As San Diego's biggest music festivals look toward downtown, the Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival tests the waters with this weekend's inaugural event.
From Friday, Nov. 22, to Sunday, Nov. 24, the Tony Hawk, Trevor Hoffman and Rob Machado championed festival is taking off at 3:15 p.m. on Friday at Seaport Village and Embarcadero North, with the other venues opening at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday doors swing wide open at 11:30 a.m. for Seaport Village and Embarcadero North and 15 minutes later for the other venues.
As NBC7 reported last week, parking will be available for Embarcadero North at the Hyatt Hotel and Marriott Marquis. For the Broadway Pier, parking is available at Lane Field North, Lane Field South and Wyndham by the Bay. For the downtown area, there's Columbia Street Garage parking, and parking passes are available on Wonderfront's website.
If you want to go green and save green, don't forget about train and trolley options! For the train, get off at the Santa Fe Train Depot, and for the trolley, take the Green Line to Santa Fe Depot, Seaport Village or Gaslamp Quarter; the Blue Line to America Plaza Station; or the Orange Line to Courthouse Station. To make things easy, Wonderfront is offering a shuttle service at Broadway Port Pier, the Headquarters at Seaport and behind the San Diego Convention Center.
But enough logistics, who should you see once you get there? On Friday, we recommend starting off with legendary New Orleans-based Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the Belly Up and Casbah Stage at Broadway Pier from 4-5:30 p.m., moving over to the C3bank Stage at Embarcadero North for New York City post-punks Parquet Courts from 5:45-6:45 p.m., then taking a little break for dinner before catching Portland rapper Amine on the KUSI Stage from 7:50-8:45 p.m. and the one and only R&B heartbreaker Miguel from 8:45-10 p.m. on the Stella Artois Stage at Seaport Village.
On Saturday and Sunday, you have your work cut out for you, but here are our quick picks: the Mattson 2, Jhay Cortez, the Vandals, Nicky Jam, Thievery Corporation, Vince Staples, Bob Moses, Flatbush Zombies, MGMT and Migos on Saturday, and Japanese Breakfast, Manchester Orchestra, X, Tucanes De Tijuana, Tyga and Suicidal Tendencies on Sunday.
If you think you can fit in more than that, then feel free, and we applaud you. Check out when and where everyone is playing here, be safe out there and enjoy!
Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival takes over the San Diego waterfront Friday, Nov. 22, to Sunday, Nov. 24. For tickets and more, click here.
Rutger Ansley Rosenborg is an editor and digital marketer at NBC's SoundDiego. Find out more here.
