Sublime Festival Rolled Into Herriman: A Sun-Soaked Celebration of a Legacy Still Growing
Zions Bank Stadium isn’t the venue most people picture when they think “Sublime concert,” but on a hot July Saturday, the Herriman soccer pitch traded cleats and corner kicks for skank beats and dub basslines, and it worked better than anyone had a right to expect. This stop on the inaugural Sublime Festival run brought a genuinely stacked bill to Utah: Sublime headlining alongside Slightly Stoopid, Pennywise, The Ataris, Long Beach Dub Allstars, Codefendants, and a rotating cast on the secondary stage that included Jakobs Castle, Strange Case, and SMKFLWR. For a festival built around one band’s DNA, it felt like a family reunion for three generations of SoCal punk, ska, and reggae-rock.
The Grounds
Turning a soccer-specific stadium into a festival site is a gamble, but the layout gave fans room to breathe in a way that packed amphitheaters rarely do. The pitch became open lawn space, the stands offered a rare elevated view of the whole production, and the sightlines stayed clean even as the crowd swelled through the afternoon. It’s a smaller-capacity venue than Sublime is used to filling on a national tour, which gave the whole event an intimate, almost neighborhood-show feel despite the size of the lineup.
The Undercard Earned Its Keep
Long Beach Dub Allstars leaned into their Sublime bloodline early, keeping the reggae-rock pulse steady before Pennywise came through with the kind of blunt-force, gang-vocal punk energy that gets a crowd moving whether they came for punk or not. The Ataris brought a wave of nostalgia for anyone who grew up on 2000s alt-radio, and Slightly Stoopid, longtime road dogs alongside Sublime, played like a band that knows exactly how to build toward a headliner without stealing its thunder. Over on the second stage, Jakobs Castle and Strange Case gave the day some welcome texture, proving this festival wasn’t content to just be a victory lap for one band’s back catalog.
Sublime Closes It Out
By the time the sun started dipping behind the stadium, the crowd had packed in tight for the main event. The elephant in the room going into any modern Sublime show is obvious: this isn’t the same band that recorded the songs everyone came to hear. Original singer Bradley Nowell died in 1996, and the band has been fronted since 2024 by his son, Jakob Nowell, who grew up watching his father’s legend grow from the outside before eventually stepping into the role himself alongside longtime members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh. It’s a premise that could easily feel like a gimmick, but live, it lands as something closer to inheritance than imitation. Jakob doesn’t try to erase the ghost in the room, he leans into it, letting the crowd’s emotional connection to his father’s voice coexist with his own take on these songs rather than fighting it.
The setlist did what it needed to: the deep cuts got the diehards singing along, and the hits landed exactly the way stadium-sized crowds want them to, arms up, everyone shouting the words back in unison. There’s a newer wrinkle to the catalog now too, with the band’s original material under this lineup starting to slot in alongside the classics, a sign that this version of Sublime isn’t just coasting on nostalgia.
The Verdict
Well Done! Sublime Festival’s Herriman stop proved that a genre-spanning bill built around Sublime’s legacy can stand on its own as a full day of music rather than just an excuse to hear a handful of familiar songs. The undercard was strong enough to reward showing up early, the venue suited the size of the crowd, and the headlining set threaded a genuinely difficult needle: honoring what Sublime was while giving space to what it’s becoming. For a festival still finding its footing in its first year, that’s a strong foundation to build on.
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