Nearby: 🎶 Live Oak Music Festival, Friday

Live Oak opens at El Chorro with Friday afternoon and Neal Francis closing

In San Luis Obispo. The Live Oak Music Festival opens at El Chorro Regional Park on Friday, the first day of the three-day KCBX Public Radio fundraiser that runs through Sunday. The festival starts at 1 PM after the morning load-in, easing into the weekend with a Beer Garden set before the main programming builds across the afternoon and evening. El Chorro is the regional park midway between Morro Bay and downtown San Luis Obispo, the same oak-shaded campground that holds the SLO Botanical Garden and Dairy Creek Golf Course, about 15 minutes from town down Highway 1.

Friday’s lineup walks from beergrass to honky-tonk through folk rock and Afro-Mexican American futurism, all building toward a 9 PM headline slot at the KCBX Stage with Neal Francis. The Chicago-based funk, soul, and rock musician has been working a national festival circuit on the back of three studio albums and a heavy touring schedule, and he closes Friday’s main programming with the kind of long-form keyboard-driven set the room has been waiting for since the gates opened.

The day starts with The Mother Corn Shuckers in the Beer Garden at 1 PM, a seven-piece California Americana group with a serious touring catalog of their own. From there the afternoon runs through California Americana with Natalie Haskins, folk rock with The Sam Chase and the Untraditional, classic honky-tonk and country with Emily Nenni, and beach pop and R&B with Emily Brimlow. Las Cafeteras bring their Afro-Mexican American futurism to the KCBX Stage at 7 PM ahead of Neal Francis. After the headliner, The Sam Chase plays a late Stage Too set, and Jiia and Anahita B2B carry the night past midnight with an organic house DJ set.

Friday is the easiest entry day for a Morro Bay day-tripper. Parking fills through the afternoon, so showing up by mid-afternoon is the move if you’re not camping. Layers help when the inland air cools after sunset. Service dogs only at the festival, no pets per Live Oak’s standing policy. Day tickets and full-festival passes are sold through my805tix.com.

For more weekend music and festival plans around the bay, browse the event calendar.

Friday Schedule

• 1:00 PM The Mother Corn Shuckers (Beer Garden) – Beergrass
• 2:30 PM Natalie Haskins (Beer Garden) – California Americana
• 4:00 PM The Sam Chase & the Untraditional (KCBX Stage) – Folk Rock and Americana
• 5:30 PM Emily Nenni (KCBX Stage) – Honky-Tonk and Country
• 6:30 PM Emily Brimlow (Stage Too) – Beach pop, soul, R&B
• 7:00 PM Las Cafeteras (KCBX Stage) – Afro-Mexican American Futurism
• 9:00 PM Neal Francis (KCBX Stage, headliner) – Funk, Soul, Rock
• 10:30 PM The Sam Chase & the Untraditional (Stage Too, late set)
• 11:59 PM Jiia & Anahita B2B (Stage Too, late-night DJ, runs past midnight) – Organic House