Ohana Festival Has Eddie Vedder, Pink, Jack White and More Letting Their Freak Flags (and Tom Petty Love) Fly at the Beach
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ohana Festival is California’s coolest music festival, literally, and there’s a case to be made for the figurative usage too.
Eddie Vedder’s annual beachside gathering takes place yards away from the Doheny State Park cove where he learned to surf, and steady breezes over the weekend provided waves for dozens of surfers on one side of the chain-link fence and end-of-summer mellowness for about 15,000 concertgoers on the other.
The festival doesn’t just have ocean draft to recommend it; there were rock squalls from Jack White, pop lungpower from Pink, whatever additional currents were caused by Stevie Nicks’ flowing garments… and, further down the bill, an honestly eclectic lineup that was like a continual 13-mph breath of fresh air.
For the sixth Ohana Fest, there was nearly an additional headliner not listed on the bill, if only in spirit: Tom Petty, who, on or around the fifth anniversary of his death, was a frequently invoked (and covered) presence. “It’s turning into Tom-fest this weekend, and I couldn’t be happier about it,” Vedder said during his own headlining set on the middle night, Saturday, as he welcomed Heartbreaker Mike Campbell to join him on guitar for a couple of Petty favorites, “The Waiting” and “Face in the Crowd.” The previous night, Nicks had headlined, and instead of guitarist Waddy Wachtel taking the duet part on the Petty-penned “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” as he normally would on tour, Vedder stepped out as a surprise guest to join the sometimes-Fleetwood-Mac singer for the 1981 smash she and Petty shared.
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