Beach House – Showbams

My Morning Jacket & Fleet Foxes don’t let a tropical storm stop them from eventually sharing the stage at the Hollywood Bowl

September 4, 2023 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

My Morning Jacket & Fleet Foxes //
Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
August 28th, 2023 //

When I was invited to photograph my first show at the Hollywood Bowl more than seven years ago now (read our review here), I already understood how special it is for those who have the opportunity to play under the amphitheater’s iconic bandshell.

As I explained back then, any artist or band with a headlining date at the historic music venue can officially say that they have “made it” and nothing has ever changed there. But for a group like My Morning Jacket that has been around 25 years, performing at one of LA’s most prized possessions carries a little extra weight.

That’s because the Louisville-bred rockers were so inspired by the place more than two decades ago that they chose a photo of it to serve as the cover artwork for their sophomore LP At Dawn.

“Something about its otherworldly shape spoke such magic,” MMJ recently shared on social media.

My Morning Jacket

And yet, somehow Jim James (lead vocals, guitar), Tom Blankenship (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums, percussion), Bo Koster (keyboards, percussion, backing vocals) and Carl Broemel (guitar, pedal steel guitar, saxophone, backing vocals) had never taken the stage at the Bowl despite plenty of trips to the City of Angels in the past.

Because as much as things have changed for Jacket since 2001, let’s be real: the three-time Grammy nominees still aren’t popular enough anywhere, let alone Southern California, to fill the 17,500-person landmark on their own. MMJ would be lucky to sell half that number of tickets, especially on a Monday night after Tropical Storm Hilary postponed the event’s originally scheduled date more than a week.

The folks at KCRW fortunately had the answer. Finding a suitable partner in Fleet Foxes to pair with MMJ, the NPR member station assembled a co-headline bill that was one of the most enticing we’ve seen in a while. The Bowl can certainly offer them with its massive capacity, and we have attended a few good ones over the years — from 90’s alt-rock outfits Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden to 2000’s indie darlings Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio (read our show review here). Nevertheless, we can’t say it doesn’t come with some drawbacks.

There’s something about sitting at a rock concert that doesn’t feel right to me, and fresh off MMJ’s two sold-out shows at Red Rocks (read our review here) over the weekend that saw them surpass the two-hour mark both nights, it was quite a stark contrast to what we experienced in Colorado with most fans there standing from Row 1 to Row 70. The “wine and cheese” crowd in LA, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered to get out of their seats for much of the night. James and company didn’t let that stop them from closing their 2023 summer tour with a powerful set, though — even if it was only 75 minutes. “Off the Record” and “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2” got extended outros, and “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” with Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold was a treat. It’s not everyday that you get to hear two of the best voices in music today collaborating onstage together, and moments like those always feel in retrospect a little extra special to witness.

Fleet Foxes

Speaking of Fleet Foxes, this wasn’t our first time catching them at the Bowl. A co-headline performance with Beach House in 2017 actually served as our first encounter, and it just so happened that it was also the indie-folk act’s Bowl debut.

Pecknold (lead vocals, guitar) and his four sidekicks Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Morgan Henderson (upright bass, guitar, woodwinds, violin, percussion, saxophone), plus touring member Christopher Icasiano (drums, percussion) and New York-based brass quartet The Westerlies, had no problem filling the stage and the space with their beautiful harmonies and thoughtful lyrics. And after last summer’s sold-out gig at the Greek Theatre (read our show review here), it’s clear that 2020’s Shore has not only offered them more commercial success but also the opportunity to keep the current lineup intact. After all, it’s not very often that you get to see an artist or band perform with 10 musicians due to financial concerns, and Fleet Foxes’ eclectic instrumentation as well as Pecknold’s golden pipes are what really elevates their material in a live setting.

