Top 10 California Festivals, 2007

It's summer and that means that festival season is upon us! Hopefully you'll be packing up the car this year and heading out to at least one festival somewhere in California. For the more sedentary types in the Bay Area, see my Top 10 San Francisco Festivals article for the great events in our backyard. For the rest of us, we'll be right there with you, in line at the vending area waiting for my giant egg roll or Java a go-go, partying in the hotels, campsites, and the late-night events. Here is a top 10 list of our favorite California festivals in calendar order starting with the festivals still to come this year.

Reggae on the River/Reggae Rising
Beginning of August (3 days) - Humboldt, CA

California's premier roots and reggae festival with headliners like Ziggy, Damian and Stephen Marley, Fantan Mojah, Collie Buddz and Steel Pulse. The story of Reggae on the River became very interesting this year. After 23 years of holding the annual event at the Dimmick Ranch and French's camp, the founders of the festival mysteriously lost their lease on the venue and subsequently lost the event entirely. People Productions and Dimmick Ranch applied for the lease and were granted permission to throw the event under the new name Reggae Rising. There appears to be some bad blood between the 2 groups, but the festival lives on (kind of) and promises a killer line up this year. If you dig reggae, this is the festival to hit.

Burning Man
Early Sept - Labor Day Week (7 Days) - Black Rock City, NV

Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind. While Burning Man technically takes place in Black Rock City, NV, this is definitely a Californians festival. The event is totally unique in that there is no "planned" or "hired" entertainment, no vending whatsoever and it's located in the absolute middle of no where. Each year, tens of thousands of partiers, performers and artists flock to the desert for a week long "do what you feel" kind of event. Groups of festival veterans create "camps" and each brings it's own unique flavor and artistic slant on what Burning man is to them. The art is out of this world, the music is totally unpredictable and the experience is second to none. This year's theme is Green (of course!).
*Planning ahead is an absolute must since every person is responsible for bringing in their own supplies and surviving on what they have.*

Earthdance
Mid September (4 Days) - Laytonville, CA

Earthdance is a 3 day camp out and celebration for world peace and unity featuring 5 stages of entertainment from jamband to electronica and reggae to folk music. Late night cinemas, speakers forums, global crafts and eco education (what festival is complete without eco education!) and a healing village make this festival very very California. Earthdance is very big on global community and it shows at every corner of the event. This years headliners include Lyrics Born, Medeski Martin and Wood, Ozomatli, Les Nubians, New Monsoon, ALO and many more.

Love Fest
End of September (officially 1 day but parties happen all week long) - San Francisco, CA

Even though we did a piece on San Francisco festivals that talked about Love Fest, it is impossible to write an article about California festivals that does not include Love Fest in it. This is North Americas largest electronica event that attracts close to 100,000 people to the streets of San Francisco for a party that was created in the vision of the Love Parade in Berlin. The party starts with a parade through the streets of SF and ends at Civic Center for a full day of some of the most amazing dj's in the world on the dozens of floats parked around the square. Pre parties and after parties abound and this event ends up being a full week long when all is said and done. Amazing.

Symbiosis
Late September (4 Days) - Northern California (Location TBD)

Symbiosis Gathering is a synaesthesia of art, music, transformational learning, and sustainable living integrated into an unparalleled extravaganza of fun under the Northern California skies. With headliners this year including Hallucinogen, Shpongle, Eat Static and Bassnectar, this is gonna be a party under the stars like no other.

Coachella
End of April (3 days) - Indio, CA

When Coachella started back in 2000, founders Paul Tollett and Rick Van Saten had a vision of creating a festival that drew in massive crowds and showcased the top musical talents in the world. During the first 2 years, the pair lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and Paul nearly lost his house, but somehow the word caught on and the crowds grew. Today Coachella serves as the pinnacle of music festivals perhaps in the entire world. During the 3 days of the festival, 100,000+ music fans head over to the Empire Polo Fields each day in Indio, 20 miles east of Palm Springs in the middle of the desert. Generally considered to be a rock festival, Coachella has an amazingly diverse offering of music including world class DJ's, punk rockers, pop stars, country legends and everything inbetween. Over the course of the 3 days, there are over 120 artists, bands, dj's and comedians scheduled to perform.

Lightning in a Bottle
Mid May (3 days) - Santa Barbara, CA

Lightning in a Bottle is in it's 8th year and is what we would call a "festival with promise." While LIB hasn't yet reached the size of some of the other festivals listed here and the artists that perform are still on the local level, the seeds have been planted and each year the festival grows in popularity. For a glimpse at the Burning Man esque madness, check out the video we shot while at the event in 07. MetroWize presents Lightning in a Bottle

Harmony Festival
beginning of June (3 days) - Santa Rosa, CA

The Harmony Festival brings together eco consciousness, health and healing and music and raps it all up neatly into one of the best California Festivals of the year. Celebrating its 29th year this summer, Harmony festival continues to expand in size and quality. This year it featured 3 stages of music, a full global craft village, 2 exhibition halls for health and wellness, dozens of food and beverage vendors and a handful of powerful political speakers... oh yeah, there were also over 10,000 attendees! Next years event is sure to be even bigger and better so stay tuned.

High Sierra Music Festival
July 4th weekend (4 days) - Quincy CA

An intimate yet first-rate festival nestled in Northern California's majestic mountain range, the High Sierra Music Festival is a unique four-day music and camping festival that features an eclectic and boldly creative span of music from acoustic singer-songwriters and down-home bluegrass to high-energy funk and skillfully improvised jazz, rock and live electronica. Held in Quincy, CA and celebrating its 17th year, High Sierra launched as a roots-oriented festival with 20 artists on one main stage and has since evolved into to a 10,000 person event with more than 75 performers on five day-time stages and in five late-night venues. When it comes to camp out events with lots of great music you have never heard before, there is none finer than this one.

Got an event that we missed? Let us know what you think are the best festivals in California, we'd love to hear what you think.