This year Cali Roots sees the epic return to the Monterey County Fair and Event Center after a two year hiatus due to COVID-19. The legendary event started in Monterey in 2009 and continues to bring the best lineup for musical acts, visual artists, and food trucks to the community they love. Today the festival celebrates Monterey with locals taking center stage.
Making deeper connections with their community during the pandemic, Amy Sheehan, Operations Manager and Community Outreach Director, along with the Cali Roots team created the Night Market 831. Inspired by the open-air street bazaars found around the world, Night Market 831 is an inclusive, collaborative space for friends and families to come together to check out a rotating roster of local performers, creatives and entrepreneurs. With deeper partnerships formed, Cali Roots can offer the festival insight into Monterey’s vast and talented local communities for food and art; giving the local creators a much larger and far reaching platform to showcase their talents – the Cali Roots audience!
Esselen Tribe Opening Blessing & Surf Rider Foundation:
Cali Roots is committed to bring awareness to the fact Monterey is located on land inhabited by the Esselen Tribe. To honor the tribe and to spread awareness, Esselen Tribe will be both on site with a booth, and opening the festival with blessing. Amy comments, “We are honored that the Esselen Tribe is joining us in two ways this year. They are featured as one of our nonprofits, with a booth onsite to bring awareness for their tribe and they will be performing an Opening Blessing at 6:15pm on the Bowl Stage on Thursday with Chief Tom Little Bear Nason and members of their tribe.” Additionally Surf Rider Foundation Monterey has paired up with Cali Roots’ REVERB Rockin Refill Program and proceeds from reusable water bottles will go directly to Surf Rider!
Artisanal Food & Crafts:
Another special touch for this year's Cali Roots is the deep interactions with vendors and attendees. The festival has organized and curated wonderful pop-ups for those lucky VIP Roodwood pass holders and some vendors will also have booths within the festival. Including Small Kind Soaps, a local soap maker specializing in hand poured soap who will offer VIPs an opportunity to cut their own bar of Cali Roots soap. What’s Popp’n Popcorn the best organic, gluten free, nonGMO popcorn on the coast, is run by a local BIOPIC couple who have created signature flavors including our favorite - sweet white cheddar! Miss Lippe's Dumpling Party, local dumpling goddess, will be filling bellies with tempting dumplings.
Johnny Wicks a Black owned, local candle maker, has created a number of Cali Roots collab candles for the festival over the past year. This year he is hooking up the Redwood VIPs with their very own Johnny Wicks Big Sur candle and will be selling a variety of candles and incense at his booth located inside the festival near the Art Retreat area. ZumZum Tea is a local tea provider who will be offering hot tea perfect for when that marine layer rolls in. Sweet Reba's is a woman owned bakery and a phenomenal baker who will be hooking up VIPs with tempting, Cali Roots branded sweet treats; and selling her confections at her booth inside the festival. Leah Mark Designs is a woman owned, local earring and necklace creator. Her signature style stands out from the rest, with a success story that grew from market booths, like the one she will have at Cali Roots, into her own brick and mortar in Carmel! And Marple will have a booth too, they are a Salinas based artist with a huge Cali Roots following!
This year's food court is stacked with sensational foodie dishes that will bring the tastes and flavors of Monterey to Cali Roots. Mmm Churros are handmade, vegan churros and the best in the 831. They will be serving churros, churro bites and churro bouquets by the dozen. Central Coastan Pizza has the best wood fired pizza from Chris Elkins of Seaside. Casas De Humo BBQ has a cult following best known for their BBQ brisket nachos, and the infamous Jelly D, a brisket sandwich in between jelly donuts. NitroCycle is the one and only local bike powered coffee cart run by Mike Baroni. He also runs the festival’s free bike and skate valet! Pupuseria Nathalia is a BIOPIC, woman owned pupuseria with the most delicious, authentic, handmade El Salvadorian pupusas and tamales. India Gourmet is a local foodie who creates delectable Indian food including the coveted curry naan wrap. Maha's Catering offers the best Lebanese and authentic Arabic dishes in Monterey. And also, locals Carnival Catering will be selling their outstanding kettle corn.
Visual Art
Interactive installations set up at the festival will surely dazzle attendees' senses. Included this year are partners like Progress Not Perfection which is run by local artist Jess Ansberry who is bringing her wildly popular paint party to Cali Roots this year. For $10 anyone can join the freestyle paint party in the Art Retreat. She will provide the supplies & the vibes of Cali Roots the inspiration. Throughout the festival a number of local artists will be onsite during the weekend creating murals live including Arsenio Baca, Calee Dunlap (aka Babybob Ross) and The Jams Brand – Jessica Carmen and AugieWK. There will be various interactive art opportunities throughout the four days by local artists including Ryann’s Signature Glass, a Dirty Girl Plant workshop, Urtha Angel macrame, Sea Maid seaglass and Chris Powers screenprinting. And the talented Shaun Logan who masterminds the look and feel of Cali Roots branding will have a booth showcasing his work with collectable posters and unique prints!
Sponsors:
And all of this is not possible without Cali Roots sponsors. This years sponsors include
Big Sur Canna + Botanicals who are the only locally owned dispensary in the Monterey area that serves our diverse community. Merge 4 an awesome sock company based in Santa Cruz. El Jefe is a locally owned tequila company.
Local Music
And Salinas’ own reggae band, The Rudians will be making their Cali Roots debut on Thursday, May 26th on the Pop Up Stage!
Every year since the start of Cali Roots, the audience has grown exponentially and has become the movement that it is today. The annual event has spawned many copycats, but none can live up to the lineup, vibe, spirit, and loyal fanbase that Cali Roots has built over the past decade. With the return of the 11th edition, Cali Roots will be bringing the flavors, art and sounds that Monterey has to offer alongside a stellar line-up of today’s best Roots music including, reggae, hip hop, and folk!
The festival is set to take place at the Monterey County Fair and Event Center on May 26-29, 2022.
FESTIVAL DETAILS
California Roots Music and Arts Festival 2022
Dates: Thursday, May 26 - Sunday, May 29, 2022
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 pm PDT
Venue: Monterey County Fair and Event Center
Address: 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey, CA 93940
Admission: Varies
Age restrictions: All Ages
Single Day Tickets On-Sale Here
Full Line-Up is Here
