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Pasadena is about to get loud. Arroyo Seco Weekend, a two-day music and art festival, will take over the Brookside Golf Course this weekend.
The lineup features a mix of local acts like Dawes, The Mowgli's and Fitz & the Tantrums alongside national and international ones including Alabama Shakes, Avery*Sunshine and Broken Social Scene. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will headline Saturday's concert while Mumford & Sons will finish Sunday's show.
The City Council and neighborhood associations debated the event for years, working to ease residents' concerns about crowds and noise.
Pasadena councilmember Steve Madison, who represents the district where the Rose Bowl is located, worked with festival organizer Goldenvoice, the promoter behind the Coachella Music Festival, to make the event a reality.
Madison spoke with The Frame about the community's concerns, which, he said, often come down to the nature of the event:
For example, U2 seems to be very popular with... the demographic of the neighborhoods and [there were] not a lot of complaints... On the other hand, when we had, for example, Eminem, we got a lot of complaints about that. And I think a lot of it is the type of sound that's coming out of the venue and some of it's just content-based too.
Unlike Coachella, Arroyo Seco Weekend bills itself as a family festival, an important factor to bringing the event to the city, according to Madison:
We could not do Coachella at the Rose Bowl and we would not want to do Coachella... It will be probably mostly a more mature demographic, you can tell by some of the acts.
Madison also said that although the event will likely draw an older crowd, he believes Arroyo Seco Weekend is open to everybody:
I think it's tricky to stereotype music preferences and followers around those kinds of diversity issues. I think people can surprise you in terms of who they like. And so I'm hoping that we do see a cross-section of the community there.
In addition to music, the festival includes art installations and vendors selling food and drinks, including picnic baskets curated by notable local chefs.
General admission passes cost $175 for one day or $275 for the entire weekend.