Bay Area festival season back in full form with events in Oakland, S.F. and Sonoma

Halloween Meltdown, a punk music festival, draws a crowd to Mosswood Park in Oakland. Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle

About midway through his set at the first Halloween Meltdown in Oakland, Chaki the Funk Wizard — a self-anointed vampire, wearing a sparkling sequined cape and a floral playsuit — paused to invite a close comrade he knew as a child onto the stage.

His friend, of course, was Frankenstein, in an Oakland A’s jersey.

Chaki, nee’ Cory Sklar, and his costumed pal were the perfect encapsulation of the quirky two-day music festival that brought energy back to Mosswood Park on Saturday, Oct. 16. With 16 bands, mostly of the punk and garage rock variety, the outdoor event featured an outre collection of both fans and performers, all of whom seemed grateful to be returning to a music festival setting after more than a year of virtual concerts.

John Waters speaks at Halloween Meltdown at Mosswood Park in Oakland. Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle

Host John Waters, the low-brow auteur famous for his unabashedly trashy films, imbued his offbeat nature into the event, delivering specially catered introductions before each act took the stage. For instance, when setting the stage for Sacramento punk rockers Drug Apartments, Waters quipped that “everyone here has lived in one.”

Most of the crowd, all who were required to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test to get inside festival gates, were in the Halloween spirit to make the theme of the festival, sporting costumes that ranged from Pee-wee Herman to Michael Myers of the “Halloween” slasher film franchise. Sue Laurita, 58, a costume designer from San Francisco, came dressed as a can of crushed tomatoes. Her inspiration for her costume?

“I’m half-Italian,” Laurita, “and I’m saucy!”

Plenty of ensembles also came with outrageous beehive hairdos, a style often featured in Waters’ campy movies. A duo with those coifs and Pepto Bismol-colored painted skin to look like pink poodles, took home the $500 prize for best dressed during the festival’s costume contest hosted by Bay Area artists Brontez Purnell and Shannon Shaw of the Oakland retro-rock band Shannon & the Clams.

East Bay hardcore band Bodhi’s War entertains the crowd at Halloween Meltdown. Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle

And the eccentric vibe of the audience was more than matched by the bands. Performing on a single stage in the park’s small amphitheater, the lineup included East Bay hardcore band Bodhi’s War, whose members wore masks of past presidents a la the bank robbers in the cult classic “Point Break”; Body Double, the Oakland punk band led by fierce frontwoman Candace Lazarou, clad in devil horns and red face paint; and the San Francisco-bred noise rockers Osees, who closed out the night with a raucous routine that fueled the mosh pit.

Halloween Meltdown, which continues through Sunday, Oct. 17, with headliners the Mummies, is the first event back at Mosswood Park for Total Trash Productions since severing ties with longtime partners Burger Records and rebranding its annual summertime Burger Boogaloo festival, after accusations of sexual assault and underage grooming by the Southern California label’s artists. Part of that rebranding included signs throughout the festival grounds that reminded attendees “inappropriate touching, sexual harassment or racism will result in an immediate ejection.”

Attendees mosh in the pit while Bodhi’s War performs during Halloween Meltdown. Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, which was basking in summer-like weather on Saturday, the Huichica Music Festival was wrapping up its laidback two-day outdoor concert in Sonoma with Mac Demarco, Cass McCombs and Yo La Tengo, and Noise Pop’s 20th Street Block Party, a free bash in San Francisco’s Mission District, brought life to the corridor after more than a year of pandemic delays.

“It’s wonderful to be back,” said Cara Sternberg Marwaha, 32, who was dancing with her husband Sumeet during the block party’s closing set by Portland’s Latin indie alt band Y La Bamba. “I was noticing everybody came out in their best clothes. It’s just fun to see San Francisco like this again.”

Noise Pop’s 20th Street Block Party returned to the Mission District. Photo: Chris Kocher / Noise Pop 2021

Indeed, with events throughout the weekend, this second weekend of October seemed to have marked a true return of live music to the Bay Area.

“I’m having a blast!” said Laurita. “It feels so good to be out here again with all these wonderful people. We’ve all missed this.”

Chronicle Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza contributed to this report.

Halloween Meltdown: Noon-9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17. $49-$149. Mosswood Park, 3612 Webster St., Oakland. halloweenmeltdown.net

  • Will Reisman
    Will Reisman Will Reisman is a San Francisco freelance writer.