Treasure Island 2018 a Symbiosis

Despite the mushrooming of countless music festivals all over the US, Treasure Island Music Festival put on by Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment stirred up something special.

This year’s festival was located at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Oakland after a brief hiatus in 2017. Despite the relocation from Treasure Island due to ongoing development and severe rainstorms at the original site, the festival was still was held along the calm waters beside the Bay. Given a harmonious lineup with no overlapping set times, globally acclaimed artists like ASAP Rocky, Tame Impala, Pusha T, Courtney Barnett and many other ridiculously talented beings cultivated a silky smooth festival dynamic.

Treasure Island 2018 made me feel hopeful. The two-day festival that occurred on October 13-14th was a pleasant and symbiotic gathering of many concert-going types: the “I’d rather just stand,” “I’d rather mosh,” “I’d rather just lay,” and “I’d rather uncontrollably head bang and flail” subgroups. Despite a utopian-like vision advertised in the media, music festivals are prone to the egotistical parading of cultural capital. It seems like some people have a tendency to obnoxiously show off their knowledge of music and festival culture by telling others how to perform. The douchebaggery is inflicted mostly upon quiet, lone-wolf types often through reductive statements like your sound “needs a sip of this.” None of this weird energy turned up at the Shoreline this weekend. The absence of toxicity and the free flowing movement of a crowd of thousands on top of Treasure Island’s crisp organization made for a refreshing experience. People were there to enjoy the music.

On Day 2, Courtney Barnett’s sang “Hopefulessness” from her 2018 release, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Her words essentially sum up where the effort can be amplified among us complicated earthlings. “You know what they say/ No one is born to hate/ We learn it somewhere along the way.”

Day 1 featured rap, hip hop, and electronic figures like Moses Sumney, Polo and Pan, Laff Trax (Toro y Moi & Nosaj Thing), Aminé, Asap Rocky, and Pusha T.

Day 2 on the other hand featured alternative rock, indie pop, folk, neo-psychedelic figures like Pond, US Girls, Cigarettes After Sex, Courtney Barnett and the beloved Tame Impala who finally—without a storm threat—played “Jeremy’s Storm” from their debut album Innerspeaker after 5 or 6 years.