Sweet Sound Bites: Rebels & Renegades Festival 2022

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Rebels & Renegades Festival 2022

The inaugural Rebels & Renegades, the two day music festival that took place October 15th and 16th at the Monterey Fair & Eevent Center in the picturesque coastal coty of Monterey California, ineventibly took it's time getting to us. The creative minds behind the popular California Roots Music & Arts Festival also in Monterey, Good Vibez Presents, were initially going to bring us Rebels & Renegades a couple of years ago but Covid struck and best laid plans were shelved. That is, until this month.

Rebels & Renegades is an homage to the rebellious spirit and story telling culture of Americana, outlaw country, bluegrass and folk artists of today. They surely made an impression right out of the gates with an eclectic line up featuring Cody Jinks, Trampled By Turtles, Orville Peck, Houndnouth, Nikki Lane and Shooter Jennings just to name a few. There was a good mix of well known acts as well as not so well known acts to keep all attendees busy and entained through out each day.nIt was a smaller foot print than other NorCal fests we're used to which was a pleasant relief to everyone's feet. With a line up like this, festival goers couldn't help but catch a little bit of every performance and because of the way things where set up scheduled you could choose to do just that if that's what you wanted to do. That isn't the case at most festivals, those rebels!

Of course Orville Peck stole the show on day one. With is tassled masked face and dark sultry country vibes how could he not?

Orville Peck @ Rebels & Renegades Festival 2022
photo by Marc Fong

Along with being a show stealing act, it was a subtle way of introducing the more rural demographic who might not have ever heard of Orville Peck or realized that he is of the LGBTQ+ community. We're willing to bet that those who weren't aware and saw him at Rebels & Renegades fully enjoyed his set, how could you not?