The 1975 – Showbams

Outside Lands 2023: Three full days of ‘giving life,’ saving face & switching up the game to celebrate the festival’s 15th anniversary

August 18, 2023 by Molly Kish Leave a Comment

Photos by Christine Kemp & courtesy of Outside Lands // Written by Molly Kish //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 11th-13th, 2023 //

Taking a beat to fully process the 15th year of Outside Lands, we had a lot to consider in terms of our annual accolades for 2023. Our team has had the pleasure of covering the music festival’s evolution since 2012, and many of us have been on the journey with Bay Area concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment after attending OSL’s inaugural edition in 2008. But while we have learned to anticipate certain logistical nuances and look forward to countless familiarities at Golden Gate Park, this year felt different in several very unexpected and positive ways.

Walking into the festival grounds, the footprint had noticeable modifications from previous years, including brand-new stages and a relocated Wine Lands. McLaren Pass, typically home to Choco Lands, the Bubble Tea Party, Cocktail Magic and various food vendors, now included a paired-down, more communal place to sip wines from the best vineyards in the Bay. Switching spots with Cocktail Magic, the newly located Wine Lands provided a premier viewing location for the Toyota Music Den, which ended up being a backup stage for overflow acts on Saturday and a home base for surprise appearances/pop-up sets throughout the weekend.

The largest and most widely agreed upon, favorite new addition to the grounds was the Dolores Stage holding space in the Polo Field entryway. The open-air dance club brought a surge of new talent and life to the main field, highlighting DJs, drag performers and a schedule of explosive LGBTQ+ artists over three days. Providing a welcomed alternative to the SOMA Tent’s long lines and Saturday’s closure for dancefloor maintenance, the Dolores Stage proved to be a true festival MVP. The lineup highlighted an intrinsic part of Bay Area culture that never felt fully recognized on the scale that it should have been. Providing a non-stop homage to SF’s historic ballroom culture, performers hit the stage, runway and ground, keeping the sold-out crowd dancing and happy at one of the festival’s main access points.

Aside from some lineup alterations, structural damage and traffic-flow issues at the entrances and exits, OSL’s 15th anniversary was a massive success. Worried at moments that things could derail, the staff handled the various complications that came their way with super effective and seamless production pivots. Artists were quick to shift sets to alternate stages, pop-up performances kept fans excited and engaged, and the amount of satellite bars, lounges and interactive activations offered more than enough entertainment to keep the capacity crowd stoked. If this year’s success was any indication, we expect the positive changes to become mainstay additions for years to come and look forward to seeing what the future will hold for Northern California’s flagship music festival.

ODESZA

OUTSIDE LANDS 2023 AWARDS:

Headliner of the Weekend: ODESZA

Breakthrough Performance: Crumb

Largest Crowd: DJ DIESEL

Best Stage: Dolores Stage

Most Swoonworthy Set: Lana Del Ray

Hardest Hip-Hop Moment: Tobe Nwigwe

Fiercest Performance: Reparations

Tastiest Menu: Shuggies Trash Pie and Natural Wine

Best Vineyard: Deux Punx

Most Magical Cocktail: “Large Marge-arita” // Buttery Tipple

Favorite Lands: Wine Lands

Most Impactful Artist: Balloonski

Satellite Bar Star: #OceanLove Tour by Grey Whale Gin

Favorite Merch: Outside Lands reusable festival cup

Best Marketplace: San Franpsycho

Top Showcase: Hard French at Dolores Stage

Most Memorable Experience: Outside Lands x LIVE by Amazon Music

Bay Area Favorite: Anchor Steam’s final kegs on draft at Beer Lands

Best Night Show: Interpol at The Independent

Outside Lands 2023 – Nation of Language

Outside Lands 2023 - Diesel (Shaquille O'Neal)

Outside Lands 2023 – Samia

Outside Lands 2023 - Mariah the Scientist

Outside Lands 2023 - Megan Thee Stallion

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: aespa, Alex G, Alvvays, Âme, Âme B2B Trikk, Balloonski, beabadoobee, Becky Hill, Beer Lands, Blond:ish, Choco Lands, Cigarettes After Sex, Claptone, Cobra Man, Coco & Breezy, Crumb, Cuco, Daniel Avery, Denis Sulta, Diesel, Diesel (Shaquille O'Neal), Disco Lines, DJ DIESEL, Dolores Stage, Donny Benét, Dope Lemon, Eddie Zuko, EREZ, Ethel Cain, Evan Giia, Fake Fruit, Father John Misty, Fisher, Foo Fighters, Gabriels, Grace Ives, Holly Humberstone, Inhaler, Interpol, ISOxo, Izzy Heltai, J.I.D., Janelle Monáe, Jessie Murph, Joy Oladokun, Justin Jay, Kendrick Lamar, Kim Ann Foxman, L'Impératrice, Lana Del Rey, Lil Yachty, Lovejoy, Loverground, Maggie Rogers, Manila Grey, Mariah the Scientist, Megan Thee Stallion, midwxst, Mild Minds, Miss Dre, Monolink, NALA, Nanna, Nation of Language, NIKI, No Vacation, Noah Kahan, Nora En Pure, Odesza, Orion Sun, Orville Peck, Outside Lands, Outside Lands 2023, Outside Lands Music Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival 2023, Poolside, Pretty Sick, Raveena, Red Axes, Reparations, Sama' Abdulhadi, Samia, Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal, Soccer Mommy, SOMA Tent, The 1975, The Dip, The Jungle Giants, Tinlicker, Tobe Nwigwe, Tops, Trikk, Trixie Mattel, Upsahl, Venus & the Flytraps, VNSSA, Wednesday, WestEnd, WhoMadeWho, Wild Child, Willow, Wine Lands, Yaya Bey, Zack Fox, Zedd

Celebrating its 15th year in 2023, Outside Lands hands the baton over to Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters & ODESZA

March 7, 2023 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 11th-13th, 2023 //

Now that a handful of California’s music festivals — whether it’s BeachLife, BottleRock, Coachella, Just Like Heaven or Lightning in a Bottle — have announced what their plans will be this year, it’s once again time for Outside Lands to join the party.

