Punk in the Park - Silverado, CA - 11/5/22-11/6/22
The annual Punk in the Park was announced once again to take place at the Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, California. The main attraction to the two-day festival is the addition of a variety of punk bands ranging from newer punk bands to the old school punk bands. The festival would also feature three hours of craft beer tasting from local and regional breweries. A few weeks before the festival, the punk community was struck with sadness when Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro was found dead in his home. Dead Kennedys were scheduled to perform on Saturday. To give Dead Kennedys time to grieve, they pulled out of the festival and would be replaced by a different band. Nearing the event, Saturday sold out and Sunday was very close to it. Punk fans from all over the country and even outside of the USA came to witness one of the biggest punk rock festivals around.
Day 1: The gates opened at 12pm and even before then, a huge line of punk rockers had formed at the gates as they were eager to get inside. Fans were dressed in all forms of attire. From dressing casual to the obvious punk rockers with vests, patches, colored hair and mohawks. The first day of the festival was filled with punk bands like Suzi Moon, The Bronx, Bad Cop Bad Cop, The Adolescents, Subhumans, The Flatliners and Manic Hispanic. The set times for both stages were set so that bands wouldn't overlap which made fans happy so they wouldn't be forced to pick between two bands they wanted to see or see a few songs from one band then rush over to the other stage to see another band. The time was now 6:15 and the main stage was full of people waiting to see who the surprise guest was. The lights went out and the crowd cheered as familiar faces out on stage. The surprise guest were the punk legends, The Vandals. To honor Dead Kennedys, The Vandals played a cover of Let's Lynch the Landlord. The Vandals are a crowd favorite, so the fans naturally responded with mosh pits and crowd surfers. After The Vandals were Face to Face. Lots of fans were excited for them as they were one of those bands you first got into while you were in middle school or high school. Ending the night were punk rock legends, Bad Religion. As soon as they came on stage, the floor came alive with mosh pits, pushing and shoving. Day one of Punk in the Park was a success and the festival was only half over.
Day 2: Once again, doors opened at 12pm and fans were once again lined up as they were eager to get back into the action. On this day, you had bands like Voodoo Glow Skulls, Pulley, Good Riddance, Anti-Flag, and Agent Orange. Fans still packed the venue and continued to show their support for the bands that they've been fans of for years as well as a chance to discover new bands they hadn't heard of before. The second to last band were The Bouncing Souls and they were one of the highlights of the show. Even it being nighttime and cold, fans still moshed and sang along the whole time. The headlining band of the day were the Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys. They're currently on an acoustic tour and lucky for the fans in attendance, this was the only stop on the tour where they would be playing as a normal band. As soon as they came out on stage, most of the floor came alive with pushing, shoving and more crowd surfers. Being that it was the last band, the fans gave it their all before they had to go home back to their normal lives and jobs. They did not disappoint and showed Dropkick Murphys that they were loved. The festival sadly came to an end and could see the carnage left all over the festival grounds. Trash and cups everywhere, drunk people everywhere, but smiles could be seen all around. It's safe to say that they were already looking forward to next year's festival.
Photos and review by Misael Ruiz
