‘Concerts in Your Car’ series debuts at Del Mar with Snoop Dogg, Beach Boys, Slightly Stoopid and more

The Mike Love-led Beach Boys and San Diego’s Slightly Stoopid are among the acts confirmed to perform at the new drive-in series “Concerts in Your Car at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.”

It debuts Friday, Sept. 25, with two performances by Huntington Beach rock/reggae/hip-hop band Dirty Heads.

The initial batch of shows includes hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, who will be appearing as DJ Snoopadelic, the name he uses when spinning records.

Each Del Mar “Concerts in Your Cars” performance will have a capacity of 700 vehicles and be held on a four-sided stage with four large video screens. The concerts will be broadcast on an FM frequency that guests can listen to in their vehicles, although the onstage sound system is expected to be sufficient to project the music directly, giving concert-goers both options.

Ticket prices start at $99 per vehicle for each concert, plus service fees, with up to four patrons per vehicle. Prices go as high as $349 per vehicle for the two Oct. 4 DJ Snoopadelic shows and $350 for the Nov. 1 acoustic performance by Aaron Lewis of Staind and Sully Erna of Godsmack.

Tickets are available online at concertsinyourcar.com/sandiego. Mask-wearing and social distancing will be required at each performance. Before completing a ticket transaction, each purchaser must check a COVID-19 waiver that indemnifies the fairgrounds, state, county and producers of “Concerts in Your Car” from any liability.

“Concerts in Your Car” debuted June 26 at the Ventura County Fairgrounds with two “Congrats to Grads!” shows by rapper Super Duper Kyle. Other acts to perform drive-in shows in Ventura this summer include Fitz and the Tantrums, Ozomatli and San Diego’s Grammy Award-winning Switchfoot, whose June gig in a parking lot at Petco Park was the first drive-in show in California held during the pandemic.

The Ventura “Concerts in Your Car” series is staged by CBF Productions, which is branching out to Del Mar.

In July, San Diego’s Mainly Mozart held the first drive-in concerts at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Mainly Mozart will present six drive-in concerts in October at the fairgrounds. These include a reconfigured 2020 season with the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which takes place Oct. 17-24 and includes an Oct. 18 concert featuring San Diego-based jazz saxophonist Charles McPherson.

With concert tours and festivals at a standstill since March, when the pandemic took hold, drive-in concerts became the “new normal” this summer in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. San Diego’s generally moderate climate makes it possible for drive-in concerts to take place here well into the fall, if not beyond.

“We plan on producing events offering a range of entertainment in a variety of locations straight into the holidays,” Vincenzo Giammanco, founder of CBF Productions, said in a statement.

‘Concerts in Your Car’ schedule

Friday, Sept. 25: Dirty Heads, 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 26: Kane Brown drive-in concert film screening, with Granger Smith, Jimmie Allen and Lauren Alaina, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 1: Selena tribute, starring Adelaide, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 4: DJ Snoopadelic, 4 and 8 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 9: Chris Janson, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 10: Slightly Stoopid, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 24: Beach Boys, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 1: Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna, 8 p.m. ◆