Outside Lands music festival, held every August at Golden Gate Park, saw the festival take place at the beginning of the month from Aug. 9-11. Due to its close proximity to universities alike across the Bay Area, the festival happily hosts a plethora of students engaged in a wide variety of similar music interests and high profile artists. Altogether the festival revolves around music, vendors, food, and good times with friends.
Day two of Outside Lands, met with immense anticipation all the same, completely sold out, with this year’s festival generating record attendance numbers across its entire 11 year history. Appropriately, in the middle of his performance, one of the festival’s headliners, Childish Gambino, yells out to the crowd, “I just found out that this is the biggest crowd they’ve ever had at Outside Lands!” Gambino’s praise for the crowd, like a multitude of performances that surround his, is well received by a loud uproar.
The lineup of Outside Lands 2019 also colorfully presents artists across a broad spectrum of genres. To name a few among many: Kygo, The Lumineers, Kasey Musgraves, and Lil Wayne each rock the stage to deliver a dynamic festival atmosphere that allows for a well rounded inclusion of diverse music interests. The atmosphere surrounding the festival grounds is also nothing short of mass excitement and joy day in, day out—especially with a San Francisco rarity of unshy sun shining down upon festival-goers on the first day.
For those 21 years of age or older who do not mind a crowded tent with lively music, the “Heineken Tent” is often a festival favorite. After a successful kick-off to the weekend-long event on the festival’s first day, hoards of festival-goers, myself included, end their time at the venue’s “Twin Peaks” location. There, The Lumineers soothing alternative music serenades the crowd, some practically to sleep: a much needed escape from the crowds of the night.
Though the annual Golden Gate Park event is a surefire way to experience a vast array of music all in one place, it also equips guests with the same dynamic experiences in food, vendor offerings, comedy shows and guest talks. Whether attendees look to find those tasty “Outside Clams,” indulge in the fleet of wine options from “Wine Lands,” or in the 80-plus food choices that “Taste of the Bay Area” curates, there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy more than the music. Of course, the comedic talks riddled with uncontrolled laughter and jokes—with social media sensations Cody Ko and Noel Miller highlighting this year’s festival—are an attendee favorite.
Outside Lands is also the first festival in California to allow festival-goers of age to legally buy, consume and smoke cannabis at the venue. The Australian record producer, Flume, yells, “I hear you guys like to smoke weed. 420 hells yeah.”
With the next day in full swing, the Saturday lineup fulfills a lengthy strand of high expectations by those who rely on the entertainment that a one day pass can provide. Surely, this amounts to many, as the festival’s one day pass for Saturday completely sold out.
Among the artists seen in the second day lineup is American record producer RL Grime, who utilizes colorful, consuming visuals, lights and flashes throughout his performance. These production mainstays of Grime’s set, as well as his performance of the fan cherished track “UCLA” serve as particularly memorable. As the night of Outside Lands day two unfolds, Hozier brings attendees back to the early 2010s with his hit single “Take Me To Church.” The iconic Childish Gambino—who coincidentally also headlined for Coachella earlier this year—closes the night, amping up everyone in the crowd with his hugely successful single, “This Is America,” along the way.
The six time Grammy Award winning singer and songwriter Kasey Musgraves best explains the spirit of the music festival this year, hollering on stage to a sea of fans, “I want you to forget about anything remotely negative that might be happening in your life right now, and just have fun!”
