Returning for the 2023 festival, fans celebrate enduring connections made at Cali Roots.

The California Roots Music & Art Festival attracts about 12,000 people for each day of the four-day festival, making it exponentially larger than many of the towns I have called home in my life. And if Cali Roots is a small town, Carl, who spoke to the Weekly on a first-name basis, could be its mayor.

The Seaside resident greeted me immediately as I approached the front of The Bowl stage. “The Bowl” is Cali Roots’ name for the large, oval-shaped arena at the Monterey County Fair and Events Center where I have gleefully watched powerful men and women throw heavy and awkward things during the Monterey Scottish Games and Celtic Festival and even caught a screening of the Jordan Peele film Get Out during a pandemic-era drive-in movie.

But for Carl, this arena has been the headquarters for his chosen-family reunion each year for the past thirteen years.

“I was here year one,” says Carl, who attended the first Cali Roots in 2010. “And I’ve had this corner for eight years.”

“This corner” refers to the front row of the audience, stage right for the band. Carl, his blanket, and the group that has formed around him over 13 years holds down the corner of the T-shaped lane at the front of the stage.

This corner is ideal, Carl explained, to avoid the crane equipment taking sweeping video of the stage and crowd. While Carl does not consider himself a photographer—or even share his decade-plus of Cali Roots images anywhere—he discovered Carl’s Corner gave him a clear view of the stage and the musicians he waits all year to enjoy.

Carl holds down his spot at 7am each day. I met him, and an entire eclectic group of dedicated locals, before Sunday, the final day of the festival, kicked off at The Bowl’s stage.

They’re here for the music, of course. For a recap of many of the bands that took the stage during the four-day festival, see the slideshow at the top of this story.

Dan, a Hollister-based reggae artist, credits Cali Roots with inspiring him to make his own reggae music. He was especially excited to catch the next set, Salinas’ own The Rudians. “If these locals can do it, I have a chance,” says Dan, who performs as Dub Souljah.

Beyond community and inspiration, Cali Roots fans come to the festival and find love, too. Alexis Carillo (who was interviewed as part of the Weekly’s cover package, in a story about Cali Roots fashion) added a new accessory to her signature festival looks this weekend: an engagement ring. Her boyfriend Carlos, whom she met at Cali Roots in 2019, proposed to her Wednesday.

I asked the fresh fiancées if the festival will feature in their nuptials in any way. “It will be a festival-themed wedding,” Carillo declares with a big smile. I hope her mesmerizing, bedazzled eyelashes make an appearance on the big day.

As I approached the festival on Sunday, Long Beach Dub AllStars called out for cheers from “Long Beach in the house,” then “Bay Area,” and ended with “everyone not from California.” As a proud Monterey County transplant since 2017, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of calling out the “locals in the house.”

I asked Carl’s daughter Cienna (also first-name basis) about the contributions that locals make to the ever-so-crucial festival vibes. She lives in Monterey and began attending Cali Roots with her dad in 2014. “Saying locals are strong is an understatement,” she says. “It’s concrete.”

Cienna shared endless examples of Cali Roots connections, whether folks become a part of their group chat or are simply familiar, friendly faces living in the same small town for a long weekend. From Carl’s Corner, they have celebrated strangers’ milestones like a family member.

“The music established the vibe and the energy and connection grew,” she says, describing the love and care she feels is woven into the Cali Roots experience. “It brings tears to your eyes, the progression of it all.”