A sold out crowd attended the KLOS Sabroso Craft Beer, Taco & Music Festival in Dana Point’s Doheny State Beach on Saturday (4/7) seeking entertainment, craft beer, and tasty tacos. They got their money’s worth and more as the KLOS Sabroso Dana Point Festival sizzled with a huge selection of craft beers, some delicious food, and electric entertainment. With the festival continuing on to Sacramento (4/8), Denver (4/28), Albuquerque (4/29), Tucson (5/5), Auburn 5/12), and Portland 5/13), the Sabroso fun is sure to continue.

Produced by California’s most successful and respected craft beer festival producer Brew Ha Ha Productions and premier music festival production company Synergy Global Entertainment (SGE), KLOS Sabroso Craft Beer, Taco & Music Festival brought together a diverse array of stellar breweries, top regional chefs, and top-notch music entertainment. Cameron Collins, Brew Ha Ha Productions’ Co-Founder and Director of Events, said “Today’s Sabroso Festival in Dana Point will have over 12,500 attendees.”

Cameron Collins, Brew Ha Ha Production’s Co-Founder and Director of Events, has a taco craving.

Craft Beer

Over 50 craft breweries participated, offering more than 200 different craft beers for avid beer fans. For up to four hours, the breweries offered complimentary tasters. Almost every brewery had four different beers to sample.

Early festival attendees had no wait to sample beers.

As the day wore on and the crowd grew, long lines developed but moved at a steady pace.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the beers I tried. Of the beers I sampled, I was especially impressed with the Wild Barrel Brewing Little Puffy Clouds. This New England-style IPA is dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic, Mandarina Bavaria, and Idaho 7 hops. The beer delivers a refreshingly juicy citrus flavor punch with a mild hop bitterness.

As I expected, Lost Coast Brewing featured Pennywiser Session IPA to accompany punk rock legends Pennywise‘s festival appearance at Sabroso Dana Point. Pennywise partnered with award-winning Lost Coast Brewery to produce Pennywiser beer. You can read more about last year’s launch of this beer by clicking here. Dry hopped with Cascade, Crystal, Chinook and Citra hops, Pennywiser bursts with a citrus aroma while delivering a crisp, dry, and refreshing hoppy taste consisting of citrus and pine. The bitter finish balances well with an underlying malt cracker base. The flavor definitely captures the character and intensity of the Pennywise band. Because this Session IPA contains a mild alcohol content (4.8%), you can enjoy a few beers throughout a Pennywise concert.

The Sabroso festival delivered an impressive array of breweries and craft beers to sample, including many from regional breweries. If you are a craft beer lover, Sabroso delivered way beyond the norm.

Food

The food theme of the day was tacos. As a result, almost 20 taco vendors were on hand to satisfy your taco cravings, including vegan tacos.

The festival day started with a taco challenge. Sixteen different taco vendors competed for best taco based on judging from area food critics. The judges applied appearance, taste, texture and creativity criteria to determine the winner. The results:

1st Place: Chisme Tortilleria

2nd Place: Sausage King

3rd Place: Fiesta Gourmet

CAUTION: Taco Judge at work

For lunch, I had Chicana Vegana‘s Fysh taco and Al Pastor taco. Both were vegan and delicious.

Entertainment

Splash!

Lucha Libre style wrestling matches had the crowd roaring with delight. Top Lucha Libre style wrestling stars from across the globe battled in the ring for the title of Sabroso Champion. The theme-perfect event kept the action flowing between music performances and offered great entertainment while quaffing tacos and beer.

However, the main entertainment for the day was the live music performances. The Offspring, Pennywise, The Vandals, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, Unwritten Law, Los Kung Fu Monkeys and Naked Walrus.

I spoke with Naked Walrus’s lead singer, Dakota Gartner, during the festival and asked him what it was like to be the lead-in band for the Sabroso festival. Dakota said – “It’s amazing. John Reese, Synergy Global Entertainment, and Cameron Collins, Brew Ha Ha Productions, have created a fantastic community event that highlights genre-specific passions for people. For us to be a part of that and highlight our artistic passions means the world.” You can read about my full conversation with Dakota Gartner later this week in another article I’ll be publishing.

Naked Walrus opened the music line-up with energy and verve.

Throughout the evening, as each musical act appeared the energy and fun intensified. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes delivered rapid-fire punk interpretations of a wide range of cover songs with a sarcastically humorous edge. The Vandals ramped up the concert energy with their zany but energetic musical performance. However, the musical intensity and fan excitement climaxed with the appearances of Pennywise and The Offspring. Both of these bands have large followings and deliver stirring performances.

Sabroso Final Thoughts

First of all, the Sabroso Dana Point Festival delivered. Sabroso is truly a community event that features the joy and fun of combining craft beer, tacos and music.  For about half the price of a day ticket to Disneyland, Sabroso Dana Point provided a thousand times more adult fun. If you are in the area for one of the next Sabroso event venues and can still get a ticket, then GO!

Step 1 – Getting into the Sabroso spirit!

A big THANK YOU to A12 Entertainment and Ashton-Magnuson Media for providing me the opportunity to attend and review the KLOS Sabroso Craft Beer, Taco & Music Festival.

Also, thank you to Pinup Pat for all of the superb photographs.