By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
The last Saturday of May was overcast, not exactly the type of day that makes you jump out of bed and say, “hey, I’ve got to get out in this beautiful weather!”
Still, looking for something to do, I headed to San Diego’s North County to check out Fiesta del Sol, a free art and music festival in Solana Beach. I figured if nothing else, I would listen to some decent local bands and have a couple beers. Plus, the Pine Mountain Logs were playing. That’s a band I know from the big-time party days up the coast in Manhattan Beach, and I wanted to rekindle a few lost memories from the good ‘ol days at Harry O’s.
I have the San Diego transit monthy Pronto card so I get to ride the Coaster and Amtrak from downtown to Oceanside for no charge and I boarded the former at Sante Fe Depot and it took me to practically to the entrance of the event. All I had to do was walk across the street. Ahh, life in San Diego can be such a breeze.
Now I was expecting some small local festival like Fiesta Hermosa up in L.A.’s Hermosa Beach, with a few good local musicians, some the-more-you-drink-the-better-they-sound cover bands and a small beer garden surrounded by a bunch of pop-up tents selling things I don”t need or want and the familiar food booths. I also figured the strollers would far outnumber the single people.
In other words, my expectations were low.
But boy, was I wrong! As it turns out, Fiesta del Sol is an awesome, big-time event. My first realization of this came when I saw the size of the stage in the beer garden. It’s no small thing like at Fiesta Hermosa in which you can walk right up to and practically shake the hands of the band members, but an elevated almost concert-sized stage. The beer garden, instead of having maybe 100 or so people in it, had a couple thousand. I was blown away.
Plus, the band on stage was flat out rocking as if it was the last band at night. Usually afternoon bands at these street fairs are pretty mellow. Yet the crowd was singing and dancing to the music. And how could they not? This was at about 2 in the afternoon yet the place had the energy of it being 10 p.m. The group was Atomic Groove and it had full-on band on stage: about dozen people including some professionally choreographed – and quite attractive – dancers.
My friend Connie, whom I know from Hermosa Beach and lives here now, was there to also see the Pine Mountain Logs. When I mentioned how much I was enjoying Atomic Groove she said that they play every other Friday for Happy Hour at the Belly Up (which helps put on the festival and is largely responsible for booking the bands) a couple blocks away and that it’s a heck of a lot of fun. Connie, it must be stated, likes to have a good time and knows where to find it. I’ll do a writeup on that experience after I experienced it but for now it’s back to Fiesta del Sol.
After Atmoic Groove, Connie and I refueled at a beer station and squirmed our way through the crowd to get reasonably close to the stage for the Pine Mountian Logs. That’s a cover band that does everything from the Commodores’ “Brick House” to the Cars to disco. And pretty much everything in between.
Once all our cheering and yelling for the Pine Mountai Logs was done, Connie went to join some boring friends – “they don’t like crowds,” she said – which left me to explore the rest of the festival on my own.
I walked around a bit but decided to see if I could get a cheaper beer than what was offered in the beer garden – $15 with tip for a 16-ounce draft but hey the event is free, after all – so I headed to the two bars that are part of the festival’s footprint. I wasn’t the only one with that idea, for there was a line of about a dozen people at Saddle Bar, so I went next door to Pillbox Tavern. The small bar area was swarmed with thirsty customers and one lone bartender was doing his damndest to get to everyone. He did, but it took 15 or so minutes to secure a draft of a San Diego craft beer.
I can’t tell you how much it cost because the bartender must have appreciated my patience and the fact that I didn’t yell at him to get his attention. He waved me off when I held out a Hamilton to pay him. I’ve have bartender friends tell me the one way not to get served in a crowd is to yell “hey bartender” or something else at them. As long as they acknowledge me – and this bartender did – then I know my patience will be rewarded with a drink. I left the bill on the bar for him, by the way.
It was tempting to stay there because a band in that parking lot stuck up some Van Halen, but I went back to the beer garden to hear Hot Lava, a B52s cover band. I got all Rock Lobstered there and took an evening Amtrak train back to downtown. I had planned to return on Sunday – ZB Savoy, which apparently coveres a lot of Willie Nelson songs – played at 1:30, but I was summoned to do a non-PubClub.com work project in the late morning/early afternoon and I didn’t make it back to Fiesta del Sol.
But I can tell you one thing: next year I’m going all out for it.
Kevin Wilkerson is an AP award-winning journalist. AI or Chat-GTP was not used to write this article. PubClub.com is one of the original websites on the Internet.
Leave a Reply