The big festival is coming this weekend...the iHeartRadio Music festival in Vegas...but last weekend there was another festival down in Del Mar called Kaboo and was able to attend again.
First the good stuff.... Each year the festival has changed it's configuration of stages to better accommodate the crowds and hopefully to eliminate the "chock points" where people can't get from one area to another with getting stuck in human traffic. This was definitely the best year yet for free flowing access to all areas.
The rest rooms- sounds strange to have this as something to judge, but after experiencing some awful bathroom situations (the last Woodstock in 1999 being the worst ever for me), I will say that Kaaboo has consistently had the cleanest and nicest port a potties of any festival I have been to.
The "offstage entertainment".. the added entertainment of street performers. This entertainment reminded me of the old Narnia events back in the 90's where there was something to see and watch everywhere you looked. I'm with a couple of those entertainers in the photo. The "roller girls" and they girl sitting on the pool chair bobbing around in the crowd were 2 of my favorites.
Now the "notsogood" stuff... Over $10 for a can of beer $14 for 6 hot wings are just 2 examples of ridiculous pricing that takes advantage of concert goers who plan to spend the entire time onsite. To their credit though, the organizers did have "free water" stations to at least address the need for H2O.
Parking..hard to solve this problem..but they could lower the price a little...the Uber Lot was good for the end of the day...but not so much when you arrived...and forcing Uber riders to walk from the Solana Gate Lot all the way around the track to get in was a bit too much.
Finally, would I recommend going to Kaaboo 2018? I would still say yes....it's a much shorter drive than going all the way to Coachella and being able to go home each day from a festival instead of camping or staying in WAY overpriced hotels is a HUGE advantage. My one suggestion for future lineups... add some acts that younger people want to see... Tom Petty and Red Hot Chili Peppers don't excite the under 25 crowd much... perhaps 21 Pilots next year?