The largest music festival on the West Coast, Outside Lands, took place this weekend at Golden Gate Park in the phenomenal city of San Francisco, with some of the biggest names in the music industry gracing the fog-laden stages and over 220,000 people in attendance. Rather than other mainstream festivals such as Coachella, the vibe of Outside Lands focuses more on the musical atmosphere in the Bay Area, as well as serving a variety of delicious food and drinks, rather than curating an environment for social media influencers to create content and flaunt their brand deals.
This three-day festival began last Friday, with headliners SZA, Oliver Tree, Lil Uzi Vert, and Phoebe Bridgers representing a wide range of music genres for fans across the board. As SZA took to the stage, her visual background matched up with the emotions of the songs she sang, with various ocean scenes, like waves crashing into a lighthouse, metaphorically serving as the feelings invoked with each individual lyric. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Oliver Tree showed up for his set in an eclectic outfit, complete with a neon track jacket and a long blonde mullet wig. Rather than put on a personal and heartfelt performance like SZA, Oliver Tree embraced the wacky persona that he has created, with fans saying that he repeatedly screamed at the crowd and demanded things of them loudly to pump up the audience as much as possible.
A staple part of Outside Lands is the signature throwback artist, with Green Day performing this year as the Saturday headliner. Performing in San Francisco is especially momentous for this 90’s rock band since lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, as well as bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, is from Oakland and Berkeley respectively, and formed the iconic band in the East Bay Area back in 1987. Fan-favorite Jack Harlow made his fans feel like they were all first-class guests during his performance; while Harlow was a headliner this year and drew in one of the biggest crowds of the entire festival, he was one of the smallest performers during his last Outside Lands appearance in 2018, displaying his tremendous growth in the industry over the past four years.
Day Three may have been the most exciting of them all, with Post Malone bringing his infectious energy to San Francisco and making the crowd go absolutely wild for the entire set. Posty’s famously carefree and vulgar attitude was immediately present as he began his show by saying “My name is Austin Richard Post and I’ve come to play some sh***y music and get f***ed up while we do it,” prompting cheers and screams from the audience. Additionally, Post Malone entertained his fans through more than just his music, but also through his constant interaction with those watching, saying hilarious things like “You guys mind if I play some guitar for you for a minute? If you need to p*ss, now is the time to do it, because this is the most boring part of the show.” Weezer, Pusha T, Mitzski, and Kim Petras also put on incredible shows on Sunday to conclude the festival, leaving fans anxiously awaiting next year’s thrilling festival lineup.
