tiered pricings for tickets. It was kind of confusing.

Clark:

Yeah, they got to clean that up. I think

Sunny:

yeah they probably will.

Sunny:

So, yeah, we felt very grateful to be able to get in there, but I just wanted to say that first. But yeah, please say how the festival started, because I thought it was a super unique way to start a festival.

Clark:

Yeah, they started the festival by doing a thing in Hayes Valley, which is just a couple blocks down from SF Jazz. There's a little square in Hayes Valley, right in kind of like the center, where there's a Verve, coffee and some other spots. So this was two hours before the official like first band was playing on Friday. They had all stars that had been part of the SF jazz combos and stuff, so professional jazz musicians that had played in various capacities.

Sunny:

Like alumni.

Clark:

Yeah.

Clark:

And they played, and then the students who are part of the jazz program at the SF Jazz School of the Arts. Incredible level of performance and jazz music from these young people. That two hours of jazz music was just happening in Hayes Valley.

Vanessa:

For anyone.

Clark:

For anyone. Yeah, and then how they ended. That is one of the directors. She led the group of alumni and students and the horn players and the and the percussionists did a whole new orleans style, like you know. I imagine, like when the saints go marching in.

Sunny:

Yeah,

Clark:

you know

Sunny:

.

Sunny:

Yeah, it was like a parade

Clark:

and they walked us as a whole group like walked us to the outdoor venue, so I got some really cool videos of that.

Sunny:

Clark was gigging.

Clark:

You know, walking through San Francisco.

Vanessa:

In like a parade.

Clark:

Yeah, yeah.

Clark:

You know of this jazz music. It was awesome.

Sunny:

Put everyone in a really good mood,

Vanessa:

yeah.

Clark:

Yeah,

Vanessa:

so you guys went on Friday, you two.

Sunny:

Yeah, Friday and Saturday.

Vanessa:

And the weather was nice.

Sunny:

Weather was nice.

Clark:

Yeah.

Vanessa:

I remember Sunny sent me a video because I sent you guys when it was just raining at.

Vanessa:

Bonnaroo

Vanessa:

And Sunny. You didn't know what was going to happen, but you sent back a video. You're like that sucks. It's nice and sunny in San Francisco.

Clark:

Yeah, it was so nice.

Sunny:

Oh, that sounds so mean now.

Clark:

The first day was so nice in San Francisco.

Vanessa:

That did not age well,

Sunny:

oof. No,

Vanessa:

that's okay. We have a whole episode on that coming up later, but no, I'm glad you guys got a good sunny clear days in San Francisco. Normally it's so foggy.

Sunny:

Clark, can you list the artists that we saw on Friday?

Clark:

Yeah, yeah yeah, Salami Rose Joe Louise, this experimental trio and we saw Mark Lettieri, who is a local guy. He actually is from Menlo Park, which is where Sunny and I live.

Sunny:

It's where we are right now.

Clark:

And he is also part of Snarky Puppy and Fearless Flyers. Fearless Flyers is connected to Vulfpeck and Snarky Puppy. We've seen at SF Jazz before like a fantastic newer jazz band.

Sunny:

Was he playing with them at that show?

Clark:

yeah

Sunny:

oh, dope okay

Clark:

yeah, he's been like a consistent member of snarky puppy for a long time. And then we saw Kasa Overall, who is a percussionist and singer. And then we saw charles lloyd. He's a legendary tenor sax player. He's like a jazz monk. He's got this spiritual vibe to him.

Sunny:

He didn't say anything.

Clark:

Yeah, he came out. They played for like 15 minutes before he stopped and said anything. Because Brian Wilson, the main songwriter for the Beach Boys, he passed away right before the SF Jazz Festival they referenced. Oh my gosh,

Sunny:

Wouldn't it be nice?

Clark:

No

Vanessa:

Good vibrations?

Clark:

No, no, they're.

Sunny:

Oh, no, I'm sorry.

Clark:

God only knows.

Sunny:

Yeah, God only knows.

Clark:

God only knows. He referenced it in one of the songs they were playing. All of a sudden, you hear him playing.

Clark:

Da, da, da, da, da, da, da da.

