Tired eyes and sore feet couldn’t keep BruinLife away from the third and final day of BottleRock 2026. Feeling the burn, Amy and I applied our sunblock as we prepared to make the most of our final night in Napa.
The day started off on a small but, for me, very disappointing note because I was, once again, jipped out on my meal — 20 smackeroons to be exact on two strips of catfish the size of a baby faun’s hoof from Lil Sista’s Goody’s Soul Food. And as good as the potato salad was, it still wasn’t good enough to save them from my scathing Instagram review — we’re @bruinlife on Insta by the way.
Thankfully, the day got better with the Girl Tones who, despite joking about being the pseudo opener to the Backstreet Boys, actually played to a bigger crowd; so hats off to Kenzie (Crowe) Shultz and her sister Laila Crowe, maybe Backstreet will open for you two next year!
Amy then bought her first meal from the festival, a torta she said was mostly bread and not worth the $20 price tag. We met up at the HelloFresh Stage, my personal favorite because of the built-in shaded tarps, for the Australian indie folk rock band, The Paper Kites. And while I was unfamiliar with them, when they rolled into “Marietta” and lead singer, Sam Bentley, sultry, accented voice swept over me, I closed my eyes and was transported to this city in Georgia.
[Related: https://bruinlife.com/bottlerock-2026-the-paper-kites-fly-high-over-the-hellofresh-stage/]
With a bit of time to kill, my photographer and I caught the tail end of Kool and the Gang where I got down on it, but I still think Amy is unsure of who they are. We made our way to stage left of the Prudential Stage where we watched our most anticipated artist of the day, Mt. Joy. Amy got to hear “Orange Blood,” while despite the golden afternoon, “My Vibe” wasn’t played, but I was still happy with “Silver Lining” as the closer.
Although not in our original plan, Amy and I got caught up in the crowd for Sombr — and my gosh, was it a crowd! People were fighting, security guards were called and daisy chains of girls dressed like it’s the 70s snaked through the already congested crowd to get closer to their favored artist. And despite starting 15 minutes late, when Sombr’s silhouette struck the stage, in a weekend line up full of stars, everyone was looking for him. The stage wasn’t big enough for his presence, often expanding out onto the catwalk to strut his stuff and get closer to his much-adoring fans. From 6:30 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. it was nonstop bangers, the likes of “Homewrecker,” “undressed” and without a doubt Amy and my most unforgettable song of the day, “12 to 12.”
[Related: https://bruinlife.com/bottlerock-2026-in-a-room-full-of-people-sombr-was-hard-to-miss/]
With such an impossible performance to top, we didn’t attend another show that night — making Sombr our musical cap to the weekend, but I still had a bone to pick with the food. In need of redemption, I went to a tent that caught my nose two years ago, Gerard’s Paella — and MAN! Did I make the right choice! Tender chicken, plump shrimp (of which I learned the hard way still had their tails on), soft sauteed bell peppers and onions, all on a heaping bed of saffron rice, this wasn’t just festival stunt food, it was a delicious meal; one I would happily pay 30 bucks for again.
And in perhaps the best stroke of luck of the weekend, Amy and I stumbled upon $85 worth of free meal vouchers. So like a kid in a candy store, we bought a crazy buffet of sweet treats: an apple pie with vanilla ice cream from Sweetie Pies Bakery, peanut brittle from Vintage Sweet Shoppe, a Dubai chocolate crepe from Madeleine’s Macarons & Crepes and a coconut cupcake along with a sugar cookie from Kara’s Cupcakes. The apple pie was both of our favorites, giving it a strong 8.5 between the two of us, with my personal perfect bite where I’d scoop the apple pie with a piece of the brittle to make a peanut butter apple pie, being a 9.5 out of 10.
[Related: https://bruinlife.com/bottlerock-2026-food-ranked/]
Over our dessert reward, we recounted our top moments of BottleRock 2026. Seeing AJR was a dream come true for me, finally getting to see an artist I’ve admired for so long in person for the first time was a genuine star-struck experience. But while I knew AJR would be incredible, Børns was both mine and Amy’s standout of the entire weekend as we will just randomly burst into his performance opener, “Faded Heart,” as we type away on our laptops. And compared to my previous year’s coverage, the food game was vastly improved, with Drewski’s Grilled Cheese, Gerard’s Paella and Sweetie Pies scoring major points in my book. As for Amy, this being her first festival coverage, she will always remember seeing Sombr and Lorde perform live.
Even though we both are fighting stomach aches right now as we write this send off, our sugary bounty was the perfect wrap to our weekend of surprise performances, delicious meals and getting to hear our old favorites performed live.
