Top San Francisco Bay Area Music Festivals For 2022

The Dry Diggings Festival presents four days of reggae and roots rock at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. The Labor Day Weekend event will host performances by Iration, Damien “Jr. Gong” Marley, Rebelution, Fortunate Youth, Matisyahu and J Boog, plus several others.

June Lake Jam Fest 7 returns to the picturesque settings of Gull Lake Park. The lakefront boutique music festival’s lineup features Cubensis, Moonalice, Dead Winter Carpenters, Achilles Wheel, GrooveSession, Jelly Bread, and more.

Host bands Lebo & Friends/ALO and Hot Buttered Rum are back for Camp Deep End 6. Joining them on the boutique three-day event’s lineup are Eric Krasno & The Assembly, Neighbor, Everyone Orchestra, Fog City Holdouts, Girl Thursday, Reed Mathis, Will Evans, Hattie & The Moon Howlers, JenErik and Broken Compass Bluegrass.

Whale Rock Music and Arts Festival returns to Castoro Cellars winery. The two-day outdoor event (formerly called Beaverstock) will present performances by Grace Potter, Allen Stone, Circles Around the Sun, The Devil Makes Three, Cory Wong, Diggin’ Dirt, Lindsay Lou, and others.

Santa Cruz Mountain Sol Festival returns to Roaring Camp Meadows with headliners The String Cheese Incident. Other acts appearing at the two-day fest include The Devil Makes Three, Jackie Greene, Circles Around the Sun, Katchafire, Matt Hartle & Friends and Object Heavy.

The longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world, the Monterey Jazz Festival returns to the spacious Monterey County Fairgrounds for four days featuring renowned jazz musicians, composers, and up-and-coming artists. This year’s lineup includes Charlie Hunter, The Bad Plus, Nicholas Payton, Julian Lage, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Keyon Harrold, Nate Smith + Kinfolk, Ravi Coltrane, Melody Gardot, and more.

The inaugural Portola music festival makes its debut over two days at Pier 80. The first-time fest’s lineup boats the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Flume, James Blake, M.I.A., Kaytranada, Jamie xx, Jungle, Charli XCX, Gorgon City, Fatboy Slim, Caroline Polachek, Toro y Moi, Four Tet, Floating Points and a bunch of others.

Stay tuned to see who will perform when the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival makes its return to Golden Gate Park. The long-running, three-day, free event went virtual for the past two years but returns in person this year.

California’s biggest rock festival Aftershock celebrates its 10th anniversary over four days at Discovery Park. The lineup features over 90 bands who will perform across four stages, including My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, KISS, Muse, Rob Zombie, Evanescence, Stone Temple Pilots, Lamb of God, Chevelle, Papa Roach, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, Shinedown and Architects.

Dirtybird DJ’s are camp counselors at Dirtybird Campout West. Part music festival, part adult outdoors camp, among the artists performing at Modesto Reservoir Campgrounds will be Claude VonStroke, Get Real, Yheti, Mark Farina, Eprom, Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak and Roni Size.

BottleRock presents the Sonoma Harvest Music Festival, which takes place over two days at B.R. Cohn Winery. Gary Clark Jr. and Portugal. The Man top the lineup that also features Thievery Corporation, Anderson East, Phantogram, K.Flay, and others.

Host band Railroad Earth brings their annual Hangtown Music Festival to its new home at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. The four-day event’s lineup includes RRE joined by Yonder Mountain String Band, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, The Mother Hips, The Brothers Comatose, Polyrhythmics and Ryan Montbleau Band, alongside several others.

High Sierra Music Festival returns to Plumas County Fairgrounds in celebration of the event’s 30th anniversary. HSMF 2022 headliners include Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Greensky Bluegrass and the Disco Biscuits who are joined on the lineup by Goose, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Railroad Earth, Lettuce, Twiddle, Spafford, Boombox, The War & The Treaty, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Andy Frasco & The U.N., and dozens of other acts.

