Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience headlines this year’s Stone Soup fest.

This event was scheduled August 26-27, 2023.


Great sounds alongside delicious cuisine and a cornucopia of goods from local makers—that’s the 2023 Stone Soup Music Festival recipe for a tasty way to wrap-up the summer the weekend of August 26-27.

Plan a memorable weekend of free music and fun times at Ramona Garden Park and surrounding streets in downtown Grover Beach.

This year’s headliner is Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience beginning at 7:30 Saturday evening on the Street Stage. But with two stages, there is always music from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. True to the Stone Soup theme, a variety of music representing many genres and cultures will provide something for everyone. Just bring a lawn chair and your dancing shoes.

You can shop vendor booths at the Food and Street Fair for local crafts, world treasures, and bites from around the world. There’s a Kidz Zone with bounce houses, activities, and games for the whole family. Sunday morning the infamous Mardi Paws parade lets anyone sign up for the parade and doggie costume contest (with prizes for originality, most colorful, best look-a-like, and best of show).

The name “Stone Soup” is taken from an old folk tale about a starving village where a stranger arrives and promises to cook enough soup from a stone to feed the entire population. As he cooks and tastes the soup, he asks each villager to contribute an ingredient for flavor, and the result is a tasty, nourishing soup that feeds them all. The moral is that by everyone pulling together and combining their diverse strengths, much can be accomplished.

The founders of the Stone Soup Music Festival created the event with this story in mind hoping to provide a venue for a wide variety of local and guest musicians, artists, and food and merchandise vendors to share in their cultural and ethnic diversities.

Over the years this festival has remained popular among locals as well as drawing thousands of visitors. The festival has been a community tradition for over 30 years, and is presented by the Clark Center.

By SLO Review

SLO Review, San Luis Obispo County's connection to arts and culture, publishes news, reviews, commentary, and original creative work.