Clark:

And the whole end it just Melted over the crowd and everyone really felt it. It almost made me cry how beautiful it was. So, yeah, that's all the stuff we saw On Friday.

Sunny:

Friday was saxophone day.

Sunny:

Lots of players

Clark:

and in our interviews with people.

Sunny:

Yeah, yeah

Clark:

, yeah. Do you want to say that, sunny?

Sunny:

sure, at some of the festivals we've been interviewing people and asking for one word answers and we'll do like a montage video and stitch it together. They're up on our instagram and tiktok at festies podcast if you want to go see them. This time time we decided to ask festival attendees what's your favorite instrument. So yeah, that was a really fun way to spend the festival and get to talk to people.

Clark:

So many people said saxophone, so many people.

Sunny:

Saxophone was the winner.

Clark:

Yeah.

Sunny:

It's also Vanessa's favorite instrument, I think.

Vanessa:

Yeah

Sunny:

yeah, my dad is a jazz musician, so I grew up around jazz. I thought I had a high tolerance. I gotta be honest, though, I just felt kind of defeated after Friday because it was a lot of experimental

Clark:

bebop avant-garde experimental.

Sunny:

Clark and I just kept going like, but they're experimenting

Clark:

well, when we go.

Clark:

Oh man, I don't know if I really liked this part, but they were experimenting.

Clark:

They were trying stuff, you know.

Clark:

The standout for me for Friday was Mark Lettieri, not only because he's connected with these other bands that I personally really like, like Fearless Flyers is with the bass player from Vulfpeck. One of the guitar players Vu lfpeck Cory Wong, is in that too. So we did see Mark Lettieri at Bonnaroo when we went.

Sunny:

There is a whole ecosystem of those musicians,

Clark:

yeah seriously, mark, the music he was playing was probably the least jazzy of Friday. He's a very like prog rock guitar player, also like really jammy and more funk than jazz, I would say. And then the stuff he said in between was hilarious. He finished a song and he's went. Oh yeah, that I wrote for my, for my daughter. She thinks it's too long, but she's eight, what does she know?

Sunny:

clark's all about the banter.

Clark:

I do love banter like that so that was probably the main standout for me on friday

Sunny:

yeah, that was uh something we could cling on to

Clark:

yes for sure,

Sunny:

more structured music um.

Sunny:

the weekend of the sf jazz festival was also the parade for the army and simultaneously the no kings protest. We took bart right into civic center, which that was the heart of the protest, so we were like in it,

Clark:

oh yeah.

Sunny:

We were like, OK, well, we need to stay here and like experience this for a little bit.

Clark:

I think that also gave us energy and momentum going into Saturday.

Sunny:

You know, I didn't think about that, but I think you're right.

Clark:

Yeah, because it was awesome

Sunny:

this is what democracy looks like.

Clark:

Yeah.

Clark:

Whose streets our streets

Clark:

It was like you know,

Vanessa:

Get you pumped.

Clark:

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, we got into UN Plaza. The whole stream of the protest was just endless.

Sunny:

Yeah.

Clark:

Coming to Civic Center.

Sunny:

Yeah, I felt kind of emotional.

Clark:

Yeah,

Sunny:

I was just like, wow, this is what democracy looks like. No, I just um clark's right.

Sunny:

That did give us energy going into saturday

Clark:

it was like a pride thing too, you know. It's like, yeah, this is san francisco, this is

Sunny:

right,

Clark:

we're the bay

Vanessa:

it was a pregame

Clark:

like we

Sunny:

yeah,

Clark:

we stand on this. You know kind of stuff. It felt like it

Sunny:

yeah

Clark:

cool being from here

Sunny:

yeah, that was dope, um, so, yeah.

Sunny:

So then we walked over to sf jazz and we went into the main auditorium and we were seeing a vocalist named Somi and right away I was just like, oh, thank goodness, like music she's like a really soulful singer

Clark:

she was also doing some bits in, uh, an african language.

Clark:

I don't know what african language, but she was singing in that way that had the phonetic and like the clicks in it, which was so cool to hear within music

Vanessa:

yeah

Clark:

because it had this percussive thing, and in between her singing she was like getting down, like on the stage too, which was sick.

