Punk in the Park 2023 takes on Ventura County Fairgrounds

Punk in the Park delivered an unforgettable festival in its first installment at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. The beautiful coastline on March 25th created a perfect sunny SoCal day for some punk rock! With headliners like Pennywise and Suicidal Tendencies, the crowd showed up and showed early ready to rage. The punk community came together dressed to impress and they even brought their kids!

One thing that I’ve always admired about the punk community is the age reach this genre has.

Any kids that were seen throughout the day were having the time of their lives on a family fun punk day, all in their own respective studded vests. 

The vibes were high from the very start of the festival thanks to Romper and Raptors who opened the two stages of the festival. Early birds had the pleasure of enjoying free unlimited beer tasting from 12:00-3:00 PM. When the tasting concluded, attendees still got tons of beer and spirit options from many booths and bars throughout the festival. The food selection was immaculate, I couldn’t decide whether to get shrimp fries, usual chickie tendies, or just go for the pizza. A quick walk around the seated eating area allowed me to eyeball what was around and delicious shrimp fries it was! 

As the music played continuously all day, I really appreciated that I could hear either stage performance from most places in the festival (excluding by the entrance). Being able to sit and eat while jamming out to Drain in the afternoon is honestly the Winnie the Pooh meme brought to life. When Dwarves took the stage, the singer brought an energy that pulled in nearly everyone to the stage presence. When somebody fell and got hurt in the circle pit, he made a point to stop and make sure he got out.

Then, we went harder in his honor.

The energy continued through the rest of stage two’s performances like The Bronx’s insane stage presence or Manic Hispanic’s absolutely lovable personality that exudes from their performance. 

The ability to flow back and forth between Stage 1 and 2 was so incredibly ideal. PITP truly nailed the crowd flow while allowing all the bands to play with zero overlap. The main stage delivered our classics we’ve all been waiting to hear from Strung Out and The Bouncing Souls. The new venue debut went off seamlessly, leaving us waiting for Punk in the Park Ventura again! 

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