Bands playing their heart out, fans screaming and dancing, people drinking IPAs and wine, great food, art, and a whole lot of good vibes. All things that were at Santa Ana’s one-day-only Outpost Festival on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The one-day event began with long lines for wristbands and to enter the event. These lines could have been one of the reasons why the bands started nearly an hour after the 2 p.m. start time. General admission was $40 and gave access to all seven of the food trucks and merchandise booths.
The blue $80 VIP wristbands allowed access to the pit area for closer viewing of the bands and a designated right and left stage standing area. The side areas had access to alcohol purchases, a bohemian-styled sitting area that had green flooring, hanging chairs, outdoor couches and game area.
Outpost Fest is the brainchild of Delta Spirit, an indie rock band with strong roots in Southern California, according to Outpostfest.com. The band brought together their mentor band, Cold War Kids to headline the event. The Mynabirds, Guards, Tijuana Panthers with Dj GMO, Beach Fossils and Turbotito, Blonde Rehead and Andrew Miller all performed on stage before the nighttime performance.
Seven food trucks came out early in the day to cater the festival including Ragin Cajun, a few cause-driven merchandise booths and even the Back To The Future DeLorean itself, thanks to Danny and Cara Botkin of TimeMachineCar.com.
Ragin Cajun started over two decades ago as a restaurant in Hermosa Beach founded by the outgoing and outspoken Stephen Domingue, who showed off his Cajun-styled food truck at Outpost. He shared his journey to hungry customers and gave out samples of his chicken and sausage bisque. He set up his truck at about 10:30 a.m to start preparing the food, including his Gumbolaya, gumbo over jambalaya, and fried shrimp Po Boy.
Fullerton College alum Adam Ross was among the many that tried Domingue’s Gumbolaya and shrimp Po Boy.
“The shrimp is crispy and the gumbo isn’t too spicy” Adam said, before Domingue came over and suggested adding his red sauce to the shrimp sandwich.
There was a Krochet Kids Intl. booth that was a part of the merchandise lineup. The non-profit organization, which started with just selling beanies, sold shirts, scarves and more at the festival. Each piece of clothing is hand-crafted by a woman in Northern Uganda or Peru.
Fall 2015 intern Carly Hansen heard about the organization while she was in college and was inspired by the company’s message.
Each women signs their name on the clothing tag so the customer knows who the crocheter was. The website encourages the hashtag #knowwhomadeit when posting the company’s product online.
“Women empowerment and providing a living [wage and education] for their families inspired me to intern,” Carly said.
Another cause-driven booth was The Giving Keys, a company that takes old keys, and recently, locks as well, and employs those transitioning out of homelessness to create jewelry. Each piece is then engraved with an encouraging word that is meaningful to the maker.
“The more keys we sell, the more people we can employ” Alyssa Meza said. She and her friend Marrissa Jensen came out to promote the company.
While the food and art was great, the music was the highlight of the event. Every band that stepped on the stage played their heart out.
“I like that Delta Spirit [and some of the other bands] are local-ish, it’s awesome,” said Andrea Francess from Irvine. “I’ve been going to one to two festivals a year since I was 19. It’s a great way to make new friends, meet new people, find new music, and I just love the energy at concerts!”
Delta Spirit, who hosted the festival played with an enormous amount of energy. People in the crowd sang and danced along to their songs including Bushwick Blues, California, and many others.
To end the night, the popular and most anticipated band took the stage. Cold War Kids performed both old and new songs and left the crowd asking for more.
Overall,Outpost Fest was full of great food, art, amazing music, and friendly people all looking to have a good time.
