Music |

Three childhood friends now run Napa Valley’s premiere music festival

Justin Dragoo, Jason Scoggins and Dave Graham have been buddies since childhood.

These days, however, they aren’t paling around together on the schoolyard but working to put on one of the West Coast’s most popular music festivals.

The three friends are partners in Latitude 38 Entertainment, the organization that runs BottleRock Napa Valley.

Dragoo, Scoggins and Graham recently took the time to chat with us about the upcoming festival, which brings Lizzo, Duran Duran, Post Malone, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carly Rae Jepsen, Wu-Tang Clan and dozens of other acts to the Napa Valley Expo in downtown Napa May 26-28. For more information, visit bottlerocknapavalley.com.

Q: How does it feel to be only a few weeks away from hosting BottleRock 2023? Is it all nose-to-the-grindstone for you and your team? Or can you start to see the finish line?

Dragoo: Because our festival has so much going on in a smaller site, we need to start early. We keep the stress lower for the team by starting our build in April for the Memorial Day event.

Q: What are the last few weeks, and even days, like in preparing for the festival? Is it all touchup work? Or is there still heavy lifting going on?

Dragoo: Certain parts of the festival can be built early, but the stages, video, lighting and décor finishes need to be installed in the final days. There’s no getting around that final push which often goes day-and-night, and the energy is amazing.

Scoggins: Every year we aim to build a super-curated festival, better than the last, which makes the build very high-touch and detail-focused. After the big pieces are in place, such as the stages and elevated viewing areas, we’re fine tuning up until the final moments before doors and even throughout the festival weekend.

Q: What’s the trick to juggling everything, keeping your eyes on all the balls in the air, for a production as massive as this?

Dragoo: Our top priority as we build the festival is the fan experience. While it’s a complex operation, decisions can be made quickly if you’re guided by what the fan would want above all else.

Q: How does the booking process work? Is there a certain mix that the team shoots for when selecting the overall field?

Graham: The lineup is booked based on who our customer is. Our customer is defined by both objective and subjective measures. Once you are clear on the former, then you need to take your band budget and find out about all the bands that meet the above criteria — and are touring.

We usually start with trying to book our headliners first and that process can start up to 16 months in advance of each year’s festival. Keep in mind that the lineup must have a mix of different genres, not only in order to have a little something for everyone but also to make sure that you spread out the crowd within our venue. Counter programming at our festival is important on a lot of levels.

Q: What has you excited about this year’s headliners?

Graham: It’s such a diverse lineup and I think that we nailed the counter programming with our headliners this year. Post Malone vs The Smashing Pumpkins, Lizzo vs Duran Duran and Red Hot Chili Peppers vs Lil Nas X. One of the great things about BottleRock is that if you are torn between two headliners, you can start out with, say Lizzo, then it’s only about a five-minute walk to catch some of Duran Duran.

Q: Looking beyond the big names, can you give fans recommendations on a few lesser-known artists they should catch this year?

Graham: I’d definitely say Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, Sudan Archives, Half Alive and Alvaro Diaz.

Q: Music, of course, is just one part of the draw. Talk to me how important it is to properly reflect the region in terms of delivering topnotch culinary and wine at the festival?

Dragoo: Fans expect world class wines when they come to Napa Valley, and our winery partners help us deliver. Believe it or not we serve over 80 wines by the glass throughout the festival, ranging from $10 to $80, and in the Platinum Lounge we offer tastings of some rare cult wines that are extremely difficult to obtain.

Scoggins: All three of us often say that the Napa Valley is our fourth partner, which has a big effect on how we create the BottleRock experience. I don’t know of any other festival that features over 80 different wine labels, let alone Napa Valley wine labels. And as far as our culinary offerings go, we work with some of the best brands in the Bay Area. BottleRock Napa Valley is really a wine and food festival within an amazing music festival.

Q: One of the big hits at the festival is the Culinary State, which combines the worlds of sports, music, food and wine as celebs, athletes and rockers join chefs onstage to make tasty creations. That just seems to get bigger every year, right?

