KAABOO Festival 2016

About a year ago I was stalking the Jack Johnson website and learned he had only one tour date in 2016. When I learned he would be at a festival called KAABOO in Del Mar, I originally thought he was playing all 3 nights so I bought VIP tickets for the whole weekend. 2016 was the second year of KAABOO, which takes place at the Del Mar Fairgrounds about 30 minutes north of San Diego. It is a fairly posh community between the small surf villages like Solana Beach, Encinitas, and Cardiff by the Sea, which make up that stretch of coastline.

The fairgrounds are home to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and the facilities are sizable. If the grounds can accommodate over 40,000 racing fans on opening day each year, certainly they are suited for a civilized festival experience – this must have been the mindset of the festival organizers. The size and intimate feeling of the 2015 KAABOO festival earned it the nickname the “anti-festival”. It is also dubbed the “non-festival goer’s festival” due to its city location with no camping, and its attention to high quality food, arts, comedy and other offerings. The KAABOO festival was marketed to an older demographic with the desire for a more exclusive experience and to those with more disposable income given the price points between $279 and $2,599. General Admission or “Hang Loose” passes were sold for $279, VIP or “Hang Five” passes started at $779 and the ultra VIP or “Hang Ten” passes were priced at $2,499. As this is not a camping festival, parking was sold separately for Hang Loose and Hang Five ticketholders, but VIP parking was included with the Hang Ten package. With very few forums to reference regarding the Hang Five vs. Hang Ten experience I opted for the more conservative Hang Five package. This level of ticket provided access to reserved viewing areas at the main stages, advanced comedy reservations, and the VIP pre-party featuring Macy Gray and Chris Isaak. Hang Ten packages offered car service, surf lessons, and hot air balloon rides, along with a few other perks like private wine tastings, but it did not seem like the value in those extra amenities was worth three times the price, so even when the opportunity to upgrade was presented, I declined.

I generally do not care for the festival experience. Having already been to Bonnaroo several times, Electric Forest, All Good, a handful of small festivals at the Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park in North Florida, and even that clown show they called “Woodstock” back in 1994, I have simply had my fill of camping festivals filled with too many muddy people, horrible lines, and driving hassles. I thought KAABOO was the answer to these problems and a great way to see one of my favorite musicians. I was very wrong.

The VIP party on Thursday night was actually fairly well executed. The parking at the fairgrounds was free that night and traffic into and out of the venue was reasonable. The viewing area in front of the stage where Macy Gray and Chris Isaak played was small but appropriate. There was a roped off section for the Hang Ten guests, which was directly in front of the stage, but other than that, I could not see any major difference between the two VIP levels. Something was happening in the main club house and there were special lounges reserved for Mercedes Benz VIPs on the higher levels, but it was hard to tell what exactly was going on and the staff was very uninformed. We saw about half of Macy Gray, and most of the Chris Isaak sets. After paying more than $80 for 4 drinks, we did not bother standing in line for the free food offerings, and left. There were multiple food areas, all provided free of charge, but the lines were quite long and not worth the wait in my opinion. After spending almost $800 per ticket, the idea of standing in line for food seemed a little too much like a Communist Era bread line and did not appeal to us at all. It was certainly foreshadowing for what was to come.

We stayed at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe (IRSF) in the nearby town of Rancho Santa Fe. This resort was only a few miles and a short, but beautiful drive away from Del Mar – just one exit north on I-5. Although choosing to stay here instead of one of the closer hotels like the Hilton in Del Mar, ultimately cost more in car rental, travel between the venue, and daily parking fees it was such a nice respite from the crowds and madness at the festival, and it was well worth it. The IRSF is small and cozy and has excellent service. We rented a Magnolia Cottage, which is in a private area of the grounds with parking directly in front of the cottages. Valet is not required and parking is included in the daily resort fee, which was a nice surprise. The courtyards include a lounge chair for sunbathing, a dining table, and a gas fireplace. They are quiet and full of old world charm. The inn is adjacent to the town square, which has many charming coffee shops and restaurants. They close quite early, as mostly everything does on that part of the coast, so we were not able to take advantage of everything, but we did have a great meal at Ponsaty’s, that was certainly worth the rush to get there.

I do not enjoy all day festivals and decided to wait until evening to go to the venue since parking and transportation were both expensive and we did not want to have to pay for these services twice. Daily parking fees are $35 for regular parking and $65 for valet. For this reason, it DOES make sense to buy a parking pass in advance. This is not because the price is much more affordable, but there is a special entry lane for parking pass holders, which was clearly helpful on Friday night when the 5 pm traffic to get into the venue was an hour long. We chose valet, which, despite the considerable expense, helped get us in and out of the venue more quickly. After parking, there were still long lines to clear security, even for Hang Five pass holders. There was a special line for Hang Ten pass holders, which seemed to move much faster – one more instance of this upgrade being of some value, although still not three times the value as far as I could tell. After clearing the security lines, you had to stand in line AGAIN for ID validation. This had to happen EVERY SINGLE DAY during the festival and was such a mess. There were four ID check kiosks throughout the venue and, after learning there was one in the main Sunset Cliffs stage viewing area, that process became easier, but nevertheless inconvenient. If they can find ways to issue a wristband that is linked to your personal ID, certainly there are ways to not need to verify the drinking age of 40,000 people daily. That’s right 40,000.

