Things move a little more slowly in Sacramento than in California’s other big cities. Los Angeles has star power, San Francisco has urban culture and San Diego has the to-die-for weather. Sacramento may not be celebrity-studded, but with the local food, wine, being the state capital and the history as centre of the Gold Rush all help make Sacramento a fun yet laid back place to explore.

I spent 4 days here, visiting for the Aftershock festival. As we were at the festival most days nearly all day and night long, we didn’t get an awful lot of time to explore. I did take the opportunity to spend half a day wandering the river walking to and around Old Town. Considering it’s a major city, it’s not that big and I managed to see pretty much most of it in the half day I had spare. Those planning on holidaying here would probably only need a few days at most to see and do everything I would’ve thought.

We used Uber most of the time to get around or we walked, but using Uber all the time can get expensive fast. Hiring a car to get around would be a good idea if you are here longer than a few days. It’ll allow you to explore further. The downtown area has several attractions within walking distance of one another, but in order to get to Midtown or any of the surrounding suburbs you’ll need your own set of wheels. The city also has an extensive bus and light rail system, but some say it can get crowded and service can be inconsistent.

The people I met were generally warm and friendly. Discussing with them suggested the nightlife in Sacramento is vibrant if you know where to look. Stay in the Downtown or Midtown area. This is where most tourists are anyway.

Old Town

The Old Sacramento Waterfront was born during the 1848 Gold Rush. The area is home to shopping, dining, entertainment, attractions and features restored buildings, wooden sidewalks and horse-drawn carriages to give visitors a taste of 19th century life. A standout sight is the Delta King, a historic paddlewheel riverboat that used to commute between Sacramento and San Francisco and is now a stationary hotel, wedding venue and dining destination. This was the first thing I saw as I arrived at Old Town walking along the river walk.

I was here in October so there were lots of Halloween decorations around and walking into the old town there were many cobwebs and pumpkins lying around all adding to the atmosphere. There were horse drawn carts trotting up and down the roads, bails of hay by the kerbside. The saloons had the traditional swinging doors with light shades made out of whisky bottles. It really is like going back in time.

One thing you have to do is visit the California Railroad Museum. Boasting an exhibit space covering over 200,000 sq ft, the California State Railroad Museum is one of the largest railway museums in the world.  With restored locomotives dating back to 1862. The big kid in me loved it, especially those with huge funnels and cowcatchers. Just across the road is the History Museum with lots of interesting artefacts to see and learn from and definitely worth checking out. Both have a small admission fee, but it’s worth it.

Another place to check out is the State Capitol building and the surrounding gardens. I jumped into an Uber and it’s just a short ride from Old Town. You could walk it if you had the time. It is best to visit here on a weekday though, as the building is closed on weekends. Typically I was here on a Sunday, so unfortunately couldn’t go in. I chose to wander the grounds which had many monuments and statues. As it was fairly quiet I chose to put the drone in the air and get some shots.

Aftershock Festival

Aftershock festival is located at the 302-acre Discovery Park with 4 stages. The layouts were designed with both mainstages almost back to back with alternating performances with viewing screens of each other’s performance. Then the 2 smaller stages rotated with new upcoming talent. The headline acts were day 1, Slipknot, day 2, Kiss, day 3, My Chemical Romance, and day 4, Muse. There were so many great bands to see all day long and some new bands on me that I’d not heard of. After hearing some of them I have added them to my playlist.

Unfortunately on the first day they didn’t have enough water around, the queues at the collection points were crazy long, we were best just getting beer from the bars. With the ridiculous temperature and dehydration being a real possibility, another Woodstock ’99 could’ve been on the cards. Thankfully they fixed this for the second day by adding lots more water tanks around the festival, we had no problem from then onward. We did manage to grab a frozen lemonade, which was so refreshing especially when you feel you’re dying of thirst. I wish I had bought two, though in the heat It was melting quickly. Unfortunately they always ran out of these early on everyday. We didn’t manage to get another the entire weekend.

We did go to Hyatt Regency and spent an afternoon chilling by the pool drinking cocktails. This was some much needed r&r after all the travelling from San Francisco and the first very dusty and thirsty day at the Aftershock Festival with temperatures in the high 30’s Celsius (90’s Fahrenheit). The dust levels were high, many people were wearing masks and what was brought in as fresh green grass on day one, was brown and near dead come day 4.

Come the fourth and final day I was definitely tired, we started the day with an energy shot to help us power through. There was still a lot of great music to make up for our aching legs. My personal favourites were, Bring me the Horizon, Slipknot and Muse. Shinedown, Papa Roach and Evanescence were also good. I have to mention Ice Nine Kills, Beartooth, Pretty Reckless and Falling in Reverse. Download the Aftershock app to keep up to date with where and when the performances are on.

Food and drink wasn’t bad, albeit very expensive $14 for a pint of IPA and $9 for some rubbish lager. With me being an ale drinker, it wasn’t a cheap 4 days. Although we did learn something. Many people had smuggled in their own drink, cunningly refilling sun lotion or make up bottles with vodka or something. The Americans were mostly super friendly and even offered us some of their “contraband”. I only had a few, my mates however were smashed by the end of the night 😂.

There was the usual choice of noodles, pizza pie, BBQ etc. The Memphis quesadilla and brisket fries with cheese were a great choice, however the chicken tenders weren’t much to write home about and definitely the worst meal I had at the festival.

One strange occurrence that happened right smack bang in the middle of the day was when a buck (deer) seemingly came out of nowhere and ran right through the middle of the crowds, toward the main stage. It was such a bizarre sight and I bet the poor thing was terrified. Thankfully it made it through to the other side and scampered on its way and no one was hurt.

After four days of trudging through the dust and grass in Discovery Park watching sets from some of the biggest rock bands in the world. Aftershock showed why the festival has become the biggest hard rock and metal fest on the West Coast of the USA.

It was a shame we didn’t get enough time to really fully experience the nightlife of the city centre, but the bars we did enter had some good beer. There was one other thing I didn’t get time to do. Visit one of the many vineries. Sacramento is nestled in the centre of more than 200 wineries, so if you like a drop, there’s no better place to base yourself. All in all I enjoyed my short time in Sacramento it boasts a great nightlife scene, beautiful farmers’ markets, magnificent arts, and rich history all worthy of exploring.