Up in smoke – Outside Lands 2019 

One part of me loved the 12th annual Outside Lands festival, another part of me felt it perfectly encapsulated everything wrong with festivals: a disconnect from the music. 

Overall, OSL did succeed in collecting some of music’s biggest names for one weekend, but somehow made a deal with the devil to give us beautiful weather and one too many underage kids on drugs. 

Day 1 

Even as we walked into the gates on Friday, I didn’t feel any particular excitement about what was in store. The headliners felt more or less the same: Blink-182 for the angsty 40-year-olds and 21 Pilots for the angsty 17-year-olds. 

Midway through the night, Karl (the infamous SF fog) rolled into the park and cast a haunting gloom over the venue. The fog hindered our view from even seeing 21 Pilots unless we were close. Fitting, I thought. Even San Francisco doesn’t want to see them as a headliner. 

Masego and The Lumineers helped turn the day around. Masego brought the funk to Golden Gate and succeeded in getting the entire crowd up and dancing. The Lumineers, although a complete departure from Masego and many of the other electronic and hip-hop artists of the day, delivered a jubilant celebration of upbeat indie-rock.

Day 2

Day 2 finally picked up some speed and featured a variety of  acts. It was one of the largest crowds ever at OSL, all riled up for Flume and Childish Gambino, so naturally the crowd was a bit more rambunctious.

Childish Gambino served as one of the largest highlights of the weekend. I am convinced Gambino came here on a spaceship and failed to return home. His entire performance felt like a huge music video, and his energy transpired, engaging all 90,000 fans (a record-breaking high). It felt as if Gambino’s electricity could power all of San Francisco and neither Karl nor the night’s chill could stop him.

Day 3

Sunday was easily my favorite day from the weekend. The variety of performers, both classics and contemporaries, brought a more diverse crowd —easing the onslaught of people there solely for the purpose of getting wasted. The day began with punk-rockers Cherry Glazerr, and finished with Paul Simon’s infectious feel good stories and crowd pleasing classics. I was ecstatic to hear songs from my childhood, so naturally I felt a special kinship towards Simon. During his set, memories of my mom and country car rides we used to take all came flooding back to me.

OSL had a lot of highlights, such as Simon stating all proceeds from his performance would benefit two local environmental organizations, Mavis Staples’ presidential campaign announcement, and Gambino’s entire performance. However, OSL also exemplifies live music’s inaccessibility with outrageous prices (nearly $430 for 3 days, not including transportation or food), poor scheduling, and a larger focus on making the experience as Instagram-able as possible rather than enjoyable. I suppose only time will tell if OSL will remain a Bay Area treasure or only just go up in smoke along with the clouds of marijuana and Karl. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Article and photos by Makaila Heifner