Sunstock Solar Festival 2018

This year's Sunstock Solar Festival took on the vibe of a prior festival called Bloomfest that used to happen in the Arts District. Sunstock took over Gramercy Place, which is between the major streets of Hollywood and Franklin in Hollywood. The street had a stage on one end and then various food trucks, advocacy tables, vendors and art installations set up along the street corridor. There was even a children's tent. Though Gramercy might be a relatively unknown street in Los Angeles, there were plenty of ways to get to it via public transportation. I personally took the opportunity to jump on the 180 metro line to get to the festival. There was also a very chill environment surrounding the festival. There was no formal entrance. No one was checking bags. Though there were police and security, they mainly stayed at the two entrances and the beer garden. It really had a neighborhood feel to it, which is also what made Bloomfest so fun (even though in both Bloomfest and Sunstock cases, I did not live in the neighborhoods).

Karmic

You also know an event is a success when crowds refuse to allow the final band of the night to stop singing, Karmic. In fact, the crowd pushed Karmic to go 5 minutes pass the 10 p.m. cut-off time by demanding an encore. The crowd just ate up this duo's electronic pop beats.

Top Shelf Brass Band

Trapdoor Social

Top Shelf Brass Band perhaps stole the day with their brass band sounds. They had the crowd dancing and basically going nuts throughout their 30 minute set. Trapdoor Social, led by Sunstock Solar Festival founder Skylar, also got the crowd going with their anthem sounding rock-pop sounds.

Valley Hush

Valley Hush opened the festival with some chill vibes. One individual in the crowd told me that they are for sure the next indie band from Los Angeles to breakout.

Kinney

Kinney had a short set just before Karmic hit the stage. One has to give her the award for being the most supportive musician of the festival. She was out there dancing along to nearly all the bands.

El Mañana

The Epilogues

Other bands playing the festival were El Mañana, The Epilogues and Cayucas. The Epilogues were playing their first set after a couple years apart. Essentially, it was their reunion show. Cayucas brought some tropical sounds. Did I really see 3 synth/keyboards spread across the stage? El Mañana brought some Latin American inspired pop sounds.

Cayucas