In 2015 I have been told the numbers were as low as 15,000, which explains whey there was any repeat business from one year to the next. Tripling the number of patrons was not only greedy, but irresponsible. The main entry and exit points to the stages were on the same route and when shows let out at the same time, the crowds literally came to a standstill. We watched people have panic attacks and vomit on each other when they were stuck in a sea of people with no room to move. It was impossible to tell if anyone was actually in charge of operations and logistics. Certainly no one on the ground team was advised of anything because when we asked any of the personnel working the event about anything, they were of absolutely no help. No one knew anything. I asked someone who was in charge of VIP entry to a certain area of the venue what was happening in that space and he replied that he had no idea, he was just told to stand there.

Once inside the actual stages there were some benefits to the Hang Five ticket. There was a less crowded viewing area, which was very helpful given the attendance, but no special entry or exit, so every patron, regardless of pass type had to endure the clown show that was the cramped and crowded pathway between the stages. The Hang Ten viewing area was a grandstand within the Hang Five area and, although comfortable, covered, and equipped with its own bar, it was actually farther from the stage, so I did not think this was an upgraded viewing area overall. The one benefit was the private bar because lines for the bar even within the Hang Five viewing area were 45 minutes long and they will not make you doubles. The poor old man making drinks, who I can only assume was a volunteer, actually had to use a jigger for each and every $20 drink he poured. It was very slow and poorly executed. The JaM wines lounge was the only place where drinks could be acquired quickly. They even sold bottles you could take with you back to the viewing area. Learning this on Friday helped out tremendously for the madness that would ensue on Saturday.

As numerous Yelp reviews will inform Saturday night’s events were so poorly organized the festival closed with police assaulting patrons with pepper gas and kicking everyone out of the venue. It was a fine mess. The comedy shows were overbooked to the point of being a fire hazard. Although we had reserved seats for Dana Carvey, we chose to skip it after seeing the crowd that had assembled outside the comedy venue. We left early in the Aerosmith set just to avoid the hour long lines to leave the parking lot, but ended up stuck in them after the Jack Johnson show on Sunday night. It took about an hour to get out of the parking lot, which I heard was actually pretty fast considering many shows were scheduled to end at the same time. The possibility of 40,000 people exiting a venue at once should have alarmed someone on the operations team, but it seems to have been overlooked.

Each morning when I woke up, after traveling over 1,000 miles to California specifically to see these shows, I would dread the idea of heading back to the venue and dealing with all the lines and the madness. Each day I had to mentally prepare for the challenges of getting in and out of the space, and the chaos that was inherently part of it all. At the end of the day I was always thankful for the chance to see some of my favorite bands live (Hall and Oates, Lenny Kravitz, Blues Traveler, and of course Jack Johnson), but it was a short lived feeling because crowds and traffic quickly dampened those memories.

The KAABOO site describes the festival as “a completely curated three-day sound voyage that combines rock-n-roll music and taste-making socials into a modern wonderland on the warm shores of the Pacific. Where every detail is crafted for your enjoyment. This is your escape to the perfect weekend.” Aside from the music, which was everything we hoped it would be, this festival falls quite short. This festival was not worth the money, was very poorly planned, and even more poorly executed. It was a huge disappointment on just about every level. I would not buy a ticket to the 2017 festival and I would caution anyone thinking about it to read the Yelp reviews, inquire about the attendance numbers and really think things through. If you do decide do go, here are some details to consider:

1. Leave room in your wristband so you can remove it daily. It gets tighter each time it gets wet and will end up like a tourniquet by day 3.
2. Stay close to the venue. If you can handle the activity outside the venue, book at the Del Mar Hilton on Jimmy Durante Blvd and walk to the festival. This will save you tons of time and money. If you cannot stay close, you should drive. DO NOT depend on public transportation, uber or cabs. The pick up station is a mile from the exit and the lines are insanely long.
3. Sneak in a flask of some kind. It is certainly hard to do because you do go through security daily, but the drink prices are crippling so get resourceful. Maybe pot smokers have the right idea.
4. Arrive an hour before the band you want to see to get through security, get your damn ID checked and get into the stage.
5. If you do buy the drinks, get the wine and save time in line!
6. Buy at least a Hang Five pass if you can possibly afford it, so you actually have a chance of seeing the stage. As far as I can tell the price tag on the Hang Ten is just not worth it unless you will take advantage of the concierge services and additional amenities.