Sunny:

So I was just like it's going to be a better day.

Clark:

After Somi we went out to the tent and we saw a trumpet player named Theo Crocker who again is kind of doing a fusion spoken word and playing trumpet. And then we went back in to sf jazz in the lab and we saw the Jahari Stampley family trio I believe is the name so as a piano player, a, I believe, a saxophone player and a drummer, and they were playing just some super high bebop kind of stuff. And then we saw Miss Lisa Fisher and Grand Baton, which was the trio she was playing with.

Sunny:

She's got to be one of the best vocalists in the world, right?

Clark:

Yeah.

Sunny:

Really, you've heard her and just don't know it, but she's sang backup vocals for Sting

Clark:

rolling Stones.

Sunny:

Rolling Stones, luther Vandross. She has done it all, but it's not just her voice, it's her persona. She's so comfortable and at ease and just makes you feel like you're part of it, part of the show.

Sunny:

And she did all covers, so it's all music we knew, so that was the fun part of it too.

Clark:

The band she had with her was was fantastic.

Sunny:

Yeah, she's got to have, top line musicians.

Clark:

Yeah

Sunny:

so again, it was, just like today's, so much better

Clark:

yeah

Vanessa:

yeah,

Vanessa:

was that the last one you saw that day?

Sunny:

No, the big headliner was stanley clarke. Do you know what to say Last name?

Clark:

Stanley Clark and Gonzalo uh Rubalcaba,

Sunny:

Wow,

Clark:

Rubalcaba.

Sunny:

How did you do that? Um, but Stanley Clark is a bass player, so that was fun for uh, for Clark.

Clark:

He's um a like a legendary. I mean again all the

Vanessa:

another legendary bass.

Vanessa:

Player?

Clark:

All the yeah, yeah, yeah, really yeah, dave holland's the white one and stanley clarke's the black one. You know like they're both stand-up bass players. How he plays the bass he kind of like pushed the envelope of how you play it. No one else plays the stand-up bass like that and gonzalo is like a legendary piano player too, so it was like watching two old friends have a really interesting conversation.

Sunny:

When we were doing our interviews, someone decided to say we heard that Herbie Hancock was coming tonight.

Clark:

Oh, yeah.

Sunny:

And Herbie Hancock is like the ultimate, that's like the top of the top.

Vanessa:

Even I know who that is.

Sunny:

Yeah right.

Sunny:

So all day.

Sunny:

We were also telling people Originally I was gonna split off from clark watching stanley clarke and I was gonna go outside to see the soul rebels, but there was a chance that herbie hancock was coming so I stayed there

Vanessa:

oh my gosh,

Sunny:

he never showed which. After talking about it, we were like duh, like why would he be there? You you know. So I'm just so curious, where did those people hear that?

Clark:

They were tripping.

Sunny:

And I believed it up until like the very end of Stanley Clarke's. I was like he could still come out Clark's like no.

Clark:

We're at the encore.

Sunny:

It's not happening.

Vanessa:

We're at the encore.

Clark:

He's not going to come out with Stanley Clarke for the encore.

Vanessa:

For one song,

Clark:

yeah.

Vanessa:

Yeah, yeah, I believed you.

Clark:

It's something I forgot to mention. Inside the, the building too, right outside the auditorium, like in the, the foyer of the theater, they had someone doing a vinyl swap, so people were buying and trading records and stuff and there were a couple of artists and then there was a painter who was painting this piece in one of the corners inside the actual venue. His name is Yasushi Matsui and, like a skyline of san francisco and then a, I'm sure, a famous that I don't know the name of vibraphone or marimba player, almost like it was like he's playing the buildings.

Sunny:

I didn't even catch that.

Clark:

And he was like painting. That.

Sunny:

Definitely what was happening in the picture.

Clark:

They had that and then

Sunny:

makes it even cooler.

Clark:

One of the other corners of the theater they had a turntable set up and they had DJs playing music in between all of the live acts.

Sunny:

Yeah, yeah, thank you for bringing up the artist and the the little market with the record swap. So okay, that's saturday.