Of course we would be remiss to mention the Buffalo Springfield tune “Expecting to Fly” that Fleet Foxes took on with James a couple of songs before waving goodbye, something that they also did at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Despite their psychedelic tendencies, MMJ have always leaned in the folk direction, and while Grizzly Bear might be the perfect fit for a co-headline situation with Fleet Foxes, MMJ are able to turn up the energy a lot more with their huge sound — no further proof was needed than the finishing punch of “One Big Holiday” and “Dancefloors” from 2003’s It Still Moves as the clock struck 10:45 p.m.

As much as our ears would have liked to hear more, it wasn’t in the cards. A strict curfew of 11 p.m. at the Bowl has always been in place, and that wasn’t going to change this time (or ever). But you could do a whole lot worse than to spend an evening at the Bowl with MMJ and Fleet Foxes before summer in LA finally slips away.

MY MORNING JACKET

Setlist:
Wordless Chorus
Off the Record (Extended outro)
Spring (Among the Living)
Gideon
Wonderful (The Way I Feel) (with Robin Pecknold)
Steam Engine
Circuital
Love Love Love
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2 (Extended outro)
One Big Holiday
Dancefloors

FLEET FOXES

Setlist:
Sun Giant
Sunblind
Can I Believe You
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
He Doesn’t Know Why
Third of May/Ōdaigahara
Phoenix (Big Red Machine cover)
Bedouin Dress
White Winter Hymnal
Mykonos
Montezuma
Blue Ridge Mountains
Grown Ocean
Expecting to Fly (Buffalo Springfield cover) (with Jim James)
The Shrine/An Argument
Helplessness Blues

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Beach House, Big Red Machine, Buffalo Springfield, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Hollywood Bowl, Jim James, KCRW, My Morning Jacket, Nine Inch Nails, Robin Pecknold, Soundgarden, The Westerlies, TV on the Radio

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard close out their U.S. residency tour with an epic, three-hour marathon at LA’s iconic Hollywood Bowl

June 26, 2023 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard //
Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
June 21st, 2023 //

Call me dramatic, but I think it’s fair to say that King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are music journalism’s worst nightmare.

As those devoted to The Gizz know well by now, pinning them down to one genre, one sound or one anything is damn near impossible. Psych rock, psych pop, prog rock, krautrock, boogie rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, synth-pop, jazz fusion, blues and everything else in between has been on the table for the Australian sextet since it formed more than a decade ago, and that’s exactly what makes them so intriguing to see in the flesh at a time when not many bands are commanding the same kind of listens, album sales or attendance numbers that many did three decades earlier.

Nevertheless, if there’s a cliché that can be attributed to these mates out of Melbourne, it’s that they are truly in a league of their own with no other outfit even remotely resembling what KGLW do. But arguably what is just as impressive as their affinity for experimenting with multiple genres is the fact that their fan base continues to grow at what feels like an exponential rate.

Their epic, three-hour marathon last Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl to close out their U.S. residency tour marked my third time catching them live, and with each show, the band has noticeably graduated to bigger venues beginning with the Hollywood Palladium in 2018, the Greek Theatre in 2019 and now the world-famous, 17,500-person amphitheatre tucked into the Hollywood Hills off the Highland Blvd. exit on the 101 Freeway (note: they also headlined Desert Daze in 2022 with Tame Impala and Beach House).

Since their last proper LA performance (read our show review here), Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitars, keyboards, flute, bass guitar, percussion, sitar, piano, organ, violin, clarinet, saxophone, zurna, drums), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonicas, keyboards, percussion, piano, saxophone, guitar, organ), Joey Walker (guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards, piano, setar, percussion), Cook Craig (guitars, bass, piano, keyboards, percussion, vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass, piano, keyboards, percussion, vocals) and Michael Cavanagh (drums, percussion, vocals) have unloaded nine more albums in less than four years to reach a staggering total of 24 in their catalog. Of course some will remember the five LPs they dropped in 2017 along with 2022, and while it would be a surprise for them to top that output this year with merely one out so far and six months to go, you never really know what tricks KGLW have up their sleeves coming off a 15-date run across the states this month that featured four gigs at The Caverns in Tennessee and three at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado (including two on a weekday no less), The Salt Shed in Chicago and Remlinger Farms in Washington before taking a giant step forward under the Bowl’s iconic bandshell on the first day of summer for their final U.S. stop.

