No Doubt, The Killers to headline Kaaboo

Feb. 23, 2015 7:25 AM PT

No Doubt, The Killers and Zac Brown Band will top the bill for the debut edition of Kaaboo Del Mar, the three-day music, food and drink festival that takes place Sept. 18-20 at the Del Mar Racetrack & Fairgrounds.

All three acts have previously headlined at Chula Vista’s nearly 20,000-capacity Sleep Train Amphitheatre. The Killers and Zac Brown Band have also topped the bill at, respectively, the annual Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals in Indio. The Killers, coincidentally, also headlined the 2007 edition of Street Scene, the now-defunct San Diego music festival the producers of Kaaboo have cited as a partial inspiration.

Other confirmed performers for the all-ages Kaaboo include Snoop Dogg, Foster the People, Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Los Lobos and San Diego’s Slightly Stoopid, which holds the record for the most consecutive headlining performances — 7 — by any act to appear at Sleep Train Amphitheatre. The lineup mixes such veteran acts as Heart, X, Ozomatli and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band with newer performers, such as Delta Rae, blue-eyed soul singer Allen Stone and Americana band Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers.

Performances at Kaaboo will take place on 5 outdoor and 2 indoor stages. The largest, the Sunset Cliffs Stage, will face the ocean and can accommodate between 35,000 and 40,000 attendees. All of the stages are named after well-known California surfing spots, among them Trestles and Zuma.

Three-day passes for Kaaboo go on sale at 10 a.m. today, Monday, Feb. 23, on the festival’s website, kaaboodelmar.com. Mirroring a policy successfully established by Coachella and Stagecoach to ensure maximum attendance, no single-day tickets will be sold. The price for passes is $259 per person for general admission and $699 for a VIP package, which includes a Sept. 17 pre-festival concert by Crow and Ed Kowalcyzk. Ticket prices will increase as the festival weekend draws closer.

The Kaaboo lineup numbers 69 bands and solo artists so far (all of whom are listed at the conclusion of this article). That number includes such comedy stars as Lewis Black, Joel McHale, Tin Meadows and Tig Notaro. More than two-dozen additional music and comedy performers will be announced over the next few months.

“When all is said and done, we’ll have over 100 acts,” said Kaaboo mastermind Bryan E. Gordon. He is the founder and chairman of Denver-based The Madison Companies, LLC, a private investment holding company that — according to its website — owns companies and properties worth over $3 billion.

“We wanted to have a real depth and breadth with the lineup, so that it has broad, multi-generational appeal. We’re targeting a demographic of people in their mid-twenties to their sixties, and we wanted bands that would appeal to those different generations. We were also looking to draw heavily upon a pool of bands from Southern California. It was a heavily curated approach to building the lineup.”

Kaaboo’s main music talent buyer is Roger LeBlanc, who is based in Nashville and used to book for the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano amd the Sunset Strip Music Festival in Hollywood, among others. Adam Spriggs, who is based in Southern California, helped with some of the music booking and is overseeing the comedy lineup.

Kaaboo will have seating options for attendees at all of its stages. It is designed, in Gordon’s words, for music fans who want comfort and amenities at a festival, and don’t want to stand in the sun all day.

“We want to do something as different and distinctive, in our own right, as Coachella,” said Gordon, who regards the number of veteran Coachella acts booked for Kaaboo as an asset.

“Coachella is so big and long-established that there are few bands, big or small, that haven’t played at Coachella. But we certainly were not in any way influenced in our booking by whether or not they did, or did not, play there. Coachella is an amazing event. So, for me, having played at Coachella is nothing but a credit for an artist. That said, the setting in which we’ll be presenting these bands is very different, as is the broader context of Kaaboo.”

The marketing campaign for Kaaboo will be rolled out incrementally in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles. Kaaboo’s main corporate sponsor is Mercedes-Benz USA. Sierra Nevada and Jamieson Ranch Vineyards are the event’s exclusive beer and wine partners. Kaaboo’s media partner is iHeartRadio, which owns and operates 7 San Diego radio stations, including KGB-FM and Star 94.1

“The festival’s culinary attractions will be rolled out over the next 3 to 4 months; that’s our next component,” Gordon said. “We’ll have various places for people to sit and eat. That’s a big part of our approach — you don’t have to plop down in the dirt if you’re tired.”

Kaaboo will also have a charitable arm, dubbed the Kindness program. A dollar from each 3-day festival pass purchased will be divided equally between four local nonprofits: Feeding America San Diego; Surfrider Foundation San Diego; the San Diego Music Foundation; and Operation Amped, which shares the “healing potential of surfing with seriously ill, injured or disabled U.S. military veterans.”

Festival attendees can elect to make an additional donation when they purchase their passes and Kaaboo will match every dollar.

“We’re thinking we can raise about $100,000,” Gordon said.

Kaaboo Del Mar lineup

No Doubt

The Killers

Zac Brown Band

Snoop Dogg

Foster the People

Slightly Stoopid

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

Counting Crows

Young the Giant