Sunny:

Sunday, clark went to stern grove because we won tickets from the lottery for, uh, california honey drops and the dip

Clark:

yeah,

Sunny:

and

Vanessa:

lucky I love the dip

Sunny:

originally I was gonna go with my dad and Clark to that, and then we got these wristbands for the SF jazz and I was like, oh, my dad's definitely gonna want to go to this. Yeah, because Patrice Rushen was headlining Sunday and I've known forever that my dad, both my parents are huge Patrice Rushen fans. So I was like you get to pick. And of course he picked Patrice Rushen.

Sunny:

So I'm just gonna to mention the artists that we saw. We saw Orrin Evans trio. We saw Brandon Woody's Upendo, we saw Tyreek McDole, who that's where we should have stayed instead of going to Dave Holland and Lionel Loueke sorry if I'm saying that wrong and then the big headliner, patrice Russian, who was just so groovy and so just like a breath of fresh air and I kept saying I feel like I clawed my way through the weekend

Vanessa:

to get to this moment

Sunny:

to get to this moment, yeah, and she's so vibrant, um, and I actually knew more songs than I thought I would know and I was like where are all these Patrice Rushen fans coming from?

Sunny:

It felt like there was like a cult following in there. I'm really glad I got to go to that. Of course that she's also a legend in her own right.

Vanessa:

Did your dad love

Vanessa:

it? Was he smiling the whole time.

Sunny:

Yeah, yeah.

Sunny:

Her playing, though, is miraculous, like her piano.

Vanessa:

What does she play?

Sunny:

And she shreds, yeah, she shreds. So it was really fun just to see you know. Female pride

Vanessa:

so clark.

Vanessa:

You were at stern grove

Clark:

yeah, yeah

Vanessa:

you both got tickets to that and I still have not been able to win one freaking lottery for that. I didn't get those tickets and I didn't get the Chromeo tickets,

Sunny:

oh no.

Vanessa:

So I don't like this lottery.

Clark:

Well, don't worry, I have Chromeo tickets for you.

Vanessa:

Oh thanks,

Clark:

we can't go so.

Clark:

I got four tickets.

Vanessa:

Perfect.

Clark:

Yeah, I mean, you know from our experiences last year going to Stern Grove. At the venue, not too much was different. Where I sat, though, was on the little side grove that has a screen and the one of the speaker towers goes towards you, where you can't see the stage but the screen. Plenty to see, and then you can. It's really easy, as you know. You just walk through the path over to the other side and you get a great view of the stage and the sound was incredible.

Clark:

I didn't have to wait in line super intensely to like run down like how it normally happens.

Vanessa:

I was gonna ask how long? How early did you get there?

Clark:

I got there at like 1, 30

Vanessa:

oh

Clark:

and I just walked into the grove and you know there's a lot of families and stuff and I just put down a couple blankets and then our, our, friend,

Sunny:

who did you go with?

Clark:

our friend Cameron, our friend.

Clark:

Cameron Festy Cameron, who has been on the podcast, him and his girlfriend Gaby came and joined me for a Father's Day hangout. The dip were incredible.

Vanessa:

They're so good.

Clark:

I didn't know they were from Seattle. They said that and I was like, oh, that's awesome. Love the Pacific Northwest vibe

Sunny:

Representation.

Clark:

I did, yeah, I did not know that I was like man. This lead singer is really handsome.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I did not picture them looking like that. I thought, the same thing when we saw them at Bonnaroo. I was like oh, this is not how I picture them. They're hot.

Clark:

I was like. I was like this man's very attractive.

Clark:

And then he sings like that and you're like, okay, stop.

Vanessa:

Yeah,

Clark:

he was also an incredible guitar player. He's he was doing all the guitar work and it was great. The horns, they were just fantastic. And then the California Honey Drops always are incredible. Oakland band been doing it for almost 20 years. Uh, we saw them at new year's around the corner from our place. Incredible lead singer, incredible band always dope.

Sunny:

You can trust that they're gonna put on a good show

Clark:

yeah, oh.

