Outside Lands, which takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is typically accompanied by foggy days and nights, a wintery music festival that takes place in the summertime. But sunny skies and temperatures into the ‘70s brought a brighter outlook and bolder outfits to this year’s event on Aug. 5-7.
The festival, which began in 2008 and has taken place annually except for 2020, featured headliners SZA, Green Day and Post Malone at the top of an international lineup of DJs, artists and bands, plus extensive food and drink options and even a legal cannabis marketplace and consumption area. Here are some of the many notable moments that helped to make Outside Lands a delightful experience this year.
A sold-out crowd at Outside Lands’ main stage. | Photo: Alive Coverage
DJ Umami Wins The Game
As the official DJ for the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, DJ Umami knows how to rock stadiums with a smile. Her packed Friday afternoon performance at The House by Heineken — one of four areas at the festival that were dedicated to DJ sets — combined the explosive energy she has at those big sporting events with the hype of her bar and club gigs. Fran Boogie, her friend and frequent collaborator on the mic, offered the cherry on top with his vocal party-pumping punctuations.
Hiatus Kaiyote Slays The 4:20 Set
Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote | Photo: Alive Coverage
The festival’s Grass Lands area sold THC-infused beverages (including cans of weeded sparkling water by Pabst Blue Ribbon), edibles and cannabis flower. The smell in the air at 4:20 p.m. on Friday made it clear that Grass Lands was on track to sell millions of dollars of products, as it reportedly did in 2019.
Grass Lands was located close to the main stage, Lands End, where Australian jazz-funk act Hiatus Kaiyote must have received quite the 420 contact high. Singer Nai Palm led a set largely taken from the band’s 2021 album, Mood Valiant, which was written when she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. The soul survivor also effortlessly handled a cover of David Bowie’s "Within You."
Lil Uzi Vert Looks Out For His Fans
Lil Uzi Vert gets up close and personal. | Photo: Alive Coverage
GRAMMY nominee Lil Uzi Vert was careful to notice when the crowd at his Lands End performance got too squished together in front. At a few points during his 26-song set, he asked everybody to take three steps back before he’d start again.
"Then we can really open up," he said. Those pauses in the show appeared to work, giving people more room to throw their hands up and jump up and down instead of being involuntarily carried by the crowd.
He did his most-requested original songs, like "XO TOUR Llif3," "444+222" and "I KNOW," but also covered "WDYW" by Carnage and Playboy Carti’s "Wokeuplikethis," the latter of which prompted an overzealous fan to jump on the stage, which Lil Uzi Vert handled with obvious love and grace.
Qbert And Shortkut Offer DJ Masterclasses
Nestled under trees, the intimate Cocktail Magic stage featured technically masterful freestyle sets from legendary local DJs Qbert and Shortkut on Friday and Saturday. With their schedules taking them to different places, the longtime friends rarely get to see each other these days, and Shortkut told their audience that they were having fun practicing together.
The DJs played hip-hop, drum & bass, and electro beats and wittily conversed through the cadences of their improvised cuts and scratches over the top. After their Saturday show, they posed with girls in pickle costumes, a nod to their '90s world champion DJ battle crew name, Invisibl Skratch Piklz.
(L-R) Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg. | Photo: Steve Jennings/Contributor
Wet Leg Gets Tiny Blue Babies… Again
One of the festival’s true scheduling conflicts was having Russia’s provocative Pussy Riot perform at the same time as buzzy English duo Wet Leg on Sunday, forcing tough choices and a strong desire to be two places at once. Those who chose Wet Leg at the Sutro stage were rewarded with a sunny set of songs from their self-titled debut album, including "Being in Love," "Wet Dream" and the purposefully misspelled "Chaise Longue."
The audience also got the chance to bear witness to a rather strange mystery. In between songs, singer/guitarist Rhian Teasdale picked up tiny blue plastic babies that were thrown on stage. Wet Leg has no idea why they keep getting pelted with them.
"We get these every time we play in San Francisco!" marveled singer/guitarist Rhian Teasdale, holding up one of the tiny tots.
Baby Tate Wakes Up The Panhandle
Though Atlanta rapper Baby Tate (the daughter of GRAMMY-nominated singer Dionne Farris) appeared on Sunday’s Panhandle stage — one of the smaller and traditionally sleepier performance areas at Outside Lands — she quickly drew a feverishly-bouncing crowd that foreshadows how confidently she’d fare on a main stage at the festival.
DJ Sky Jetta introduced her with a quick flurry of surprising songs, including Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" and Panic! At The Disco's "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." Tate, 26, somehow matched the energy of those millennial classics with her own newer songs, like 2020’s "Rainbow Cadillac," which contains an interpolation of Danity Kane’s 2006 pop debut, "Show Stopper."
Larry June Gets A Healthy Crowd
Local rapper Larry June | Photo: Alive Coverage
The only local rap artist booked at Outside Lands, San Francisco’s Larry June didn’t appear to have high expectations beforehand, telling SFGate, "I don't care if there's 100 people in my set, I just keep pushing. I don't even care about set times or whatever, I just do my thing and go home."
But thousands of people pushed through to see June perform what he calls a "healthy and organic experience" on Saturday with effortlessly cool songs like "Watering My Plants" and "Smoothies in 1991." He said the Outside Lands audience was his biggest and best crowd of all time.
Kim Petras Covers Kate Bush
"It’s a scary f—ing time right now, especially for trans girls," said the German pop star Kim Petras on Sunday as a preface to her vocally strong, emotionally-charged cover of Kate Bush’s "Running Up That Hill," which she made sure to note that she released months before the song’s star turn on "Stranger Things."
It was a sobering and tear jerking moment in what was otherwise a tight set of naughty and fun anthems, including "Slut Pop" and "Throat Goat," on the second biggest stage, Twin Peaks.
Tater Tots Grow Up
Lobster tater tots fromWilliam Tell House | Photo: Tamara Palmer
With over 80 restaurants and food vendors, Outside Lands is as much a food festival as a music one, and the diverse selections really represented what the Bay Area culinary scene has to offer.
Two takes on tater tots easily stole the show for deliciousness and ease of eating: a spicy, lobster-crowned version by William Tell House in neighboring Marin County, and churro tots topped with chocolate and caramel sauces and whipped cream by San Francisco confectioner Charles Chocolates.
Hemorage Drops The Hottest (Illegal) Aftershow
Just after Green Day finished their Saturday set at Lands End that included reminiscing on playing an illegal show in another San Francisco park in the '90s, a hardcore thrash band from the city called Hemorage started their own show. They parked their van at a residential corner near one of the festival exits and proceeded to send even more noise throughout the already-weary Sunset District.
While police arrived, they actually waited for a song to finish before pulling the plug. There’s no doubt that Billie Joe Armstrong would have more than approved of such a genius pop-up show.