Given those circumstances and the fact that most of the seats throughout the venue were filled all the way to the top, this one felt like there was something a little extra special to it. The setlist matched the moment at least, with Mackenzie and company opening with the first three tracks on 2013’s Eyes Like the Sky — marking the first time they had been performed since 2018 — as well as “Evil Man” off the 10-song LP, which has only been played five times with the last coming more than seven years ago at the NME Awards.

But the release of PetroDragonic Apocalypse the week prior had provided KGLW fans all of five days to reacquaint themselves with the group’s brand of thrash metal it had debuted via 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, and although we didn’t hear a lot of new material from these Aussies, they made sure to sprinkle in some that included “Gila Monster” (with a “Gaia” reprise to up the ante), followed by “Supercell” and “Witchcraft” toward the show’s midway point.

By then, I was being offered bourbon and methamphetamines by a middle-aged man in a Grateful Dead T-shirt who supposedly had traveled all the way from Tucson, Ariz., and had happened to find a home in the same Terrace Box — his seat was somewhere else from what he told me — that I agreed to occupy after finding another photographer sitting in my assigned seat. Not that I was interested in fighting over seat assignments or accepting any contraband from strangers, but the unexpected exchange certainly added to the overall weirdness and peculiarity of the evening.

Fortunately, there were still plenty of twists and turns for KGLW to unveil down the homestretch. From a snippet of the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” at the end of “The Grim Reaper” to the thunderous drum solo following “Astroturf” that Cavanagh entranced us with, the night was not short on highlights thanks to the jams we were subsequently gifted around “Shanghai” and “Ambergris”, too.

What left the biggest impression on this particular bystander though had to be the face-melting trifecta of “Hypertension”, “Magma” and “The Dripping Tap” that would ensue over the final 45 minutes and draw a standing ovation by the time KGLW waved goodbye shortly after 10:30 p.m. And as I turned around with the packed crowd’s applause echoing throughout the venue, a sincere sense of gratitude quietly washed over me. I might not be able to name every album or song that these prolific, eccentric weirdos have put out like some diehards can, but if there was one show in 2023 I’m glad I didn’t skip, it very well could be this one.

Setlist:
Eyes Like the Sky (first time since 2018)
Year of Our Lord (first time since 2018)
The Raid (first time since 2018)
Evil Man (first time since 2016)
Rattlesnake
Pleura
Gaia (>)
Gila Monster (with “Gaia” reprise)
Supercell
Witchcraft
Organ Farmer
Crumbling Castle (>)
The Fourth Colour
The Grim Reaper (with “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys at the end)
Magenta Mountain
Down the Sink
Astroturf (with drum solo after)
Shanghai (“I wanna grow wings and fly” jam)
The Garden Goblin
Ambergris (preceded by “sex” jam)
Iron Lung (>)
Hypertension
Magma
The Dripping Tap (with “Cellophane” tease)

*Editors’ Note: You can watch the full performance here.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Beach House, Beastie Boys, Hollywood Bowl, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, NME Awards, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Remlinger Farms, Tame Impala, The Grateful Dead, The Salt Shed

Just Like Heaven 2022: Pasadena’s own slice of indie-music bliss

May 25, 2022 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

Photos by Josh Herwitt & courtesy of JLH with artwork by Melissa Herwitt // Written by Josh Herwitt //

Just Like Heaven //
Brookside at the Rose Bowl – Pasadena, CA
May 21st, 2022 //

For those of you in California who haven’t noticed yet, we’re right in the midst of festival season.

With Coachella wrapping up last month and Lightning in a Bottle as well as BottleRock taking place over Memorial Day weekend, 2022 has already brought the live music industry back to the Golden State in a big way (and let’s make sure we mention BeachLife Festival, too).

