First City Festival definitely deserves to be an annual event. As everyone pointed out in their detailed reviews - the First City Festival was just as breezy and easy as beautiful Monterey. The crowd was laid back and well behaved (I didn't encounter one jerk throughout my whole time at the festival). The location was ideal. Not only are the Monterey Fair Grounds - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Pop_Festival musically inspiring and historical, but they were extremely engaging for everyone. If you weren't feeling the music at any point - you could take advantage of the plethora of carnival rides and games. And though there was no in and outs - being able to drive back to your hotel or airbnb - along the inspiring Californian coastline was unbelievable unique. The music was solid. Father John Misty, Purity Ring, Neko Case, and Washed Out brought it. Though I would have appreciated a little bit more diversity in the line-up - it was on point and all of the performers were extremely gracious on stage, and they put their all into the shows. Though I would have liked more fresher healthier options as far as food - there was a decent array of food choices and you didn't have to wait too long for any of them. I also really enjoyed browsing through the clothing vendors - though I regret not grabbing any of their cards - since there's no list of them anywhere on the First City Music Festival site. Though the line to get into the festival was rather long and it would have been nice to bring in some homemade food - First City Music Festival was a mellow and hoop-worthy escape from the city. I'm hoping they put it on next year and I will be buying a ticket. Trust. read more

Wow, the organizers for this event did a great job!!! If this first year is any indication, this festival is going to be the go to festival for indie music lovers for many years to come. My only regret would be that I couldn't go on Saturday as well. Music: Capital Cities probably gave the most crowd pleasing and energetic performance; Generationals were great and my newest discovery; Modest Mouse were the main headliner and did a good job at ending the show with a bang and "Ocean Breathes Salty" had us all on our feet; and Purity Ring had the most visually interesting set with their improvised instruments. Cost: Aside from transportation and food costs, the price of the festival was otherwise dirt cheap. We paid just $36 for each ticket through livingsocial in addition to adding an online code. Parking was $20 with a fancy shuttle bus taking passengers back every 5 minutes ($10 with carpool discount). $15 for online unlimited ride wristbands ($25 day of show). Food: Not allowed to bring in any outside food or drinks but there were many bay area food trucks within the fair grounds. Pizza, Korean burrito truck, fast frozen dipped ice cream, were among the many options being sold. Tips: Search online for discounts, I was surprised at how many discounts were being offered online vs the actual first city website. There are charging stations everywhere so bring a portable charger for your phone. Bring in an empty bottle for water refills. Fun: I'm pretty sure we rode the ferris wheel behind one of the members of Capital Cities (it was at night and he was dressed incognito in an Oakland As hat with a media wristband) but we didn't want to bother him. LOL. A big plane flew over the fairgrounds every 10 minutes or so. read more

First City Festival - Festivals Near Me - Monterey, California

Totally fun and hipsters galore! Being it's inaugural year, I was very impressed with how relatively smooth everything was. The crowd was lax and chill, and the beautiful Monterey weather really made the whole day so much more enjoyable. Sure the lines were long, but they moved everyone through security quickly. Food consisted of a variety of food trucks and your usual fair food such as cotton candy, nachos, burgers, corn dogs, & other fried crap. Beer was ridiculously pricey though. $8 for like an 8 ounce cup! Times like this are the only times where I am thankful that I am lightweight and efficient with my alcohol. Few of my favorite things from the festival include: the photobooth van, vendors selling jewelry/clothes (cool to browse through), the food vendor that was selling the delicious funnel cake!, the bulb lighting at the main stage TIP: On their site, they were advertising a shuttle bus from a parking lot at the Monterey City College for $20/30. If you don't mind a 10 minute, you can actually park in the residential area near by to save some money! Good job to the organizers! read more

First City Festival - MGMT - Festivals Near Me - Monterey, California

5 stars based on the line up alone. Passion Pit, Beach House...I'm excited to see the show! read more

First City Festival - Festivals Near Me - Monterey, California

The security guards steal your weed if they find it on you before you enter. My girlfriend and I overhead one of the CSC security guards say to their fellow security guard "Man, I wish I was on weed duty. I would be so high right now." Screw you First City Festival and CSC Security. I will never attend your festival again and your lineups suck ass. The beer is overpriced and the food sucks. Also, all those BS Indie vendors are also extremely overpriced. I hate you First City Festival. I hate you. Go fuck yourselves. read more

