Napa neighbors reflect on BottleRock experience as La Onda approaches (2024)

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Donovan Growney
May 31, 2024
May 31, 2024 Updated Jun 1, 2024

BottleRock boasts great food, wine and a star-studded music lineup which draws people back to the event every year. Andrea Nakano reports. (5-24-24)

BottleRock may be over, but the stages are not going anywhere. Festival La Onda is set to take over Saturday and Sunday at the Napa Valley Expo, bringing the same party atmosphere— and traffic and people and noise — as the weekend prior.

Napa neighbors reflect on BottleRock experience as La Onda approaches (1)

And for the most part, those living nearest to the amplifiers, vendors, and hordes of fans are just fine with that.

L.K. Sleat, who lives near Taylor and Third streets, lives so close by to the stages that she said it was like she was experiencing the concert from her living room.

“For me it was like three free concerts: Stevie Nicks, Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran. It was literally like I was sitting there,” she said of BottleRock's three main-stage, prime-time stars. “It was awesome. I’m sure a lot of people don’t feel the same way, but I liked the music.”

While Sleat will be out of town for La Onda, she said she has no problem with two straight weekends of music.

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Other Napans, like East Avenue resident Ashley Leal, also enjoyed being close to the action.

“It was a loud weekend, but it was fun," she said. "I loved hearing the music from my house. I didn’t get to go every day, so it was fun to hear the bands.”

And a few said the festival brought some unexpected benefits. Tom Wheelan, another East Avenue resident, said with non-attendees seemingly avoiding the city altogether, downtown was easy to get around.

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“Downtown, it seemed like a good Saturday night to get into places you normally can’t get into because a lot of people seem to avoid stuff,” he said. “I came back on both Saturday and Sunday at 5 or 5:30 (p.m.), and I was coming back on Silverado to go to Safeway and it looked like it was closed. There were so few people out.”

But Maureen Healy, who lives on Davis Avenue just off Silverado Trail, said five total days of music over two weekend is just "a lot."

"We actually like some of the music, but the vast majority of it was just screaming, pounding, not fun," she said. "And it kind of puts you on edge.”