But for those of us who haven’t been attending music festivals for a few years in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s even more exciting when any concert promoter can assemble a lineup of great artists and bands to perform all on the same day. That’s what Goldenvoice did, in fact, when it announced the return of Just Like Heaven with a dream lineup for any indie-music fan during the mid-2000s, anchored by Interpol, Modest Mouse, The Shins and M.I.A. with Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Chromeo, Santigold, Cut Copy, The Hives, Wolf Parade, Peaches and !!! also listed on the poster.

After taking over the Queen Mary Park in Long Beach for its debut in 2019, Just Like Heaven has found greener pastures to call home 35 miles north in Pasadena at the Brookside Golf Course adjacent to the Rose Bowl. It’s a proven location for hosting music festivals at this point after holding several large-scale events there before like Shaun White’s inaugural Air + Style and both editions of Goldenvoice’s two-day Arroyo Seco Weekend. But with the AEG-owned company’s other single-day fest Cruel World occupying the site two days the previous weekend and more music festivals like This Ain’t No Picnic scheduled for August, it’s safe to say that the Brookside is becoming quite a hotspot for Goldenvoice of late.

Just Like Heaven, nevertheless, seemingly fits the bill for Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett. And though the festival didn’t sell out nor was a second day added this time around, it still felt like quite a success given everything we have endured for more than two years. If anything, it was a brief reminder of what life felt like before the pandemic.

Peaches

While there wasn’t one performance at Just Like Heaven that stood above the rest, there were certainly highlights throughout the day — starting as early as 2 p.m. when Peaches stepped onto the main stage with an array of scantily-clad costumes to celebrate the belated 20th anniversary of her second LP The Teaches of Peaches. For those who got there in time to witness the Canadian electroclash musician in all her glory, it was 50 minutes we’ll never forget as Merrill Nisker delivered one erotic moment after the next alongside her backing band and backup dancers who were wearing as little as her. Sure, hearing Wolf Parade play 2005’s Apologies to the Queen Mary right after wasn’t quite as entertaining, but it did feel apropos given Just Like Heaven’s prior location, setting us up for an evening of classic indie rock.

By the time Franz Ferdinand took the stage for their 5:10 p.m. start, you could tell that the attendance had grown considerably compared to what it was earlier for late-afternoon sets by Kele Okereke, The Hives and Cut Copy. Of course the latter did their best to turn the daytime dance party up a notch with crowd-pleasers such as “Lights and Music” and “Hearts on Fire” off 2008’s In Ghost Colours, but it was Franz Ferndinand, Santigold and Bloc Party who shepherded us through the early evening (and one of them even made us pretend like we were back in 2005 listening to Silent Alarm for the first time again).

One of our only grievances with Just Like Heaven this year was scheduling Chromeo to perform exactly when The Shins were, leaving us less of an opportunity to catch both acts during the sunset. But James Mercer and his sidekicks made the most of it after a long time away from touring, offering 15 cuts across the band’s catalog before finishing with a rare cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “American Girl” as the sun fell behind the San Gabriel Mountains.

From there, the remaining hours of the festival belonged to Modest Mouse, M.I.A. and Interpol. With the first two receiving 60 minutes on their respective stages — Orion and Stardust — each made a point to placate the more casual listener with commercial hits like “Float On” and “Paper Planes” receiving their three minutes in the spotlight. But while some of the songs on Modest Mouse’s 2021 album The Golden Casket don’t translate as well to a live setting as their older material and M.I.A.’s show can often be a bit too bizarre for some, Interpol was there at the end to ground us and bring it all home.

