News

Festival Napa Valley will present its first-ever Novack Concert for Kids at the historic Uptown Theatre later this month. The event — scheduled for Thursday, April 30 at 10 a.m. at the downtown Napa theater — will be headlined by renowned Taiwanese violinist Ray Chen, who will be accompanied by up-and-coming classical pianist Chelsea Wang.

Festival Napa Valley will return to the Wine Country this summer to celebrate its 20th anniversary season. Running July 4-19, the festival’s lineup features such major names as soprano Renée Fleming, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. In total, more than 200 artists will appear for concerts, dance performances, and special events at various venues throughout the famed Napa Valley.

Does Napa Valley need a quick little vacay around the middle of spring and where would such a trip occur? Look to Huntington Beach for that answer, and the Paséa Hotel & Spa, for a NV-themed pop-up, full of crisp and deep and delightful wines, will soon take root. Well, for a single springful day, that is: You'll want to make your way to Taste of Napa, presented by Festival Napa Valley, on April 12.

It started with a simple guiding principle: support arts for all by assembling the greatest in performing arts in the place with the best food and wine in the country. Twenty years later, Festival Napa Valley has grown into one of the nation’s leading nonprofit arts organizations with year-round performances hosted throughout the world. 

From San Francisco to Monterey, Oakland to Napa, the Bay Area loves an outdoor music-food-drink situation. Live jazz, pop, reggae, punk, and classical music are warm-weather traditions that never gets old—especially when the musical acts are H-O-T.

As Festival Napa Valley enters its 20th anniversary season, it has transformed from a local summer gathering into a premier global cultural destination. This year’s festivities, running from July 4-19, take on a deeper historical meaning, as they happen alongside the 250th anniversary of America and the 50th anniversary of the “Judgment of Paris,” the 1976 tasting that revolutionized the world’s perception of American wine.

The season will feature artists including Renée Fleming, Wynton Marsalis, Time for Three, Ray Chen, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, alongside the world premiere of The Judgment of Paris, a new opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer inspired by Napa Valley’s rise in the global wine industry.

More than 200 artists will appear in music and dance performances, world premieres, and special events that reflect the Festival’s signature pairing of exceptional artistry with Napa Valley’s renowned food, wine, and hospitality. The season also introduces the Allegro Pass, designed to welcome the next generation of festivalgoers and expand access to the Festival experience.

Each year, more and more music festivals are joining the lineup, expanding and diversifying the event circuit in the United States. To find the best, our panel of music festival aficionados nominated essential festivals from coast to coast, where music fans can enjoy several artists (and even genres) in one place. Then, readers voted to crown the winners.