Tahoe Live makes its debut over Independence Day Weekend at Boreal / Woodward. Take in two days of the hottest acts in electronic music with sets by Steve Aoki, Louis The Child, Ship Wrek, Whethan, Gattuso and Surf Mesa.

The Center For The Arts presents the California WorldFest in the heart of the Sierra Nevada at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. The family-friendly, four-day festival will see performances by musicians from around the globe, including Old Crow Medicine Show, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Monsieur Periné, Battle Of Santiago, Bombino​, Cha Wa​, Kealoha,​ La Dame Blanche,​ La Misa Negra, Meklit, Martha Redbone, Red Baraat, and many more.

Redwood Ramble returns to scenic Camp Navarro for four days featuring performers from the worlds of funk, rock, Americana, blues, bluegrass and gospel. Artists scheduled to appear include George Porter Jr. and Dumpstaphunk performing The Meters, as well as The Mother Hips, The Lil Smokies, Amy Helm, The Brothers Comatose, Steve Poltz, Ron Artis II & The Truth, Carolyn Wonderland , The Mother Hips’ Tim Bluhm and Greg Loiacono, and others.

Vital Events presents Toxic Summer over two days at The Midway. Liquid Stranger and Zomboy top the electronic music festival lineup also featuring Getter, Peekaboo, Virtual Riot, Yheti and dozens more.

Northern Nights Music Festival offers three days of music, art, food and local culture at Cook’s Valley Campground on the South Fork Eel River. DJs and producers on the linuep include Claude VonStroke, TroyBoi, CloZee, Elderbrook, Two Feet, SNBRN, Of The Trees, Balkan Bump, Equanimous, ford., David Starfire, J. Worra, Khushi, Modern Biology, Qrion, Smoakland, Wreckno, Soohan and Westend, among several others.

The Lake Tahoe Bluegrass and Beyond Festival takes place at Hard Rock Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena. Filling the bluegrass category are the likes of Leftover Salmon, Dead Winter Carpenters and The Lil Smokies, while the beyond part of the lineup includes Achilles Wheel, Boot Juice, GrooveSession and headliners Phil Lesh & Friends.

Bass Camp V descends upon Hard Rock Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena for a day and night dedicated to electronic dance music. Among the over 40 artists coming from around the globe include Adventure Club, Flux Pavilion, KJ Sawka, Wolfgang Gartner, Jack Beats, Cam Girl, Liquid Todd, Esper and Fluencee.

See some of the biggest current names in reggae music like Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, SOJA, Tribal Seeds, Common Kings and Fortunate Youth will perform at the Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival. The fifth annual, single-day event will once again be held at Hard Rock Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena.

Artist-in-Residence Robert Glasper will perform all three days of the Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley. Held at Charles Krug Winery, the lineup features notable jazz, hip hop, R&B, soul and funk performers such as Kamasi Washington, Snoop Dogg, Chaka Khan, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Ledisi, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey performing as Black Star, and more.

Bay Area favorite Outside Lands returns to its traditional summer weekend. Green Day, Post Malone, SZA, Weezer, Jack Harlow, Phoebe Bridgers, Illenium, Lil Uzi Vert, Kali Uchis, Disclosure, Mitski, Anitta, Polo & Pan, Pusha T, Dominic Fike, Mac DeMarco, 100 Gecs, Kim Petras, Parcels, Wet Leg, Washed Out and over 70 additional acts will play the festival at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The Days Between music festival returns to beautiful Black Oak Ranch in Northern California. This year’s celebration will see two nights of Dark Star Orchestra performances, along with sets by Melvin Seals & JGB, Steve Kimock, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Dumpstaphunk, Jackie Greene, Stu Allen & Mars Hotel, Jerry’s Middle Finger, Midnight North and Painted Mandolin, among others.

Petaluma Music Festival‘s goal is simple: Keeping Music in the Schools. The PMF Board of Directors believe passionately in the positive influence of music in children’s lives. Proceeds from this annual event will be distributed among Petaluma’s elementary and secondary public schools to provide funding for their music programs.

Funding for the arts is problematic in California, as there is never enough funding for all our school’s needs. With your attendance, you are making a difference, and we applaud you!