a OHANA FEST 2024 Review

Founded by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam in 2016, the Ohana Festival mixes 3 days of music and activism around 35 live bands, a hundred artists, 30 inspiring speakers, all over two stages and an area called THE COVE: an exhibition and talks venue.

The 2024 edition took place September 27-29, welcoming 15,000 people per day, on the stunning Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California, about 1h30 south of Los Angeles...and we were there!

More than just a festival surrounded by palm trees and blue Californian skies, surfing cool mixed with rock, raising people's awareness of the importance of social commitment and action for the planet.

Photo Miranda McDonald

THE FESTIVAL

All the people we met over the 3 days were in full agreement: the festival site is absolutely unique!

It is located right on the beach, just a few steps from a perfect wave, well known in the surfing community as a paradise for longboarders and beginners alike!

Eddie Vedder explained that the choice of this beach came from his 1st surf session here when he was 12 years old.

This makes for a very cool and friendly atmosphere.
On another positive note, this is a festival on a human scale.

You can easily enjoy the concerts, the booths, the conferences... feeling like being on your towel at the beach.

It's with great honor that we've been invited as part of the European Surf Culture/Media.
Through our Surf Films screenings, sharing and promoting Surf Culture in the widest context (surf art, music, ocean protection, sports performances, travel...) has always been one of our priorities.

Even if we have a big surf scene in Europe, particularly in south-west of France, California remains the place where this culture was born and is still lived on a daily basis today.

And the Ohana Fest matches that spirit perfectly.

Photo ATW

THE COVE GALLERY

Located next to the Storytellers stage, THE COVE GALLERY is an open-air showroom featuring some 100 artists exhibiting on all types of media.
The selection was masterminded by Charles R. Adler, art curator and co-owner of the Adler / Smith Gallery in Santa Monica.

On display are some classic pieces of surf art, such as the poster of The Endless Summer designed by John Von Hamersveld, and, more generally, works focusing on surfing, music, skateboarding and activism, in painting, installation or photography.

More contemporary artists are exhibited here: Thomas Campbell, Steve Sherman, Todd Glaser, Wolfgang Bloch, Julie Goldstein, Shepard Fairey, ...

Amongst all these great figures of the art form, we also admired original works by Pearl Jam members (Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder) and a piece by Pandora Decoster, a young French painter from the Basque country.

Part of the proceeds of sales goes to the Vitalogy Foundation, an organization founded by Pearl Jam in 2006 to fund and support environmental causes, homelessness and indigenous peoples, through donations to non-governmental organizations.

STORYTELLERS

Today, very few festivals combine concerts and activism.
As with the Climax Festival in Bordeaux, France, Ohana Fest conferences focus on themes like environmental issues and action, global warming, minority communities, art, etc., with the ocean always at the heart of the proceedings.

Professional surfers and snowboarders, activists, scientists, photographers, divers, artists...the storytellers follow one another and the audience is always inquisitive.

Raising consciousness, encouraging reflection, encouraging action, changing behaviour, sharing information... these are the keys to further involvement and activism.

Highlights included surfer Leah Dawson and the “Women of the Sea” talk featuring Danielle Black Lyons, Captain Liz Clark and Dr. Shireen Rahimi; Evan Marks, David McLain and Emily Murphy for “Blue Zones & Ecology Food”; then Todd Glaser and Chris Malloy for the release of the Kelly Slater book “A Life of Waves”...where a guy called Eddie Vedder appeared on stage to tell some fine G.O.A.T. tales.

Many non-governmental organizations were also on hand during the weekend: Surfrider, Ocean Institute, Planned Parenthood, Native Like Waters, Surfers Healing, Project Red...

...And a big thank you to Jonny Roundhouse, for his ukulele live sets between each talk!

Photo Michael Kravetsky

Photo Miranda McDonald

LIVE PERFORMANCES

Most attendees were keen to discover new bands, to enjoy the headliners...and above all, to see Pearl Jam!

We could easily notice the sheer number of the Seattle band's T-shirts, and the long queues at merchandising.

After a lively opening on the ukulele by Eddie Vedder, we were lucky enough to some great bands:
MAKUA ROTHMAN and his reggae, sometimes electro, who, before being a musician, is first a big-wave surfer,

FLIPTURN and their indie pop,

JOE WONG AND NITE CREATURES in an atmospheric, sometimes very dark style,

LA LOM with a modern cumbia,

PETER CAT RECORDING CO. and their captivating cabaret jazz rock...