I think I might be too old for music festivals, or perhaps maybe this one just missed the mark a little bit. My first complaint is that I paid $150 for a two-day pass only to discover that tickets were available for much, much cheaper ($50 for the same tickets) via resales on Craigslist. Not cool. Not cool at all. Secondly, the line to get into the festival stretched for about a half a mile because there was only one general-admission entrance. That said, there were plenty of entrance spots available for use...they just needed more staff. It took us about 30 minutes to get in, and we missed a band we wanted to see which was pretty annoying...especially since the gates had been open for over an hour by the time we got there. The festival itself did not allow ins and outs, which you either discovered by visiting the FAQs page of the event website or when you got to the gate (no mention of it on my ticket). Obviously, the later would be a less fortunate way to stumble upon this bit of info. While this may be an annoying fact, far more irritating was that outside food and drinks were not permitted. Basically, for an all-day event, that meant you had to buy your food/drinks from the overpriced, underwhelming vendors inside the festival. I paid $12 for a burrito with zero flavor (seriously, that shit was bland!) and $7 for a moderately tasty piece of pizza. As for the music, the main stage was in an area with a dirt floor--really not ideal for anyone wanting to sit. Plus, the event website said blankets and chairs would not be allowed...although I did see some people with blankets. Anyway, the sound on the main stage was pretty bad during some (although not all) of the performances--Neko Case sounded great! The crowd was generally peaceful and pleasant...aside from the handful of kids who abused substances until they passed out and had to be lugged out of the crowd by friends or medics. The middle-sized stage had a nice grassy area for attendees to sit/stand on, which I really liked and made me wish all the bands would play there. My friend had her kids with her, and the grassy area was perfect for them to run about on. Truth-be-told, I didn't see any bands on the smallest stage...so I have no comments about that. Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Like I said, maybe I'm too old for festivals. Then again, this was the first year for the First City Festival and perhaps it will get better with age. read more

The line-up was amazing, the vibes were great. I think First City has great potential to be amazing, but being a first year festival, they were lacking in organization. CONS- -they need to have more than one entrance. It is ridiculous to wait in those long lines and have to enter from the carnival...So they need a) more entrances b) an entrance that doesn't enter through the carnival and c) the security to be quicker.. -SO MANY acts were delayed due to technical difficulties. This just SHOULD NOT happen that often. -the shuttle service to parking was ridiculous. We left early and still waited forever just to get on the bus. They need to figure out a better parking situation. -the food. The food was all average, and there weren't many vegetarian options which was really disappointing. -I was disappointed that even with such a small line-up, there were so many conflicts. -DUSTY and dirt everywhereeee -the list of things you can't bring...(like a blanket..why?) PROS- -Location..beautiful, and a great venue. -MUSIC...the line-up was really amazing especially for a first year festival -the carnival idea is cool, I didn't go on anything, but it looked like there was LOTS to do!! -great vibes! great people. -size of the festival was perfect, intimate, but still big enough to get a great festival feeling I would definitely come back to First City & I hope to see everything improved :) read more

First, and better be ANNUAL, First City Music Festival is vintage Bumbershoot circa 2002, blowing Outter Lands out of the water Battleship-style. 10,000 people on day one and it felt likea quarter of that. Main stage is a rodeo arena with a stage at one end and amazing strings of those exposed filament bulbs. Big blue sky above by day and stars at night. Funnel cake was better than i remember as a kid at Great America, pizza (tho $7) was shockingly good, and they have great carnival games and rides too (great practice for your beer pong skilz which, if u can sink one in a canning jar from ten feet,, FREE TO TRY BTW, scores u entrance to an afterparty! Got to go to Passion Pit's last night and it was amazing). Big pluses (although we didn't partake), buses from the city, shuttles from parking, and water refill stations throughout. Lineup was also incredible (one afternoon on one stage included Okkerville River, The Hold Steady, MGMT, and Passion Pit). Long sets and quick changeovers too. Can't wait for next year. read more

