Doheny Days Music Festival

Summer is about musical festivals and there are plenty of those in Southern California, from the big $350 per ticket 4 day festival of Coachella to the free 1 day festival of Make Music Pasadena, music lovers are sure to be pleased.  On Saturday, September 8th, we found ourselves in Dana Point, CA (the southern part of Orange County) to volunteer at Doheny Days Music Festival, organized by Omega Events.  This is actually a two day festival with a different line up on both days, but we only had the opportunity to attend the Saturday event. To sign up as volunteers for the event, there was a $15 charge which gets donated to a charity so even though it wasn't a free event for us, it was still worth the fee since we knew the money was going to a good cause.

The crowd on day 1 of Dohney Days Music Festival
(Photo by Gurl in LA)

The day started pretty early for us since we had to park at the volunteer lot, at Dana Hills High School, where they had a couple of coaches shuttling people to and from the event itself at Doheny Beach.  Even though we were suppose to check in at 11AM, the head of volunteer didn't seem too organized as  the line of volunteers was long and we didn't get assigned to our stations until almost an hour late.  We were, however, lucky enough to get assigned at one of the beer pouring booths inside the VIP area.  So not only were we servicing those we bought VIP tickets (classier drunks), but we were also within viewing distance from the main stage, where we actually got to watch Jimmy Eat World perform.  

Our VIP wristbands for Day 1 of Doheny Days Music Festival
(Photo by Gurl in LA)

After 4 hours of pouring beer and meeting really nice patrons, a lot of whom were insistent on giving us tips even though we kept refusing, we were able to walk around and enjoy the rest of the festival.  There were two other stages set up for smaller performers, one of which was Santigold.  We were lucky enough to have gotten off our shift just in time to head over to the other stage to watch Santigold perform her awesome set, even though it was very similar to her show at Coachella, it was still a good performance! The main show ended with Jane's Addiction's crazy and wild show at the main stage where many of the 1990's rock and roll lovers were reliving alternative nostalgia.

Jimmy Eat World at Doheny Days Music Festival 2012
(Photo by Gurl in LA)

By the end of the evening, having enjoyed some delicious free brew and good music, we were pretty beat and headed home with a memory of an awesome experience.  It was unfortunate we couldn't participate in the 2nd day festivities with The Flaming Lips were headlining the event. Next year, it'll be a two day participation for us for sure.