Clark:

And the mc. He was like oh yeah, so cal, you know the california hundred drops return to stern grove 10 years ago. They opened for the doobie brothers here and where. Where have they been? Finally they're back here at stern grove to headline our opening weekend

Vanessa:

amazing.

Sunny:

It gives me chills

Clark:

it was so cool.

Clark:

I was like man. I wish I'd been there for that, yeah california honey drops. Opening for doobie brothers.

Clark:

That's sick it's so tight.

Vanessa:

Did they do the ringing of the bell?

Clark:

Yes, yes the um.

Clark:

The person who rang it was the newest member of the board that puts together the stern grove festival.

Vanessa:

Cool.

Sunny:

The board of directors

Clark:

yes, the newest member,

Sunny:

that's fun

Clark:

and one of the people that's part of the.

Clark:

he's the fourth generation of the family that oversees Stern Grove, like the place. Wow, he's the fourth generation person of it. I can't remember their last name, but that was really cool.

Sunny:

Grove?

Clark:

no no,

Vanessa:

Stern?

Clark:

But yeah, it was incredible. I think we should look into what it's like getting a ticket if you don't win the do the lottery, you don't win it and going to pick it up at the box offices. They're talking about that because I'm interested to see what that system's like

Sunny:

yeah, yeah, we should check it.

Sunny:

We were at a sf jazz, clark went to Stern Grove, vanessa was at Bonnaroo. Our next episode is going to be about Bonnaroo, yeah.

Vanessa:

You'll get a whole episode on that. There's a lot that happened or didn't happen.

Sunny:

So we get a text from Vanessa while we're at the sf jazz center that Bonnaroo is canceled. And I thought she was joking because it got canceled for us one year when we had already flown out to bonnaroo. So I thought she was joking. But uh no, she was not joking. I just kept saying every half hour I was just like, oh, that's so sad. I felt like I was grieving for you guys, but at one point I was like I bet you they're not as sad as I am. For some reason they're probably like let's get over this and have a good time, no matter what we're doing.

Vanessa:

We really weren't, but we'll talk about that next time.

Sunny:

It was a little teaser.

Vanessa:

Do you have a festival corner?

Sunny:

I do have a festival corner.

Sunny:

Let's get to it.

Vanessa:

Sunny's Festival Corner.

Sunny:

August 1st to the 3rd we have hinterland music festival

Vanessa:

hinterland

Sunny:

, which is in

Vanessa:

saint charles

Vanessa:

iowa,

Sunny:

iowa. Yes, damn it. Do you want to read it?

Vanessa:

it. That's where.

Vanessa:

That's where ed lived when I met him,

Sunny:

oh okay,

Vanessa:

in saint charles

Sunny:

it is a camping festival and they have a lot of activities for kids. Kids 10 and under are free with a ticketed adult. They also have silent disco and yoga. As well as the music. The headliners are Tyler the Creator, Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey these are like big-ass names. Other artists are Willow Avalon and Glass Beams.

Sunny:

August 8th and 9th we have Neon Nights Country Music Festival. It's at Clay's Resort Jellystone Park in North Lawrence, ohio. It is a camping festival, but the tickets also include access to the Clay's Resort Jellystone Park Swimming Lake, which is just a big, huge lake with lots of water activities and swimming.

Clark:

Cool.

Sunny:

Headliners are Foreigner and Brooks and Dunn

Vanessa:

oh.

Sunny:

Other artists are tracy lawrence and sarah evans

Vanessa:

oh, sarah evans.

Sunny:

Saturday, august 16th, we have rhyme fest. It's at the torch in downtown los angeles at the coliseum. It's a one-day hip-hop festival in the heart of downtown los angeles and it's more than just a music festival. It's a movement rooted in the spirit of true hip-hop. It brings together legendary artists, rising talent and fans who live and breathe the culture. Headliners are Xzibit, dialed Peoples and DJ Quik. Other artists are J-Worthy and Of Mexican Descent. That's it,

Vanessa:

Okay, Festies.

Vanessa:

Make sure you follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Festies Podcast. You can also follow us on YouTube and leave us a rating and review. Wherever you listen to us and we'll talk to you all next time.