Over 30 bands got together Saturday night, Feb. 9, to make the Pomona Valley Music Festival happen.
The Fox Theater in downtown Pomona was flooded with people of all ages going from stage to stage throughout the venue to rock out to the different bands.
Pomona Valley Music Festival was organized and put together by Sunset Palm Productions.
The founder of Sunset Palm is 15-year-old Victor G. Tessier, who makes sure to throw all-ages events so that everyone can be included in getting the live music experience.
This is the first festival he has ever thrown and it took about one month to plan out but only 10 minutes to get the bands to agree to play.
Tessier expressed his goals for the night: “Making all the bands and concert-goers feel safe and happy. Having all the stages run on time, since we have a tight schedule and extremely short intermissions.”
There was a high energy throughout the entire venue being exchanged from the bands to the crowd and back to them.
Music was blasting from the sound systems as the audiences were listening to the music, singing along or linking arm to arm swaying and enjoying the sounds.
Balloons, glow sticks, stickers, lollipops and other band merchandise were being thrown around and in some cases even dropped from the upper level right onto everyone in the main entrance stage to enjoy.
Though it was an all-ages event, the bar was open for those with 21+ wristbands to get a tasty drink to accompany the music.
There was no doubt about it that the crowds were soaking up the excitement and were loving the music.
If you looked at the crowds of people right in front of the stages, you would see tons of head banging, dancing and of course, moshing.
The event began at 4 p.m. and rocked out into the night.
It was $15 per ticket online, but people were allowed to buy $20 tickets at the box office.
One of the performing bands, Sweet Pill, has been jamming together since 2015 and is a three-piece band consisting of bass/vocal, drums and guitar.
The bass player and vocalist, 25-year-old Christian Hernandez, is one of our very own Broncos who transferred to CPP and is majoring in music industry. He has been playing bass for about a decade.
“I love the energy of the crowd,” Hernandez said about his love for playing live shows. “I’m usually a reserved person, but when I’m in front of an audience I give them my all.”
They have performed once before at the Fox and jumped on the chance to perform there again. If they had to define their sound it would be high energy rock ‘n’ roll that you could dance to and even mosh pit to.
“The one thing I want people to know about our band is how our shows are,” Hernandez said. “We put a lot of blood, sweat and screams into our shows. We want to deliver a great experience for our fans and friends.”
This was only a taste of how the local music scene is in Pomona. If you’re interested in more, don’t forget to check venue, bands or even the production companies’ social media accounts to find more shows soon.