I was lucky enough to go to this festival since a friend of mine had an extra ticket! I'm so happy I was able to be there for the first First city festival! Hopefully there will be more to come! I feel like it could be the next big indie festival next to Treasure Island or even Outsidelands. It was weird that as soon as you walk in you feeel like you are at a Carnival, not a music festival because it is afterall, a fairground. The main stage (Redwood stage) was in the "rodeo" area. Not the nicest stage and its pretty dusty, but eh, as long as the music is good right? Manzanita stage is small, probably used for lesser known bands. Cypress stage is the only stage that has grassland you can sit down on. Overall, this place is not the fanciest ground for a music festival, but it wasn't too bad. MUSIC The line up this year was better than Outsidelands to me, but that just depends on your preference. Purity Ring was hands down, the BEST set at the fest despite a few glitches in the sound system that happened 2-3 times. Beautiful cocoon decorations, lights, and percussion and they sound WAY more fcking awesome live because you can actually hear the percussion. I also enjoyed Passion Pit and MGMT. Surprised the crowd for Quadron was quite small, because the performance was fantastic! Coco O's voice was really really good. A bit upset that I missed out on Washed Out and Tennis. Second day was just as amazing as the first - I was able to see Dr. Dog, Electric Guest, Devendra Banhart, Toro y Moi, Deer Hunter, and none of them disappointed. HOWEVER, I was upset that Modest Mouse did not play Float On, but I am assuming that might be because they got cut off halfway through the song during Coachella. Still disappointed because thats probably mine and most others favorite! FOOD/DRINKS They don't allow food or drinks from outside but I feel like it shouldn't be hard to sneak it in anyway. There's water stations around so no need to buy water bottles. They let me bring in my opened bottle of water so I guess it just depends on whose doing the security. I cant really vouch for the food they sell because I didn't buy any. But I did see many food trucks around and they cant be much more expensive than food trucks are outside of festivals right? DRINKS They average around $8-9. PARKING Parking is supposedly $20 which is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Luckily, on the first day my friends and I were able to find parking right in front of the festival for free. Even though they charge $20, I'm sure you can find free parking if you just drive around. Overall, the festival was very organized . The downside is they don't let you go out once you get in for hte day. Also, thtere's only two bathrooms inside. One near the Redwood stage, and the other across from the Cypress stage and it is ALWAYS crowded. However, theres porta potties next to the restroom near Cypress stage with portable sinks outside as well. Although the description said that there were rides, I didnt see many people spending time on them which im not surprised because im sure most of us are there mainly for the music! There was a cute photobooth van where you can take pictures with your friends and e-mail it to yourself. I look forward to the next first city festival! I would definitely come here again, but it would also depend on the lineup. Overall, I had a really great experience here! read more

Great lineup and it was well organized considering it's the inaugural year. There are two main stages and two other little ones. Blitzen trapper, okkervil river, beach house, delta spirit, eli "paperboy" reed and washed out were great! mgmt is overrated. There is a carnival with games and rides. I would purchase the unlimited pass if you plan on going on a lot of rides (pass doesn't work for game booths). There are a lot of restrooms and decent food choices/ a couple food trucks though everything is overpriced. Their beers are $7 for a small cup of bud light, $8 for shocktop. Lines were never too long for anything (nothing like coachella, but more similar to treasure island). I would recommend finding street parking and avoid the $20-30 parking lots. Casa verde had street parking and was about a 10min walk. Get here early! No food allowed but empty bottles ok :) read more

The 2013 First City Fest was alot of fun. Love the way they set everything up and the acts. The first night was great. The second night the acoustics and performance level of the headline act was horrible.. but all in all it was a great time with fun people and diversions, good food and awesome music. read more

This was my first year at First City and it was a great experience. We walked to the shuttle parking lot and were able to take the shuttle to and from the festival for free. This was super convenient. The festival had decent options for food and drink (though the food wasn't that great). There were plenty of bathrooms, a station where you could fill water bottles with water, and even a cell phone charging station. It seems they thought of everything. There seemed to be a few rides, though we didn't really scope those out. They did have cotton candy :) The grounds themselves seemed pretty clean - clean enough to comfortably sit on the grass without necessarily having to use a blanket. The down side was that the main stage was the rodeo area where it was all dirt, so when the wind picked up I was pretty much covered in dust and got sand in my eyes :( I wished the main stage had been the one in the back with the large grassy area to sit on. Due to the dirt, the main stage was pretty much just standing room and you could not sit down anywhere except the bleachers, which was limited seating. I was there just to see 2 bands (hadn't even heard of the others), but there was a really cool band on one of the smaller stages in the afternoon. They were great and it was very family friendly. There were lots of young families with babies and strollers. It was mostly younger people as it got later into the night, but everyone seemed pretty chill and respectful. There was no crazy drunken behavior or anything like that, which you see at other festivals and concerts. Everyone was just having a good time and I would definitely recommend it! read more

If you like being nickel and dimed to death, then come here. Atm fees are five bucks. Shuttle was 80. Idk about parking. I can't believe they ban outside food and drinks, forcing you to shell out ten bucks for crappy food. The staff was incredibly incompetent and rude. I asked when the show was over, the guy told me that it'll be whenever the last act finished. I could have figured that out on my own. Lol. Edit: the front of stage supervisor on day one was awesome and brought us water. And you better bring your own toilet paper and sanitizer because the bathrooms are filthy by the end of the night. At least the bands were great and the merch was reasonable. read more

