Sonoma Proposes Music Fest

The four-day event, if approved, could rival San Francisco’s Outside Lands or Napa Valley’s BottleRock.

But as raceway officials seek approval for new events from Sonoma County officials, concerns about added noise and traffic in the rural, mountainous area between Novato, Sonoma and Vallejo over four days will have to be addressed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The festival proposal, projected to attract about 55,000 people per day, would feature multiple stages for performers along with comedians, local artists and others.

Also in the plan is on-site camping for about 6,000 festivalgoers and an overnight dance party tent, which would play music until about 4 a.m.

“We’ve been getting a very positive reaction from the folks around here in the business community,” Steve Page, racetrack president and GM, told the paper. “For a major festival to be happening in their own backyard is an attractive prospect.”

The project is still in the planning stage but Page and an investor group are moving ahead to make it happen as soon as the summer of 2017, the Gate reported. Sonoma County officials are seeking an agency to conduct an environmental impact report, which takes about two years to complete. Eventually the plan will go before the county Planning Commission, then Board of Supervisors for approval, the paper said.