BottleRock Napa Valley 2023 Festival Recap

1 Keanu Reeves Reunites With His Band Dogstar For Their First Performance in 20 Years

Reeves certainly made the most of his time at BottleRock. Not only did the actor join celebrity chef Roy Choi at the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage to cook up some delicious kimchi fried rice and Korean barbecue burritos, but he also reunited with his band Dogstar on the Verizon Stage after a two-decade hiatus. The band delivered a nostalgic performance, singing songs from their 1996 album, "Our Little Visionary," and their 2000 album, "Happy Ending," but they also jammed out on tracks from their upcoming third album, including "Glimmer" and "Flowers."

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2 Nile Rodgers & Chic Cover Songs by Beyoncé, Madonna, and Daft Punk

Image Source: Getty / Tim Mosenfelder

Rodgers and Chic had everyone on the fairgrounds on their feet with their soulful performance. In addition to belting out some of their greatest hits, they also covered songs that Rodgers personally had a hand in writing or producing, like Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," Beyoncé's "Cuff It," Madonna's "Material Girl," and Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams's "Get Lucky."

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3 Lizzo Makes History as the First Black Woman Headliner

Image Source: Getty / Steve Jennings

Lizzo made history at the festival as the first Black woman headliner, and she refused to let trolls ruin her moment. During her performance, the 35-year-old singer told the crowd, "I saw signs talking about how they want to cancel people like me. Silence people like me. Choke people like me. And they right across the street." Right before launching into her hit "Special," Lizzo added, "So we're going to sing this one more time so they can hear it, because maybe they haven't heard it in a long time."

While Lizzo didn't reveal what the signs said exactly, she also spoke out for trans rights during her set, telling the audience, "Drag is not a crime" and "Cancel hate, cancel intolerance."

Lizzo then took a break from performing to have a "Bad B*tch Meditation," where she delivered a breathing exercise for fans.

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4 Leon Bridges Has Everyone in Their Feels

Image Source: Getty / Steve Jennings

Bridges truly let his vocals shine at BottleRock, performing a greatest-hits performance, including "Brown Skin Girl," "Texas Sun," and my personal favourite, "River." Despite the packed audience, his performance still managed to feel intimate as he strummed his guitar and couples in the audience swayed along to his songs.

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5 Carly Rae Jepsen Travels Back to 2012 With "Call Me Maybe"

Image Source: Getty / Steve Jennings

I saw Jepsen at San Francisco's Outside Lands festival in 2018, and "Call Me Maybe" still hits the same every single time. I felt like a teenager all over again when she began to sing the hit track — and so did the rest of the crowd. While "Call Me Maybe" was definitely the highlight of her performance, the new songs from her latest album, "The Loneliest Time," were also crowd-pleasers.

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6 The Garcia Twins Go Up Against George and Claire Kittle

Like Reeves, Nikki and Brie Garcia also hit up the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage. Instead of cooking up a dish, though, they played a blindfolded food guessing game against San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle and his wife, Claire Kittle. From the ridiculous goggles they wore to their hilarious guesses, this was a good break in the day from all of the performances. The Kittles ultimately ended up winning, donating their $5,000 earnings to No Kid Hungry. A good time and a good cause — what's not to love?

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7 Red Hot Chili Peppers Bring Down the House

Image Source: Getty / Steve Jennings

I'll admit that I was probably one of the very few attendees who wasn't a diehard Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, but I still thoroughly enjoyed their performance. As they played their hits "Californication," "Under the Bridge," and "Give It Away," I found myself singing along and feeling nostalgic for my teen years. Clearly, others felt the same, as the fairgrounds were the most packed during their performance.

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8 Post Malone Pulls a Fan Up on Stage

Image Source: Getty / Jim Bennett

Post Malone's performance was hands down my favourite of the festival. The 27-year-old rapper performed a bunch of his hits, including "Better Now," "I Fall Apart," "Congratulations," "I Like You," and "Wow" — and he had the moves to match. I was actually surprised by the amount of songs I was familiar with. At one point, he even brought a fan named Luke on stage to perform "Stay," and their performance was so good that I'm still wondering if Luke was a plant.

Post Malone also proved he's a family man with all the special shout-outs he gave his daughter, who celebrated her first birthday on Friday. The rapper told the crowd he couldn't wait to get home to his daughter to tell her how much he loves her.

It's safe to say Post Malone turned me into a fan with his BottleRock performance, and I'll be snagging tickets to his "If Y'all Weren't Here, I'd Be Crying" tour.

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