Festival Review, Photos: BottleRock Napa Valley 2026 Thrills Wine Country with Lorde, Foo Fighters, and Backstreet Boys
BottleRock Napa Valley 2026
Lorde, Foo Fighters, Backstreet Boys, Sombr, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Zedd, LCD Soundsystem
Napa Valley Expo
Napa, CA
May 22-24, 2026
Jimmy Butler singing Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” in an impromptu karaoke session. Three of the five members of the Backstreet Boys spray-painting the hosts of the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage in between cooking demonstrations. A gigantic Patrón tequila installation sits next to a shaded roller rink where Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem shows up to spin records. Gavin Rossdale getting up close and personal with fans during Bush’s set by running through the crowd for an entire song. Dave Grohl showing up during a Chevy Metal set to surprise the audience, giving those who would have otherwise had to wait for hours in the sun on Saturday to see the Foo Fighters frontman look like a dot on the stage an opportunity of a lifetime to be up close. Moments like these make BottleRock Napa Valley perhaps the most unique festival in Northern California, if not North America altogether. It is the one place where you can see music, art, culture, and food combine for a one-of-a-kind experience. The acclaimed festival returned to the Napa Valley Expo for the thirteenth year in a row, boasting a lineup of headliners that included Lorde, Foo Fighters, and Backstreet Boys.
BottleRock’s strength as a festival lies within its eclectic lineup. You could walk around to any of the four stages within the fairgrounds, never hear the same genre twice, and still get a stellar experience. Day 1 brought the likes of powerhouse vocalists Natasha Bedingfield and Jon Bellion, groovy rockabilly from The Chin Chins (joined by none other than Green Day drummer Tre Cool on the kit), and 2000s-esque youth-indulgent pop-punk from The Paradox. The Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan, led the crowd through a barrage of 70s and 80s hits on the main stage, while Papa Roach lit up the T-Mobile Stage with an unweildy amount of pyrotechnics. Teddy Swims, one of the best new emerging artists in modern pop and R&B, brought the house down with a powerful performance that showed why he’s quickly rising to the top. As the sun set, the main stage was stripped down to nothing more than a couple of synthesizers and a towering set of loudspeakers as alt-indie icon Lorde took the stage for an ethereal performance that was as much a piece of visual artistry as it was a concert. On the other side of the grounds, Lil Wayne powered through hit after hit from his expansive song catalog. The crowd went nuts as every song dropped in rapid succession.
With the weather still perfect and nary a cloud in the sky, Day 2 commenced with the alternative rock stylings of Paris Jackson, while comedian Fred Armisen and members of Sleater-Kinney took to the main stage as The Return of Jackie and Judy, an all-Ramones cover band. Wildy energetic performances came throughout the day from rapper Busta Rhymes, indie-pop act AJR, and alternative rock mainstays Bush, who delivered one of the weekend’s most dynamic sets. Elsewhere, LCD Soundsystem brought forth a dance-inducing main stage performance that brought nothing but good vibes, even as the sun was at its highest point in the day. LCD Soundsystem is a fascinating act to watch - I’ve been so used to seeing DJs in rave settings that it was quite an experience to watch a full band create dance tracks from scratch, with full instrumentation and turn a festival crowd into a dance floor. As the sun finally began to set on the second day, an overdriven guitar signified that the Foo Fighters had finally arrived for their headlining performance. It took only three palm-muted notes - the opening of one of the band’s heaviest songs, “All My Life” - for the crowd to go nuts. Anthem after anthem from the rock act’s discography was played, and it brought the house down for the next two hours, all the way until the final notes of “Everlong” rang out through the festival grounds. Elsewhere, Zedd played to a tightly packed crowd, mixing seamlessly through his ouvre of dance floor bangers like “I Want You To Know” and “Stay The Night”.
One of the biggest highlights of BottleRock comes in the form of the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage, which pairs world-class chefs with musicians, athletes, and other celebrities as they do live cooking demonstrations. Foodies got their fix with demonstrations from Emeril and EJ Lagasse, the Voltaggio Brothers, Jose Andres, and Evan Funke. Saturday brought a moment that paired actor John Stamos, Phil Rosenthal, comedian/actor Adam Devine, drummer Tre Cool, and Chefs Morimoto, Philip Tessier, and Eddie Chavez together as they tossed caviar-coated corn dogs into an audience of hungry fans. Two drum sets comprised of makeshift pots and pans adorn either side of the stage, practically begging drummers to take a seat behind the kit and engage in a drum-off (which is precisely what Cool, Stamos, and Dave Grohl did later in the day). Sunday’s biggest demo featured actress Vanessa Hudgens, the Voltaggio Brothers, and several members of the Backstreet Boys, with the silliness of it all proving to be one of the festival highlights. Although nothing really beats Dave Grohl and Jose Andres dancing together after Grohl infused their dish with an ungodly amount of hot peppers.
The energy didn’t let up as the festival headed into Day 3. Kool and the Gang lit up the main stage with a hit-laden act that proved to be one of the grooviest moments of the weekend, while Larkin Poe played an absolutely electrifying set earlier in the day. Alternative and indie rock made its presence with acts like Betty Taylor and Mt. Joy, while rapper BigXThaPlug tore through a powerful hip-hop set with the sun at its highest point. Aside from Backstreet Boys, perhaps the biggest performance of the day came from Sombr, whose crowd was one of the largest the festival had seen all weekend. His performance evoked similar feelings I had during Benson Boone’s set last year - it’s so clear that he is a bona fide superstar, and the road seems to only go up from here on out. If you were in that crowd, you probably witnessed something special.
Thousands upon thousands of millennials descended upon the Prudential Stage at dusk as the Backstreet Boys closed out the weekend with an electrifying performance that only a group with the swagger of a 90s boy band could deliver. The group is still at the top of their game as performers, whether they’re opening with “Larger Than Life” or playing power ballads like “Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely” and “I Want It That Way”. If you ventured further out from the main stage, you would have heard Ludacris delivering a crash course in how to be an exhilarating rap star.
By the time Backstreet Boys finished, my camera’s memory cards were filled, my feet were sore, and I was ready to make my way back to my car to begin the process of culling through everything I had just experienced that weekend. Five minutes later, I made it around the corner. Ludacris was still going, all the way until the 10 PM curfew. Thousands of people were spilling out into the streets of downtown Napa, screaming, “move bitch, get out the way!” I couldn’t help but smile. For the foreseeable future, BottleRock Napa Valley is my Memorial Day weekend destination.
