Bay Area hometown heroes Green Day was the big attraction on Day 1 of the BottleRock Napa Valley festival.
Fans waited (somewhat) patiently all day for the East Bay trio — consisting of vocalist-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and with drummer Tré Cool — to take the stage for its headlining set on Friday (May 23).
Finally, right around 8 p.m., these Rodeo rockers hit the festival’s biggie JaM Cellars Stage and delivered a 100-minute-plus set of pop-rock favorites from the band’s multiplatinum-selling catalog.
The Green Day performance — which was something that both fans and organizers had been hoping to see at BottleRock for many years — certainly was a nice way to cap off what had been a very successful opening day to this intensely popular festival.
Other highlights included the hip-hop champions Public Enemy, U.K. buzz band Bad Nerves, Aussie indie-pop crooner Mallrat and Palo Alto singer-songwriter Remi Wolf.
The festival continues through Sunday at the Napa Valley Expo.
Pop titan Justin Timberlake was set to headline on Saturday, with such acts as Benson Boone, Ice Cube, 4 Non Blondes, Kate Hudson (yes, that Kate Hudson) and Lauren Mayberry scheduled to appear earlier in the day.
New England folk-pop singer-songwriter Noah Kahan gets top billing on Sunday, but the docket also includes sets from Goose, Carin Leon, Flo Rida, Khruangbin and — best of all — legendary rock guitarist Robby Krieger from The Doors, among many others.