For the fourth time in its six-year history, Sol Blume will be held August 19th and 20th at the iconic Discovery Park in Downtown Sacramento. In an age where music festivals have become so abundant, it becomes pretty easy to brush over the many festivals that take place every year, especially those that are lesser known on a national and international level. Until my move to Northern California from the San Fernando Valley (LA Metro Area), I had never heard of Sol Blume, and I did not understand its significance until I’d begun my time with KSJS. Despite its reputation as a smaller, more regional festival, Sol Blume has drastically expanded since its inception in 2018. The first year of this ever-growing and expanding festival took place at the Cesar Chavez Plaza (Also in Downtown Sac.) and had a capacity of 6500 fans. According to the Sacramento Bee, Sol Blume 2022 had an attendance of more than 40,000 fans. Since the pandemic, the demand for live music has steadily been on the rise. The continuous expansion and popularity of Sol Blume is a living testament to this increasing demand for live music. Now with more buzz than ever, Sol Blume has returned in 2023!
In a city that has historically been quite rock-oriented, fans of hip-hop, r&b, and soul have been somewhat neglected in terms of concerts, festivals, and events. In addition to this, there are many festivals centered around Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, etc, in the United States, and abroad, but there’s a definite lack of R&B and Soul festivals. The Founders of Sol Blume, Justin Nordan and Fornati Kumeh, noticed this disparity, and saw a great opportunity to create a unique experience for fans of these genres. The two live music executives went to the drawing board in 2017 to devise a plan, and since then Sol Blume has experienced great success year in and year out with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
Every year they have done very well in hosting some of the greatest talents in the genres of R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop. Some of the biggest names to ever grace the stage at Sol Blume include Jhenè Aiko (2018, 2022), Goldlink (2018), The Internet (2018), Smino (2019, 2022), JID (2019), Miguel (2019), Jessie Reyez (2019, 2023), Jorja Smith (2022), Jazmine Sullivan (2022), Summer Walker (2022), and Thundercat (2022) amongst so many other amazing artists. While Sol Blume has had an abundance of artists on their lineups that are renowned on a global level, they have never shied away from providing a platform to artists who are up and coming. This has made Sol Blume a place to see the greatest talents of today, tomorrow, and beyond. Sol Blume is not at all attempting to be another Rolling Loud, Coachella, or Lollapalooza. In the words of co-founder, Justin Nordan: “We wanted [to] embrace the fact that we are a boutique festival and we wanted it to feel like you are in the backyard listening to good music with your close friends.” Despite its vast growth, Sol Blume has not forgotten its roots, and it has given Sacramento, The Bay, and all of Northern California a laid-back gathering place to have a unique experience with some of the finest talents in R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop. With this being said, I am thrilled to partake in this experience, and I can only imagine what this amazing environment will have in store for me. For more information on tickets, visit https://solblume.com/tickets/.
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