Arroyo Seco Weekend is back for another year at the Rose Bowl, and this time around the music festival has brought an even better lineup along with some logistical upgrades.
The second annual Arroyo Seco Weekend will set up three stages in the Rose Bowl-adjacent Brookside Park on June 23 and 24. Neil Young and Jack White headline Saturday of the two-day fest while Kings of Leon and Robert Plant top Sunday’s lineup. The rest of the lineup includes the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Alanis Morissette, Third Eye Blind, Pretenders, Kamasi Washington, Seu Jorge, Violent Femmes, Gary Clark Jr. and more.
Tickets go on sale Friday, March 9 at 10am, with an American Express presale period beginning on March 7 at 10am. A single day ticket costs $149 while a weekend pass is $249 (both about a $25 bump over last year). VIP admission starts at $349 for a single day and $449 for the weekend.
While last year’s small-print names leaned more heavily into jazz territory, this year’s lineup introduces a bit more Americana (Shakey Graves, Margo Price, Trampled by Turtles, Hurray for the Riff Raff, North Mississippi Allstars) as well as some ’80s throwbacks (the Specials, the Bangles, the Revolution). And, thankfully, Jeff Goldblum will once again return with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
Once again, the food selection is astounding: Arroyo Seco Weekend is set to bring a mix of casual spots like Freedman’s and XO on Beverly, favorites such as Jon & Vinny’s and Hatchet Hall, and drinks from the likes of the Spare Room and Block Party.
We thought last year’s mostly enjoyable fest was brought down by unbearable heat (an unavoidable reality for a Pasadena fest in June) and some awkward bottlenecks and blocked sightlines brought about by holding the fest on a golf course. Goldenvoice seems to have partially addressed the latter with this revised layout.
The stage positions have swapped and the VIP area has been pushed to one end of the grounds, so as not to take up obtrusive real estate. The bridges linking the two sides of the festival grounds proved to be an unfortunate bottleneck last year, so putting them on the same side as shuttle and rideshare is a welcome switch. More importantly, chairs and blankets will be banned from the areas directly in front of the main stages—those overly picnic-friendly areas had made getting anywhere near the main stages a challenge last year for anyone who didn’t plan on camping out at a single stage all afternoon.