Graham: It has. Some of BottleRock’s most memorable moments have come from the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage and we continue to lean into the programming more and more every year. My two favorite culinary stage moments were watching Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Chef Michael Voltaggio set the Guinness Book of World Record by making the largest gin and juice, and when we had the bassists for Metallica, Green Day and Dave Matthews Band play bass guitars made from pizza paddles while Chef Jose Andres did air guitar with a jamon iberico.

Q: What’s the best part of putting on a festival?

Dragoo: To me, seeing the energy of the crowd and the smiles on so many faces is the best part of creating an event like this.

Scoggins: It’s really something extraordinary to see the comradery among our crew, all working together to build-out and transform our venue. The look on people’s faces as they explore the festival or sing along at a stage is priceless and makes all the work well worth it. And doing something on this scale, this meaningful, in the town I grew up in is super satisfying.

Q: What’s the worst part of putting on a festival?

Scoggins: It’s hard to believe we work all year for only these three days over Memorial Day weekend — but it’s still all worth it!

Q: It might just be my imagination, but it seems like a new festival pops up about every 8 minutes. Why do you think the business has grown so popular over the years?

Dragoo: You can’t replace live experiences — you were either there, or you weren’t. The pandemic made people realize this more than ever which is why you see fans choosing to attend live events like festivals.

Q: Talk to me about how your organization has grown beyond just putting on BottleRock.

Dragoo: We now do several other small concert series and events, but we’ve been fairly picky when expanding our business. If we can’t make it top-notch, we’d rather not do it at all.

Q: What are some of your best memories of BottleRock? Any acts that really standout from years past?

Graham: There have been so many, but for me, two really stand out…P!nk flying over the crowd last year, and listening to the crowd sing along to “Free Fallin” with Tom Petty in 2017.

Scoggins: There’s way too many to say, you’d run out of space!

Q: What are your goals for the festival moving forward?

Dragoo: We aim for the best fan experience out there — and that’s a complicated goal. Our festival should offer world class musicians, the very best in culinary, wine and spirits, and the cleanest and prettiest environment — all at the same time. Our guests should continue to be surprised this is a temporary venue because it feels so detailed and finished.

Name: Dave Graham

Title: Partner

Age: 51

Education: Bachelor’s Degree, UCLA; MBA, UC Berkeley; MBA, Columbia University

Family: Married; 1 child

Born in: Vallejo

City of residence: Napa

Five things about Dave Graham:

1.  Hobbies include steelhead and salmon fishing, whitewater kayaking, surfing, cooking with his offset smoker, coaching Little League baseball

2.  He became friends with Scoggins in 3rd grade and Dragoo in 7th grade.

3.   Costa Rica is his favorite country to visit.  He believes he has gone to Costa Rica every year since 1995.

4.  Graham and his son speak only Spanish to one another.

5. He has only ever started companies/been in business with friends.

 

Name: Justin Dragoo

Title: Partner

Age: 51

Education: MBA, Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Family: Married; two children

Born in: Seattle

City of residence: Napa

Five things about Justin Dragoo:

1. Before BottleRock, he was president of Gargiulo Vineyards in Napa Valley, where he’s still a Partner.

2. Before moving back to Napa Valley, he lived in New York City managing a technology career with clients throughout Europe and India where he often traveled.

3. A lover of the mountains, he and his family are often in Park City, Utah, where they spend time in both summer and winter.

4. Dragoo was a four-year starter at Arizona State University in football where he was elected team captain, and after college had a short stint in the NFL that was cut short by knee injuries.

5. He knows his wine. Beyond being a music festival promoter, Dragoo is also a certified sommelier.

Name: Jason Scoggins

Title: Partner

Age: 51

Education: Bachelor’s Degree, Arizona State University

Family: Married, 2 Children

Born in: Fairfield

City of residence: Yountville (Napa Valley)

Five things about Jason Scoggins

1. He loves to play both golf and guitar with his good buddies — ideally on the same day/night.

2. Scoggins coaches his son Finn’s Napa Little League baseball team, the Napa Sheriffs.

3. He says his claim to fame is that he RV’d around the entire U.S. (and into Canada) for roughly 2½ months and 12,500 miles with newlywed wife Kara — and they are still married!

4. On said RV/road trip, he discovered he had an affinity for bird watching … so much so, he named his daughter Wren.

5. He’s been friends with Graham and Dragoo since 3rd and 7th grades, respectively.