West Coast Country Music Festival

It has been a joy to see more country music acts coming back into the SF Bay. I am a country fan and proud of it! However I do enjoy other types of music. Go check out my Alice Now and Zen review. Anyway, back to the West Coast Country Music Festival. Great line up. Any SF resident should know that best way to get to Fort Mason is take the Muni. Good luck in finding parking! Yes, the outdoor restrooms were a bit interesting and weird for the men. The Band Perry is just adorable with the brothers and sister act and I can see them going strong in their careers. Yes, Zac Brown Band is everything I expected from what I saw on TV, but seeing them live just blew me away! Best thing about country music is the friendly people and down to earth everyone is. You don’t get that a lot in other types of music. Funny thing, on the Muni bus heading home, there was this funny drunk guy from the concert who kept saying I see Zac Brown on the bus! LOL Too funny. Some notes: Safeway in the Marina really makes the best sandwiches so far in San Francisco that I have been to. Go Marina district! Yes, there was lots of barbecue tents but I didn’t try any, so I can’t review on that. There were long lines and a place where you can line dance in a barn. It was a neat experience and would love to go the another event if they were to have one. :-) Again great beautiful day with sun.

This was a very chill event. The place was not too crowded and we were able to find parking very close on the street. The weather was a little windy at times, but comfortable. There was a BBQ cookoff and you can get tastings for $ 2. All the BBQ we tasted were just ok… nothing special. I did enjoy seeing all the big grills and smokers! The lines for bathrooms were not bad at all. There is staff at each of the bathroom sections. My husband said the «men’s only» section was basically a troft like thing along the fence… gross!
The music was great! We set up our chairs on the lawn and just hung out all day. Zac Brown Band played a long set. They mixed in a bunch of new songs off their new album. I noticed a good number of kids and dogs at the event. There were a few overly intoxicated individuals but they were few and scattered. Overall, a great event. Can’t wait for next year!

The horrible lines were not what we wanted to see after it took 3 hours to get to the venue…2 hours were spent looking for parking. This event was horribly organized… Hence missing 2 of the main acts, how disappointing!!! ZBB was appreciative of taking our money! TY!
The Security people were rude and quite clueless. Some would let you in and out and some wouldn’t… Found the one that let us out! And had the best $ 1.99 sando from Safeway. Getting food was not easy & it was pricey! I get it, we all need to make some money…
What happened to «Security» where you feel a sense of consistency?
I heard 2 workers say on 2 separate occasions, when do I get paid? Many were just being paid to talk on their mobile phones & sit… We could have gone through the back fence, I watched, no one was looking. I observed one massive Security guy stalk and bully this kid for no reason, Security could barely walk and catch up with him. And when they did, I heard him say, you better watch it…
The lack of respect for the park by littering and trashing by drunks was very sad… ZBB says they stand for «Grassroots» & «Being Free», how disappointing to follow a mantra & watch half of the crowd stomp on your words… It took me a week to write this as I was so bummed I set my expectations so high for an event that was being put together, by what sounded like, «A Family»… We bought tickets when this was announced months ago… Security really set a bad vibe for me… It was nice to see kids playing and rolling down the grassy hills, but I would never take a child to such an intoxicated environment.
I have been going to concerts for 20 years & ZBB are my favourite band right now… This was one of the most unorganized events I have ever been too… I have worked shows like this… I want BGP back!
I miss the Bill Graham days… Note to self: Stay home next time or get really drunk!!!

All-​in-​all, this event met my high expectations. What I typically hate about festivals is that everything is hard. Getting there is hard. Finding your friends is hard. Getting a drink is hard. Getting food is even harder. And going to the bathroom is the hardest. And just when you are kind of tired of it all, getting home is really freakin’ hard.
I had none of those experiences at the West Coast Country Music Festival. It was easy to get a cab to the event. Our other friends were able to either take the bus or walk so none of us had a hard time of it. Since the venue is reasonably sized, I was able to find my friends easily and had enough space to throw down my blanket next to theirs even though we got there so late we missed the first act.
Food and drink were plentiful and reasonably priced. They did the whole «token for a beer» thing which I usually hate. There were enough token selling booths though that it wasn’t too bad. $ ²⁰⁄₃ tokens and each token bought you one cocktail or a large beer. The food lines were longer but they were also having a BBQ cook-​off which meant there were tons of really tasty options.
And most importantly for the ladies… the bathroom lines really weren’t that long. They had the genius foresight to fence in a part of the parking lot and make it the «men only room»… which essentially was a dog-​run style spot for the boys to pee in the bushes. Much appreciated by us lady folk as we would much rather the boys not take our spots in line for the port-​a-​potties.
Ands lastly… the music. The sound could have been a little louder but otherwise we very much enjoyed the acts. The time in between performances was not too long and each performer played for about an hour or so.
I was glad so many people came out to support this event bc I loooove country music. I hope to be Unilocaling about the 2^nd Annual West Coast Country Music Festival next year.