Your guide to Festival La Onda: What to watch for, and how to get around downtown Napa (2024)

Napa is hosting its second music spectacular in as many weeks— this time with a Spanish accent.

Festival La Onda, the Napa Valley’s most ambitious Latin music festival to date, is set to debut Saturday morning at the Napa Valley Expo and continue through Sunday night. The festival – taking place one week after BottleRock and on many of the same stages— will feature more than two dozen musical acts across a range of Spanish-language genres, in what its producer Latitude 38 Entertainment describes as the largest event of its kind in the Bay Area.

Gates at the Expo, at 575 Third St. in Napa, will open at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Performances will begin at or shortly after 11:30 a.m. each day, and the final shows will end at 10 p.m.

Music highlights

The schedule for La Onda’s debut draws from a range of music genres, with a focus on acts appealing to the Mexican-Americans dominating Napa County’s Latino community, Latitude 38 CEO Dave Graham has said.

La Onda will showcase performers of Mexican regional music, Latin pop and Spanish-language rock, along with reggaetón, banda, mariachi, rap, norteño, cumbia and bolero.

The Expo’s top two stages during BottleRock also will serve as La Onda’s main venues— the La Onda Stage (renamed from JaM Cellars Stage) and the Verizon Stage— with a third venue, Retumba Stage, also hosting performances.

Saturday night, the main events will be concerts by Junior H on La Onda Stage and Alejandro Fernández on the Verizon Stage.

Junior H, who began recording in 2019, has placed five albums on Billboard’s Latin Top 10 — including his latest, “$ad Boyz 4 Life II,” from October.

Alejandro Fernández, a ranchera singer in the style of his father, the late Mexican superstar Vicente Fernández, has won 11 Latin Grammy Awards and performed with a variety of pop and classical artists, from Beyoncé and Nelly Furtado to Plácido Domingo.

La Onda’s second and final day will feature evening shows on La Onda Stage by Maná— who also performed at BottleRock last weekend— and on the Verizon Stage by Fuerza Regida.

Maná has placed 15 songs at the top of Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart over more than three decades. In November, the band scored its first chart-topper for Regional Mexican Airplay with a remake of its 2011 hit “Amor Clandestino” in a version accompanied by Eden Muñoz.

Fuerza Regida, whose members were raised in San Bernardino, has won acclaim for music played in the regional Mexican genre with northern Mexican roots. The band’s last three albums have reached the top three of the Billboard Latin chart, including the October 2023 release “Pa Las Baby's y Belikeada.”

Getting around

As they have during more than a decade of BottleRock festivals, tens of thousands of music lovers are expected to pack the Expo during the inaugural La Onda.

This weekend’s festival will bring with it street closures and parking restrictions around the fairground on Third Street, similar to those imposed during BottleRock’s May 24-26 run. Shutdowns and special parking rules during La Onda will be similar to the ground rules intended to keep festival goers and others on foot safer during BottleRock, according to Sgt. William (Brad) Bradshaw of the California Highway Patrol, which oversees public safety on and near the state-owned Expo for both events.

The main closure during La Onda will affect Third Street, which runs along the Expo’s north side and continues west into downtown Napa.

As was the case during BottleRock, Third Street will be closed to motor vehicles from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday between the Silverado Trail and Soscol Avenue. An extended vehicle closure of Third— from Soscol across the Napa River and on to Coombs Street— will be in force from 8 to 11 p.m. on each festival night.

CHP and Napa Police agreed to the expanded Third Street closure for both BottleRock and La Onda after deciding that interactions between drivers and those on foot were becoming less safe, Bradshaw told the Napa Valley Register before this year’s BottleRock.

The following streets will be closed from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday:

- Third Street between the Silverado Trail and Soscol Avenue

- Sousa Lane between Silverado and Soscol

- Juarez Street between First and Third streets

- Burnell Street between Third and Eighth streets

- Bailey Street between Third and Fourth streets

- Lawrence Street between Third and Fourth streets

- Sixth, Seventh and Eighth streets between Soscol Avenue and Burnell Street

Two other streets will be closed from 8 to 11 p.m. in downtown Napa on Saturday and Sunday:

- Third Street between Soscol Avenue and Coombs Street

- Main and Brown streets between Second and Third streets

In addition, CHP officers will be stationed at intersections near the Napa Valley Expo, to restrict access onto nearby streets to residents and their relatives and friends. These closures will be in effect from 8 to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

- Silverado Trail: intersections with Fairview Street and Hennessey Avenue

- Coombsville Road: intersections with Hoffman Lane, Davis Avenue and Linnell Street

Residents of the affected streets can enter and exit by showing ID to officers, and can inform officers of family and friends who plan to visit.

Residents of Juarez Street will receive parking passes during La Onda, according to Bradshaw.

Vehicle drop-offs by Uber, Lyft and private drivers on festival days will take place at the Napa County parking lot at Third and Randolph streets.

Five paid parking lots will be available for La Onda spectators:

- Lot A, 333 Soscol Ave.

- Lot B, 463 Soscol Ave.

- Lot C (accessible for disabled visitors), 301 First St.

- Lot D (VIP parking), 426 First St.

- Lot G, 1275 McKinstry St. (at the Napa Valley Wine Train station)

La Onda buses will travel to Napa from San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland, Fairfield, Santa Rosa and Sonoma, according to festival organizers. In addition, VINE Transit will provide free rides and extended late-night service during the weekend, including express service to BART.

Bus parking during La Onda will take place on the shoulder of Soscol Avenue south of McKinstry Street.

FOR THE RECORD:An earlier version of this story had a photo that incorrectly stated it was of singer Alejandro Fernández. A correct image of the singer has been added.