SF’s signature event turns 15 this August at Golden Gate Park, but after returning to its usual timing in 2022 and granting headlining duties to Green Day, Post Malone and SZA, it’s handing the baton over to a triumvirate of standouts in Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters and ODESZA.

K.Dot returns to OSL for the first time since the 17-time Grammy winner ambushed the Twin Peaks stage back in 2015, while Foo Fighters, who suffered the tragic loss of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March and have yet to reveal his replacement behind the kit, will end their own decade-long drought after playing the three-day event in 2012. ODESZA’s last appearance, in the meantime, was the most recent of the three in 2018, yet much has changed for the Seattle electronic duo made up of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight over that time.

ranger dave is pleased to announce the outside lands 2023 lineup! don't miss @kendricklamar, @foofighters, @odesza, lana del rey, & more as we celebrate 15 years, august 11-13

3-day tickets on sale tomorrow at 10am pt https://t.co/5NkMRCkQm5 pic.twitter.com/tixHIUjtAB

— Outside Lands (@sfoutsidelands) March 7, 2023

In addition to the aforementioned headliners, this year’s undercard is nothing to sneeze at — starting with Lana Del Rey, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion, Zedd, Janelle Monáe, Maggie Rogers and Fisher. Other names on the 2023 lineup worth paying attention to include Lil Yachty, Noah Kahan, Cigarettes After Sex, J.I.D, Interpol, Willow, Father John Misty, Tobe Nwigwe, Orville Peck, aespa, beabadoobee, L’Impératrice, Cuco, Nora En Pure, Poolside, Alvvays, NIKI, Alex G, Soccer Mommy, Diesel (Shaquille O’Neal), Monolink, Raveena, Trixie Mattel, Mariah the Scientist and ISOxo.

Last year’s edition of OSL saw the SOMA Tent — which remains the fest’s home for all things dance music — expand after making its debut in 2021, and fans can expect the dancefloor to be packed as Âme b2b Trikk, Blond:ish, Claptone, Coco & Breezy, Daniel Avery, Denis Sulta, Disco Lines and more get ready to hit the decks from Friday to Sunday. Check out the poster above for the rest of the artists slated to perform.

Three-day GA, GA+ (a new ticket tier), VIP and Golden Gate Club passes go on sale here for $499, $674, $1,029 and $4,899 this Wednesday, March 8th at 10 a.m. PT, so take a peek at our previous coverage here before you pick one up!

UPDATE (April 18th): Daily lineups for OSL 2023 are out, with Kendrick Lamar headlining Friday, Foo Fighters rocking Saturday and ODESZA closing down the festival Sunday. Peek at the daily schedules above before single-day tickets go on sale here for $199 (GA), $299 (GA+) and $449 (VIP) starting this Wednesday, April 19th at 10 a.m. PT. And if you’re thinking about purchasing a three-day ticket payment plan and putting down just $99 up front, you can still do that for a limited time here!

UPDATE (May 11th): Interpol has confirmed that they will be performing their 2002 debut LP Turn On the Bright Lights in full from start to finish during the band’s set at OSL this year. Fans of the New York post-punk revivalists should pick up their single-day tickets here!

UPDATE (August 1st): With less than a couple of weeks to go, your 2023 set times have arrived. See the schedules above for all of your potential conflicts at OSL’s 15th anniversary so you can formulate a plan before getting to Golden Gate Park. Who will the TBA act on Saturday be?!?! Take your best guess in the comments below.

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: aespa, Alex G, Alvvays, Âme, Âme B2B Trikk, beabadoobee, Becky Hill, Blond:ish, Cigarettes After Sex, Claptone, Cobra Man, Coco & Breezy, Crumb, Cuco, Daniel Avery, Denis Sulta, Diesel, Disco Lines, Donny Benét, Dope Lemon, Eddie Zuko, EREZ, Ethel Cain, Evan Giia, Fake Fruit, Father John Misty, Fisher, Foo Fighters, Gabriels, Grace Ives, Holly Humberstone, Inhaler, Interpol, ISOxo, Izzy Heltai, J.I.D., Janelle Monáe, Jessie Murph, Joy Oladokun, Justin Jay, Kendrick Lamar, Kim Ann Foxman, L'Impératrice, Lana Del Rey, Lil Yachty, Lovejoy, Loverground, Maggie Rogers, Manila Grey, Mariah the Scientist, Megan Thee Stallion, midwxst, Mild Minds, Miss Dre, Monolink, NALA, Nanna, Nation of Language, NIKI, No Vacation, Noah Kahan, Nora En Pure, Odesza, Orion Sun, Orville Peck, Outside Lands, Outside Lands 2023, Outside Lands Music Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival 2023, Poolside, Pretty Sick, Raveena, Red Axes, Sama' Abdulhadi, Samia, Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal, Soccer Mommy, SOMA Tent, The 1975, The Dip, The Jungle Giants, Tinlicker, Tobe Nwigwe, Tops, Trikk, Trixie Mattel, Upsahl, Venus & the Flytraps, VNSSA, Wednesday, WestEnd, WhoMadeWho, Wild Child, Willow, Yaya Bey, Zack Fox, Zedd

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.