The NYC post-punk revival trio has been on the road for about a month after completing The Other Side of Make-Believe, and although we will have to wait until mid-July for their seventh studio effort to arrive, Interpol did provide a preview of sorts with “Fables” and “Toni” sprinkled into a setlist highlighted by one of our personal favorites “Rest My Chemistry” from 2007’s Our Love to Admire. Yet, it was only fitting on this night for Interpol to also uncork “The Heinrich Maneuver” from the same record that hears frontman Paul Banks ask the audience in the opening lyric, “How are things on the West Coast?” before replying, “I hear you’re moving real fine.” With Just Like Heaven alive and well after a three-year hiatus and new music from Interpol on the horizon, there’s no doubt we are now.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: Air + Style, Arroyo Seco Weekend, Beach House, Bloc Party, Brookside at the Rose Bowl, Brookside Golf Club, CHK CHK CHK, Chromeo, Cinespace, Cut Copy, Franz Ferdinand, Geographer, Goldenvoice, Grizzly Bear, Interpol, Islands, Just Like Heaven, Just Live Heaven 2022, Kele Okereke, M.I.A., MGMT, Miike Snow, Modest Mouse, music, Passion Pit, Peaches, Phoenix, Queen Mary Park, Rose Bowl, Santigold, Shaun White, The Cribs, The Go! Team, The Hives, The Rapture, The Raveonettes, The Shins, Them Jeans, Tom Petty, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Wolf Parade, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Yelle

The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre, Phoebe Bridgers, Beach House & more give This Ain’t No Picnic new life in 2022

December 3, 2021 by Josh Herwitt 5 Comments

This Ain’t No Picnic //
Brookside at the Rose Bowl – Pasadena, CA
August 27th-28th, 2022 //

As we have said in this space before, it has not been an easy time for the live music industry by any stretch of the imagination. Whether you’re an artist, employee or fan, enduring 18 months without in-person events was painful to experience. So, maybe it’s fitting Goldenvoice is reviving a festival that hasn’t been around in almost 20 years at this point.

The renowned California concert promoter is bringing back This Ain’t No Picnic for the first time since 2002 and taking over the Brookside Golf Course at the Rose Bowl for two days in late August (warning: it will be hot) with a killer roster that screams “Pitchfork Fest!”

A couple of NYC indie-rock giants in The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, who are currently in the middle of a 20-date residency at Brooklyn Steel, will serve as headliners while the fest’s undercard offers its own set of highlights starting with the reunion of Le Tigre, another NYC product who last reunited in 2016 to release “I’m with Her” as their latest single.

Oh baby 💫
⁰Presale starts Thursday 12/9 at 10am PT – sign up for first access to tickets at https://t.co/UvtFFpLE5b 🌐 All orders starting as low as $49 down. pic.twitter.com/XN56LylbKe

— This Ain't No Picnic (@aintnopicnic) December 3, 2021

Other notable names bolstering the iconic indie music festival’s lineup in 2022 include Phoebe Bridgers, Beach House, Jorja Smith, Kaytranada, Jungle, IDLES, Isaiah Rashad, Sparks, Turnstile, Circle Jerks, Descendents, Caroline Polachek, Mac Demarco, Slowthai, Courtney Barnett, Four Tet + Floating Points, Tinashe, Earl Sweatshirt, Yves Tumor, Queen Naija, Honey Dijon, Sleep, Deafheaven and more. Peep the poster above for the rest of the artists scheduled to perform.

Making its debut at Oak Canyon Ranch in Silverado where past incarnations of Lightning in a Bottle and other music festivals in the Southern California area have also taken place, This Ain’t No Picnic exposed the raw energy of punk-leaning, indie darlings like Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney and Guided by Voices in 1999 before taking another step toward the mainstream by booking Beck, Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill, At the Drive-In and Modest Mouse for its 2000 edition.

With there being more optimism surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic heading into next year, you can bet that tickets for this one will go quick so make sure to sign up for the presale occurring on Thursday, December 9th at 10 a.m. PT here before they go on sale at 2 p.m. PT here. GA passes will be available for $299-$349, with VIP going for $799 and Clubhouse at an eye-opening $1,199. But if you’re looking to dance and sweat your ass off in the Pasadena heat, this is the only summer picnic you’ll want to be at!

UPDATE (May 3rd): This Ain’t No Picnic has delivered daily lineups for its return this August, with LCD Soundsystem headlining Saturday and The Strokes closing out the two-day festival on Sunday. Single-day tickets go on sale this Friday, May 6th at 10 a.m. PT here.

