Photos by Maggie Corwin // Written by Molly Kish //

San Francisco Oysterfest //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
May 9th, 2015 //

O’Reilly’s SF Oysterfest celebrated its 16th year this past Saturday at the beautiful setting of Sharon Meadow inside Golden Gate Park. Billed as a 21-and-over event (although minors could attend only if they were accompanied by an adult), this year’s lineup of hip-hop and dance artists kicked the party up a notch with some profane rap classics and club favorites.

Opening acts The Schmidt, DeelanZ/K Theory and GZRUS warmed up the early crowds, which at peak attendance reached about 10,000 people. The Guinness flowed and kept attendees saturated as they braved the growing lines for their choice of shellfish delicacies. Barbequed, deep fried or chilled and shucked raw, the oysters were abundant as long as you were willing to wait your turn.

Grandmaster Flash

Kicking off the afternoon entertainment was hip-hop legend Grandmaster Flash. A master turntablist, GMF took fans through a career-spanning set, touching upon songs he both took part in producing and crafting into iconic jams. He threw down lives remixes of Ini Kamoze, Sly and the Family Stone and Bob Marley and got the audience on its feet in anticipation for a grand finale of self-spun classics from his days with The Furious Five.

Warren G

Next up on the bill was Mr. “Regulator”, aka Warren G, who commanded the crowd with a throwback set of 90’s-era hip-hop. Covering every hit song he delivered as a solo artist or collaborated on during the height of his career, he held it down for his West Coast homies, who by mid-set were screaming along to every filthy lyric that came out of his mouth. The most memorable moments of the set were seeing the entire festival shout the incredibly X-rated lines to songs like “It Ain’t No Fun” and a cover of Dr. Dre’s “Let’s Get High”.

Thievery Corporation

Closing out the day’s festivities were back-to-back sets from Salt Lake City house duo Late Night Alumni and Washington, D.C. collective Thievery Corporation that bled seamlessly into each other. Late Night Alumni lead vocalist Becky Jean Williams, backed by John Hancock, Finn Bjarnson and Ryan Raddon aka Kaskade, pleasantly shifted the tone of the early evening from raging in the meadow to a more atmospheric, downtempo set. Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza and Eric Hilton picked up the pace during their full band live set that featured various guest vocalist, and the festival mood quickly shifted from there.

While most of the crowd was vibing hard off Thievery’s worldly, techno ambiance, part of the audience had already dispersed. The dwindling sunlight and cooling weather may have had something to do with that, but the remaining festivalgoers were kept warm by Garza’s and Hilton’s eclectic beats that carried them into the early-evening hours.