Pearl Jam Returns to Ohana Festival, Celebrating Decade of Eddie Vedder’s Vision

When Ohana Festival returns to Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California, September 25–27, it will mark 10 years since Eddie Vedder founded an event unlike any other on the festival calendar. What began as a weekend of music overlooking the Pacific has grown into a festival shaped by Vedder’s artistic passions and personal values…equal parts great music, environmental stewardship and community gathering.

Unlike other major festivals, Ohana has never been about chasing the biggest names or the latest trends. Instead, Vedder has built a weekend around the music, people and causes that matter most to him. Along the way, Ohana has become one of the industry’s most respected boutique festivals, earning Pollstar’s Music Festival of the Year (Global: Under 30K Attendance) award three years in a row.

After sitting out last year’s festival, when Eddie Vedder and the Earthlings performed instead, Pearl Jam returns to close the weekend on Sunday. With the band not expected to tour this year, the weekend is likely to draw fans from around the world. The performance is also expected to mark the public debut of Pearl Jam’s new drummer, whose identity the band has kept under wraps.

Vedder opens the festival Friday with Eddie Vedder & Friends, while Tyler Childers headlines Saturday. The “Friends” billing suggests there will be surprise guests, and fans are already speculating about who might join this year. The weekend is also expected to include a number of tributes to Vedder’s longtime friend and collaborator, Glen Hansard, who tragically died last week in a motorcycle accident. He had been a familiar presence at Ohana over the years.

The lineup tells the story of Vedder’s musical influences, blending punk, alternative rock and acclaimed singer-songwriters. Punk veterans like Bad Religion, Billy Idol and Hüsker Dü co-founder Bob Mould (appearing with his recently reunited band, Sugar) share the bill with Pearl Jam, the Pixies and Fontaines D.C., while singer-songwriters including Tyler Childers, Jon Batiste and Courtney Barnett highlight another side of Vedder’s musical taste, which we often see in his solo work.

Ohana has also earned a reputation as a place to discover new artists. This year’s lineup continues that tradition with emerging performers including Florence Road, Speed of Light and Jake Wesley Rogers. Rather than following a formula, Ohana feels curated by admiration—a mix of Vedder’s heroes, longtime friends, and the next generation of artists he wants his audience to discover.

There are a few familiar connections for New York-based fans as well. Jon Batiste became a household name as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and is a Juilliard graduate, and Steve Stevens, Billy Idol’s longtime guitarist, is a Brooklyn native, while New Jersey’s The Front Bottoms developed a strong following in New York City clubs.

Beyond the music, The Cove brings Ohana’s broader mission to life through nonprofit exhibits, environmental organizations and the Storyteller’s Stage, where musicians, photographers, environmental advocates, surfers, podcasters and other guests discuss topics ranging from conservation and activism to art and community. Among this year’s Storyteller’s Stage guests is Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, who will discuss his new black-and-white photography book, Since Forever, a visual chronicle of the band’s formative years in the early 1990s. Ament will also perform with his side project, P.E.S.T., giving fans another opportunity to see one of Pearl Jam’s founding members during the weekend.

Ten years after Vedder launched Ohana, the festival still occupies a unique place on the music calendar. Fans may come for Pearl Jam, but they return because Ohana offers something increasingly rare: a weekend that values discovery as much as nostalgia, conversation as much as performance, and community as much as entertainment. In an era when many festivals seem to follow the same formula, Ohana remains unmistakably Eddie Vedder’s.