UPDATE (August 8th): Set times are here! This Ain’t No Picnic has released its schedule with slightly more than two weeks to go while also announcing a few lineup changes, including the addition of Leon Vynehall on Saturday. Unfortunately due to visa issues, Logic1000 and Tems will not be able to perform as previously scheduled, but in the meantime, make sure to download the mobile app here and you can still grab tickets here!

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: Andrew McMahon, Arooj Aftab, Avalon Emerson, Beach House, Brandon, Brookside at the Rose Bowl, Brookside Golf Club, Caroline Polachek, Circle Jerks, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Pandemic, Courtney Barnett, Covid 19, COVID-19 Pandemic, Danilo Plessow, Dave P., Dawn Richard, Deafheaven, Descendents, Despacio, Earl Sweatshirt, Ethel Cain, Floating Points, Four Tet, Four Tet + Floating Points, Fundido, Genesis Owusu, Gerd Janson, Girl Ultra, Godford, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hana Vu, Honey Dijon, IDLES, Indigo De Souza, Isabella Lovestory, Isaiah Rashad, Jorja Smith, Julia Jacklin, Jungle, Junior Varsity, Kaytranada, Kelly Lee Owens, King Woman, Lala Lala, LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre, Leon Vynehall, Logic1000, Mac Demarco, Magdalena Bay, Mall Grab, Maral, Margaritas Podridas, MCDE, Mdou Moctar, Michelle, Mike Watt, Motor City Drum Ensemble, N.A.A.F.I, NAAFI, Nicki Nicole, Nothing, Pachyman, Paris Texas, Peach, Phoebe Bridgers, Queen Naija, Romy, Shame, Sleep, slowthai, Sofia Kourtesis, Sparks, Spellling, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, Tems, The Descendents, The Strokes, They Hate Change, This Ain't No Picnic, This Ain't No Picnic 2022, This Ain't No Picnic Festival, This Ain't No Picnic Festival 2022, Tinashe, Tre' Amani, TSHA, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Ying Yang Twins, Yves Tumor, Zulu

Outside Lands 2021: A return to hallowed ground

November 8, 2021 by Molly Kish 2 Comments

Photos by Sarah Felker & Marc Fong // Written by Molly Kish //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
October 29th-31st, 2021 //

After postponing its 13th edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and experiencing disappointing lineup cancellations in the months leading up to it, Outside Lands had quite a lot to make up for going into its 2021 relaunch for Halloween. Asserting themselves as hosts of the first “mega event” in Golden Gate Park during the pandemic, Bay Area concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment braved an entirely new entertainment landscape, time of year and crowd dynamic.

Following statewide safety protocols, attendees had to wear a mask and show proof of vaccination or a negative test result at all entrances before scanning their way inside the gates. Clear backpacks were enforced and costume guidelines were added to the laundry list of rules and regulations for all ticket holders. But even with the adjusted security measures and slight changes to the event’s production, concertgoers came out in record numbers. Averaging crowds of approximately 70,000 people per day, OSL 2021 wasn’t short of attendees willing to happily follow the new guidelines in order to return to the beloved three-day festival.

While at times the interactive experiences in 2021 seemed lacking with the obvious downplay of live art activations, comedy and representation of the Bay Area’s creative culture, OSL still provided a larger platform for community-based initiatives. This year the fest added a brand-new stage in the SOMA Tent, which focused on burgeoning talent across the local electronic scene, and also dedicated attention and space for both local and national non-profits with an extended Eco Lands footprint.

Relaunching OSL over Halloween weekend was one of the smartest pivots Another Planet could have made. The energy surrounding the holiday was palpable, providing a dialed-in event and location with an additional reason for both local and visiting attendees to celebrate. Costumed crowds filled the fields all three days and created an increasingly whimsical buildup to what felt like a triumphant return to the city’s historical Halloween legacy. With many hoping the holiday tradition would continue for years to come, OSL successfully stoked the sold-out crowd’s excitement for its return in August 2022.