Behold, the Wonderbus — an instant concert venue.

The inaugural Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival was held in late-November, 2019. In the weeks running up to the event, Wonderfront organizer Ernie Hahn (who also serves as the general manager of the Pechanga Arena) had an idea to utilize a bus as the basis for what would, in essence, be a music concert on wheels. The concept was put on ice as Hahn and his co-workers were already running on fumes from working 20-hour days as they attempted to launch a first-year festival.

“I would say about halfway through the pandemic, maybe about a year ago, it kind of came back in my mind,” Hahn explained. “Everybody had a little extra time. The arena had been shut down since March of 2020. A lot of people had been furloughed. I had a little time to think about what we wanted to do and created an experiential marketing company called Dream Hahn with my partner Bob Ridgeway.”

Dream Hahn began working with Infinium Spirits, a large, West Coast spirits company that had recently relocated from Orange County to downtown San Diego. Hahn had been thinking about the bus idea again, and he pitched them on the concept of the Infinium Spirits Wonderbus to help market their brand. They bit.

“We wanted to bring music to people, and everyone was saying that nobody could go anywhere or do anything,” Hahn said. “Bands couldn’t play and people couldn’t go see bands, so this became a great catalyst during the pandemic to bring these bands to different communities to bring the joy of music to them.”

Dream Hahn purchased their first double-decker bus last September. After which, they completely transformed the top-level into an open-air, rooftop stage on wheels. The stage area includes a built-in drum kit. “As these guys come in and do their changeovers, they’re pretty quick because we have in-ear monitors, a state-of-the-art digital system, and they just plug and play,” he explained. In some instances, the bands will be performing while the bus is traveling at low-speed, “like a five-mile-per-hour roll,” according to Hahn. He added that the experience is similar to being on a boat, so the performers have to establish their “bus legs.”

The Wonderbus concerts could also be a stationary set in front of a bar or restaurant, or at a local park. In all cases, the audience will be outside — which seems like a fitting transition back to live music as covid restrictions continue to be relaxed.

“I think it’s the perfect timing,” Hahn said. “We kind of unveiled it as we were just coming out of it on purpose. I didn’t want to unveil this thing in the middle of a complete lockdown and pandemic and be someone that was seen as, ‘How dare they do this at this time?’ At the same time, people are naturally going out and doing things now and they’ve been vaccinated. This is outside, and we’re doing it in a unique and fun way.”

Dream Hahn has a second bus in the works. Post-pandemic, look for them to get into doing more special events, conventions, and perhaps even a pop-up festival which utilizes both buses. Hahn also plans to use the Wonderbus to promote the larger Wonderfront festival, which he is still hoping to hold this November.

“I think we go into something maybe at 15-17,000 people a day this year, reduced capacity, crank on it, get everybody excited and make it a good experience — and then we’re off to the races from there. That’s certainly the vision,” he said.