I originally went only because out of town friends wanted to go and were staying at our house. Boy was I glad that I went! Music was great, food was interesting and festival was well run and put together...Will make this an annual event. read more

The 2nd year of the Festival, and they sure did try to make sure there was plenty to do! On that front, I'd probably give it 4+ stars, but I just can't give it an overall 4 stars because of a HUGE flaw: the sound was horrible at most of the stages. For a music festival, having crappy sound is pretty much death, so I think the overall 3 stars is pretty generous. Pros: +There are 3 stages so there's probably something going on (check out cons about the stages), 4 if you can't the vaudeville stage. +The carnival rides are free. Lemme repeat that: the carnival rides are FREE! I don't think people knew cuz the lines were pretty short, but that means all the bumper cars you want and as many sickening carnival rides as you roiling stomach desires! +Swap meet is interesting to poke at, though the wares are expected my pretty pricey. +Monterey weather is pretty nice, so it won't be sweltering and you'll probably want a jacket as the sun sets. +Lots of food options, from carnival goods, food stalls, and food trucks. You want vegetarian? Check. Vegan? Check. Sweets? Check. Mexi-burger-pizza? Check. While the prices are understandably a bit hiked, it's not too bad. ~$10-12 will get you a meal. +Free water and you can bring in your own bottles (empty). +Parking is expensive ($20-30), but you can find free street parking if you're willing to walk a bit. Cons: -They doubled the ticket prices, but the sound system did not double in quality. -Whoever did the audio for the festival should be fired. The best sound was the Manzanita stage, which is the smallest. The Cypress stage (med in the back) had the bass turned up too high and everything else too low (esp vocals). Like a reviewer said for last year, it sounds like a cave. Maybe I liked some of the bands playing there, but I couldn't tell because they sounded horrible. Finally, the largest stage, Redwood, sounded best from OUTSIDE. Seriously. The sound was CRAP inside, especially if you were on the seats closer to the outside of the event (the right side if facing the stage). There were two spots that sounded the best: a sweet spot outside by the swap meet, a little ways from the VIP entrance close to the stadium wall, or outside the fairgrounds, just across the street from the exit. I call that serious fail to have a music festival where the main stage's music sounds better OUTSIDE the event. If it weren't for all the pros, I'd score this a 1-2 stars. -I'd hazard to say the sound system at the Vaudeville stage was actually the best of all the stages. That is sad, Monterey First City Music Festival, just sad... Is it that your audio team can't handle big spaces or that you cheaped out on equipment so it's more noticeable the larger the space? Either way, if you're a music festival, I expect quality sound. -No ins or outs means if I'm not drunk or high, I pretty much feel like I'm trapped there all day listening to mostly crappy music (not because the bands necessarily sucked, but because the sound system REALLY sucked) -It's really dusty there. Plan accordingly. -Parking is expensive ($20-30), but you can find street parking if you're willing to walk a bit, so not that bad. -Monterey has a big thing about itself, like a sardine that just turned into a mermaid and can't stop looking in the mirror. The hotels are all priced according to that narcissism (aka expensively), so if you don't already have a place to stay, prepare to shell out an arm and a leg...at least. Conclusion: I definitely won't be back until I know Cypress stage doesn't sound like a cave and Redwood stage sounds better INSIDE rather than out. read more

Great lineup (much needed in Monterey) but I'm a bit bummed that I paid full price for tickets that wound up going for much, much less. Live and learn I guess. Next year I'll wait to buy. read more

Came early and parked at MPC for $20. The shuttle buses were very nice since the venue used the Bauer charter buses. There was a bit of a line to get since the event staff have to check your bags before entering. No blankets, food, or drinks allowed into the event. However, you can bring a small blanket, hat, empty water bottles/canteens since there are water stations inside for you to fill up your containers. Food is overly priced but the Korean BBQ truck was worth it. If you don't have VIP passes, you will enter through the carnival side first. Tickets for the carnival are separate. There are plenty of restrooms, ID checks stands for the drinks, and food stands. There are two main stages and 2 smaller one's with about 30 minutes in between shows for you to walk over to another stage and hear another band. The bands that performed today were great. Also no ins and outs. Once you're in early you'll need to stay for the whole event to hear the headliner's which are until the end of the night. read more

My 3rd festival this year, and overall I loved it. I chilled on the grass to Quilt, that was great! The dust pit of the main stage was easily avoided by sitting in the stands. I see the Monterey Jazz festival put grass down in the arena. Let's hope this will be a permanent improvement. Dawes, and Lake Street Dive were outstanding. If the organizers lay sod for the main stage, it would be as good or better than Outside Lands. read more