Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival

This weekend I went to California to visit my sister and to attend the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. San Francisco is filled with some, uh, interesting people to begin with…but throw in nearly 70,000 festival-goers (many of them loyal Phish “phans” following the festival’s headlining band) and suddenly people-watching reaches a whole new level of entertainment. A number of attendees seized the opportunity to wear full-body animal costumes. Or maybe they were just doing it for warmth. Combine temperatures dropping into the 50s with a steady ocean breeze flowing through Golden Gate Park and you’ve got all the makings of a chilly festival.

The Shins revealed that their new album is coming in 2012.

But luckily, after a cloudy opening day, on
Saturday and Sunday the weather was amazing. I saw many, many bands this weekend. In addition to Phish, the three-day event was headlined by Muse and Arcade Fire; roughly 100 other acts performed on four stages and inside a DJ dome across the festival grounds. I liked basically everything that I saw, but the most memorable acts (aside from the headliners, and in no particular order) were Little Dragon, Ellie Goulding, The Black Keys, Paper Diamond, The Shins, Girl Talk, Lotus, STS9, Major Lazer and Foster the People. I think I finished a marathon just walking to all of the stages.

Between shows, there were plenty of opportunities to unwind. Thanks to a rather loose interpretation of “medicinal use”, California is on another level when it comes to laid-back living. It goes without saying that the festival was no exception. Also, the Wine Lands tent featured tastings from over thirty local wineries, many of them start-ups from the Sonoma and Napa valleys. My favorites were Hobo, Palmina, and Banshee, which not only offered quality products but also doled out rather generous ‘one-ounce’ pours.

Girl Talk's finale = mind-blowing.

In keeping with the city’s rich street food culture, there were a staggering number of culinary options to offer “a taste of the Bay Area Restaurants”. With one area of the park designated as Food Truck Forest and yet another Choco Lands, there really was something for everyone…yup, even the gluten-free. Before the festival, I inquired via email about what options I would have within the park. One of the event coordinators responded that the festival was “replete with seafood”, specified a gluten-free cookie vendor, and also mentioned a potential gluten-free pizza vendor. Inside, I found GF peanut butter cookies at Brad Roth’s Choco Lands concession, but the wheat-less pizza was nonexistent. Maybe next year. Given such a large group of attendees, I was impressed that my email garnered a response at all.

Safe to say a lot of people saw Foster the People.

Getting out of the park via public transportation was a nightmare. On Friday night, as our semi-full train pulled into each overcrowded station along Judah Street, our conductor instructed passengers to crowd the doors and not allow any additional people to board. I guess she was in a hurry…if this had happened in Seoul or Beijing, there would have been riots. Even being fortunate enough to get on a train, it took us nearly three hours to reach Palo Alto (a 45-minute drive by comparison). So the logistics could definitely use some work. But all in all, the Outside Lands festival is a great synthesis of music, art, food, and people in one of America’s most colorful cities.

The audience sang so loud that Foster the People stopped and let them handle Pumped Up Kicks:

DJ/Producer Paper Diamond played a lot of new material. Samples from three new tracks:

 

...and his dubstep remix of Kanye West's Power:

The Shins played a great set on Friday night. Here are samples from five songs:

 

And finally, Girl Talk's finale on Saturday night: