Sonoma Harvest Music Fest draws sold-out crowd to Glen Ellen

For the first time since 2019, music fans gathered Saturday at the B.R. Cohn Winery near Glen Ellen for the first of two days at the Sonoma Harvest Music Festival, enjoying sunshine and a daylong roster of live bands.

The festival, presented by the producers of the BottleRock festival in Napa, sold out its 3,000 tickets for each day, said producing partner Jason Scoggins.

The festival drew music lovers from far beyond the borders of Sonoma County. Kenton and Lula Guilbert came from Denver.

“Our two favorite bands, MAGIC GIANT and The Wrecks, are playing this weekend, so we figured that was sign we should come here,” said Kenton, 51.

“It’s a perfect day for it,” Lula, 48, added, enjoying the bright sunshine and mid-80s temperatures.

The lineup Saturday also included headliner Gary Clark Jr., as well as Thievery Corporation, Anderson East and Lily Meola.

Singer-songwriter Meola, known for her performance on “America’s Got Talent” last year, opened the show with an appropriately mellow mood

“I can’t believe how beautiful it is here,” she said to the audience seated on the sloping grassy hillside facing the stage. She started with a song titled “Sunshine,” backed by her band. She followed that with Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” the winner of Meola’s informal fan poll.

“I did an Instagram poll and asked people what cover song they wanted us to play,” she said with a laugh. “This song was by far the most requested, so we learned the first verse and we’re working on the second verse.

Los Angeles alt-rock band MAGIC GIANT came up next and soon had the growing crowd pressed against the stage, with festivalgoers swaying to the music, waving their arms and singing along.

Lauran Aceuedo, 39, of Moraga, came to the festival for the first time to see Thievery Corporation and Gary Clark Jr.

“He has a little bit of a Jimi Hendrix sound,” she said of Clark. “He’s a great guitarist.”

By midafternoon, Nashville singer Anderson East created a soulful mood, backed by horns and belting out a bluesy sound.

The festival continues Sunday with headliner Portugal. The Man, preceded by Phantogram, lovelytheband, The Wrecks and Yoke Lore. For more information, visit sonomaharvestmusicfestival.com. K.Flay dropped off the roster due an illness, festival organizers said.

Beyond the music, Scoggins said he was proud of the festival’s food and drink offerings.

“We’ve got a hell of a chicken sandwich,” he said. “It’s called Cluck-U. It blew everybody away last time.”

Other vendors include The Farmer’s Wife in Sebastopol and Mariapilar Ice Creamery of Petaluma.

“This is not your basic carnival food,” he added. “We’ve got 10 wine brands at the main tasting room” on the winery grounds.

The inaugural Sonoma Harvest Music Festival in 2018 drew 6,000 fans in two days, prompting an expansion to two weekends in 2019 that featured Ben Harper and Death Cab for Cutie.

The event was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to coronavirus pandemic concerns. This weekend’s event is the third festival in the series.

The venue has a rich history of hosting music events. The winery was founded in 1984 by Bruce Cohn, longtime manager of the Doobie Brothers band.

Cohn launched his classic rock festival there in 1987, drawing as many as 6,000 people over two days annually for 28 years. Santa Rosa-based Vintage Wine Estates bought the winery in 2015.

Kevin Curry, 62, of Santa Cruz, remembers the Cohn years, when he saw many of his favorite acts at the winery, including Sammy Hagar and the Doobie Brothers.

“I came up this time to hear some music and see some bands I’ve never seen live, like Anderson East,” Curry said.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.