NAPA, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 25: Norah Jones performs at Oxbow RiverStage on June 25, 2022 in Napa, ... [+]
The beginning of a new year is also the beginning of music festival season with the first lineups of 2024 being rolled out. Napa Valley favorite BottleRock is setting an insane bar for 2024 with headliners Pearl Jam, Stevie Nicks and Ed Sheeran leading a stacked lineup that features must-see acts from the top line of the poster all the way through the last line.
While this year’s lineup leans, as BottleRock CEO Dave Graham tells me, “Indie rock,” there is an incredible mix of old and new. Among the many must-see acts on the bill with Nicks, Pearl Jam and Sheeran are Mana, Kali Uchis, Queens of The Stone Age, St. Vincent, T-Pain, Nelly, Megan Thee Stallion, Dominic Fike, The Kid LAROI, Stephen Marley, The Beaches, My Morning Jacket, Cannons, Pete Yorn, Say She She, Stephen Sanchez, Bebe Rexha, Cold War Kids, Chevy Metal, Chris Shiflett, Grace McKagan and many more.
Obviously, every one of the three headliners brings a tremendous amount to the stage. But, as always, one of the most exciting parts of any festival is the mix of discovery and, in this instance, rediscovery that will come from such a superb lineup.
Upon initial look here are the top five non-headliner acts that you simply cannot miss.
Norah Jones – For many who have not seen her in some time, Jones remains a true musician’s musician, a consummate pro that brings humor and incredible musicality to anything she does.
Miike Snow – Remember them? Well if you don’t, at one point Miike Snow was one of the hottest acts in alternative for their smart production and savvy songs. Seeing them back on stage will be a joy.
Tower of Power – The iconic Bay Area funk and R&B band brings a party to everything they do and BottleRock 2024 will be no different.
Grace Bowers – The 17-year-old guitar slinger from Nashville, endorsed by Gibson as one of the next generation of guitar heroes, is on fire these days. Now a national audience will get to see why.
Sage Bava – A former FORBES artist to watch, the prodigious Bava, who plays guitar and piano and writes and produces her music, makes her U.S. festival debut at BottleRock. Her vibrant, soulful and conscious blend of jazz, soul and rock is made to be experienced live and we have no doubt the gifted and charming Bava will be one of the breakout stars of BottleRock 2024.
I spoke with Graham about this year’s lineup and much more.
Steve Baltin: As usual, the lineup is a very eclectic mix.
Dave Graham: Yeah, for sure. It is definitely our biggest lineup on many different levels. And we're excited about it.
Baltin: It feels a little younger than typical years for BottleRock.
Graham: Yep, good observation. I think it's our youngest lineup ever. It still has that BottleRock artistic quality in that it speaks to a multi-generational customer base. So, it is cool enough for the cool kids and approachable enough for someone my age or older.
Baltin: I love Miike Snow being on there. There's a few that really stand out to me. I love Norah Jones. It's funny how T-Pain is going through a bit of a resurgence as well. It's so all over the place.
Graham: Yeah, for sure. To be able to have the reigning queen of rock and roll, which is Stevie Nicks, on a lineup with Ed Sheeran, is for us, massive on a variety of levels. Ed was, as of 2022, the most followed artist on Spotify, and won a ton of Grammys, I think four. Then, as you know, probably in our conversations, we've been working on having Pearl Jam on our lineup since we got involved with BottleRock, and it's finally happening. So we're super excited to have Pearl Jam in the lineup. It's just an incredible show.
Baltin: Talk about the overall vibe of this year’s bill.
Graham: We really leaned into not only rock, but indie rock. It's Cold War Kids and Jessie Murph and Stephen Sanchez and Cannons. Stephen Sanchez, by the way, is one of my favorites. And then you go into BoyWithUke and The Beaches, and you go into Holly Humberstone and Jack Kays and Royel Otis and Colony House and The Moss, and Mama and Windser. It's super heavy on the indie rock side, ALEXSUCKS, Grace Bowers. There are two bands that I would say people should check out. You should check out if you don't know them, Monsieur Perine and Stephen Sanchez.
Baltin: Do you see people who come back year after year or is it more something now where new 30 somethings come in?
Graham: It's a bit of both. Our customer retention lifetime value is super high. And we can speak to that by both quantitative and qualitative data. As you know, every level of VIP, every suite and thousands of GA tickets are sold before the lineup is even dropped. And this year, there won't be a single VIP level ticket or suite available for purchase at the on sale. And those are all repeat customers. And then the challenge is, you need to continue to add new customers, introduce people to BottleRock for the first time. A lot of those customers we believe are aging out of Coachella. But they still love live music and live entertainment. So they're able to continue to listen to their favorite artists that maybe they listened to when they were 18 and now they're 25 and they can come see them at BottleRock. Our customer range can be anywhere from 18 to 55 with long tails on both sides that are younger than 18 and older than 55. The average demo is really in that 30 to 35-year-old range, so we aim to continue to meet that customer need. And we think we've done that with this lineup.
Baltin: You have Grace McKagan and Grace Bowers and Sage Bava and younger artists, and then T-Pain and Nelly who are more nostalgic. It’s very much that mix of old and new.
Graham: You kind of nailed it. There are so many artists in this lineup, so you have to really go beyond just the top two lines and really dig into the rest of the lineup. And of course, as you know we have to distribute the crowd at BottleRock to make sure that everyone is comfortable, that no one feels overcrowded. And so, when you have massive bands from the '90s playing against massive bands from 2020 so to speak, it's a perfect kind of mix of something for everyone. And it's conducive to the crowd not feeling too crowded.
Baltin: Are there one or two artists that you think will be the breakout artist in terms of crowd?
Graham: Well, Kali Uchis is dropping a new [album] from what we hear. And as big as she is right now my guess is that that album is going to be awesome. And you could see a massive crowd for her. And we've had Megan Thee Stallion at BottleRock before and you couldn't see the end of the crowd. We think the crowd's going to be evenly distributed based on the counter programming we've put in place.
Baltin: I haven't seen Norah do many festivals either. Is that a big thing for you to have artists that aren’t going to do many other festivals?
Graham: I think Norah is a quintessential BottleRock artist. To think about her playing BottleRock in the afternoon on a nice spring/summer day, that's the Napa Valley, right? That's BottleRock.
Baltin: What do you hope people take from this lineup?
Graham: What I would say is that when you look at the 2024 lineups that are out there, we are definitely going to be unique from the top line down. I think this is the deepest lineup that we've ever had. It's the biggest lineup we've ever had. And I think it definitely puts the rock in BottleRock and leans heavily into both the indie rock and rock category. Though we still have some pop and hip hop and some eclectic cool stuff that you can't find in a lot of different places. Your customer base has to continue to grow and you have to be awesome enough to maintain all of your customers that you've had in the past but cool enough to be able to attract new customers every year. We think we've done that with this lineup.