For the other bands, including international ones, we were delighted to see these excellent artists, fans of ours, live!

DOGSTAR with a Johnny Utah look-alike on bass (!),

CROWDED HOUSE, the famous 80's Australian band featuring Neil and Liam Finn,

DEVO, a band with a career spanning more than 50 years, who drove the main stage audience crazy,

the upright and committed CAT POWER, defending her album of Bob Dylan covers,

Irish songwriter GLEN HANSARD featuring Olivia, Eddie Vedder... and a very young singer,

THE BREEDERS with Kim Deal, the band's frontwoman, extremely moved to be here,

IDLES, who created the festival's one and only pogo, and

KIM GORDON, as charismatic and elegant as in all her years with Sonic Youth.

Photo Michael Kravetsky

Photo Pooneh Ghana

And of course: PEARL JAM.

After listening to the Soundcheck on the evening before the festival opened, a wave-related setlist was in the air.

So, on evening 1, “Low Light” opened the show and the surf tracks were coming in: “Amongst The Waves”, “Whale Song”, a track very rarely played live, and for the occasion, the band was joined on guitar by Zack Irons, son of Pearl Jam's previous drummer, Jack Irons, who also wrote the song.
During this powerful and energetic concert, tracks from their latest album “Dark Matter” proved very conclusive live!
Especially “Scared of Fears” and “Wreckage”.

Then “Leaving Here”, “Future Days” and “Habit”, with Liam Finn on guitar, remind us why this band is so unique.

That's because, for 34 years now, Pearl Jam has kept fans on their toes, surprising them every night with an original setlist!

One question came to us (with our European eyes) just after this concert...how do audiences keep so still?
Even if respecting your concert neighbors can be very friendly, we're always amazed to see that in the U.S. the audience seems less physically alive to the songs, remaining static most of the time.

This is never the experience in Berlin, Italy or in South America, for example...

But that in no way made this live show a dull, overly tranquil affair.

Every chorus was sung along to by the entire crowd!

~

And for their second concert, on Sunday evening, we got even more surprises.

Opening with “Garden” from Ten, the band's 1st album, followed by “Off He Goes”, both played in the dark, then the energetic “Last Exit” and other tracks from almost all their albums.
Let's give a special mention to “Big Wave”, “Wreckage” played a second time (after Friday's concert), but what a fantastic song!

Then “Black”, with Eddie Vedder on guitar on the chorus and final (a rare occurrence), before a totally surprising end to the concert!

Other guest features included Andrew Watt on guitar, producer of “Dark Matter”, on “Rearviewmirror”, Eddie Vedder's youngest daughter, Harper, duetting with him on “LAST KISS”, “SONG OF GOOD HOPE” by and with Glen Hansard, and above all “Gremmie Out of Control” played live for the first time, with ultra-fun vocals by Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam's historic producer Brendan O'Brien on guitar, and vintage surf images in the background!
Stoked!

This before closing with the classics “Alive”, “Rocking In Free World” and some twenty people on stage, including Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction on drums.

Photo Michael Kravetsky

EDDIE VEDDER / PEARL JAM

If you're French, we're absolutely thrilled to have introduced you to OHANA FEST, and maybe even got you interested in going next year... and, above all, helped you discover the music and values of Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, if, like many people here, you didn't know anything about them.

This US rock band, with a career spanning over 30 years, 12 studio albums and hundreds of live albums, is still largely unknown in France.
For the mainstream public, Eddie Vedder is only the musician who wrote the Into The Wild soundtrack.
And if you're not French and you're reading this focus, you'll be surprised to learn that Pearl Jam is almost unknown in France.

This is certainly due to the radio stations, the media and their record company here, which stopped playing them a long time ago (too long), even though they packed stadiums in Spain, Italy, Holland, England...

Above and beyond their songs, some of which are now anthems, and their deeply moving lyrics, they are one of the only bands to hold such events and support environmental and social causes, as well as taking a political stand for human rights, recently for the release of Paul Watson.

The public loves them because of their values, and we love them because they're surf lovers!