Located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival was a joyous celebration of music headlined by Tenacious D, Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam. Its eco-friendly message and colorful lineup of exhilarating talent set it apart from ordinary music festivals.
Donning matching Star Trek-inspired V-neck T-shirts, Infantree delivered a refreshingly understated performance in comparison to the noise of some of the other performers, yet kept the audience’s attention with melodies that were far more interesting than those of songs getting heavy rotation on the radio.
Though appearing seemingly unknown on the lineup, Portugal.The Man’s
stage was surrounded by a startling amount of people. They performed
catchy and captivating songs, punctuated with amazing solos. When any
one of the band members would break into a solo, they would become lost
in the music, a sight rare to see when most performers are always aware
of the audience.
While headliners like Jason Mraz never failed to
disappoint, the smaller scale of other acts provided an intimacy that
the headliners could not, most likely due to the smaller audiences.
However,
one problem with the festival was having a singular main stage on which
all the headliners performed. Outside Lands had seven stages for its
performers, and the presence of this one main stage caused audience
members to become glued to that stage instead of venturing over to the
other six stages and checking out other acts the festival was offering.
If
those audience members had ventured over to another stage, they may
have seen a truly remarkable feat of green technology. The Panhandle
Stage was completely powered by solar energy. Located in between
vendors, the massive solar panels signified the extent to which the
festival was devoted to the green movement.
The eco-friendly vibe played a large part in making it an experience worth relishing. The grounds were kept spotless, and cans for recycling and compost were scattered across the entire area. Unlike other festivals, which usually have an unimaginative selection of carnival-like food, Outside Lands presented a variety of unique vendors, many of which served organic and slow food products at a reasonable price.
In its second year, The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival has produced an extremely enjoyable experience with a positive message that will hopefully continue on as a San Francisco tradition.
E-mail Kato at jkato@media.ucla.edu.