Photographic Overview of the 15th Annual Outside Lands Music Festival

We saw King Isis at the Panhandle stage to kick it off on Friday. King Isis confidently rocked as one of the first sets of the entire weekend at noon. As a local artist from Oakland, they donned their personal style in dark sunglasses, a handsewn red and black set with matching gloves, and a black bunny-eared hooded hat while playing all their hits that can’t be defined under one musical genre. The early festival goers wandered through the field and stayed for the music, bopping their heads, dancing, and clapping along to King Isis’ guitar riffs and assertive stage presence. Smooth strumming folk singer Izzy Heltai followed. 

He jokingly commented on how King Isis’ previous crowd was dancing but his crowds always know to sit and lounge in the grass. Still, everybody enjoyed his sweet, acoustic discography to ease themselves into the weekend. Much of the young crowd rushed to see Ethel Cain at the Sutro stage that afternoon. Her name and discography has become a household name in my own California, indie communities in the past year and I could see why. Her long stares and slow pacing on stage was hypnotizing and enough to keep the energy of the captive crowd that held onto every lyric. Additionally, Ethel’s strong, smooth vocals, popular songs, and confident demeanor made for an unforgettable performance. 

A definite highlight was when she came down from the stage to perform her song Crush, announcing that she called this part of her set the “crowd crush”, where Ethel sang soulfully to some lucky fans at the barricade as she allowed them to hold her hands and cup her face. WILLOW came on stage that evening with her powerful pop punk sound that contrasted with the previous day’s music genres. She adorned an all-black outfit including a statement t-shirt that read “No Music On A Dead Planet” and sparkly blue eyeshadow on her inner corner and outer lid. She needed no introduction as it was clear that the crowd had been bopping to her music and knew her name for years. 

She joked with the festival like we were all her friends with quips like “No pressure…but you guys give my life a lot of purpose” and “I don’t know how we can get more emo but I think we’re going to, I think it’s going to happen right now”. 

WILLOW rocked through her older and newer hits like transparent soul, Meet Me At Our Spot, and closed with Wait A Minute!, taking full advantage of her settime as she guitar riffed, joked with the crowd, jumped around the stage, and faithfully passed the mic to the crowd as they perfectly sang back full verses. To close out Day 1, Kendrick Lamar took over the main Lands End stage with his moody, aqua blue lighting and powerful smoke machines. He needed no introduction between his songs as the entire Polo Field was hanging onto every lyric of his timeless discography. Screams of excitement erupted as everyone recognized immediately the first beats of their favorites, like Swimming Pools (Drank) and HUMBLE.

What You Missed On Saturday

Saturday had another strong nostalgic themed lineup of some of my favorite artists. The current five-piece band No Vacation kept the good energy going by starting off the second day with their soft but danceable indie music that was perfect under the California sun. As I watched, I felt lost in the chemistry among the members of No Vacation, who have released music together since 2015. 

They each sported their personal styles in artsy outfits, beanies, and fashionable sunglasses, matching the festival crowd in their similar age and vibe. In fact, they all wore multiple hats as they traded guitars and basses for violins and cellos, and impressively eyed each other to playfully hit guitar battles together throughout the set that I didn’t want to end. Next up at the main Lands End stage was another quintet, Wednesday. They displayed a playful mix of rock, country, and just some notable, soulful screaming as they traveled to San Francisco all the way from Asheville, North Carolina. 

My music playlists definitely align with the more indie and pop artists on the weekend lineup so I was surprised when they started playing, as it hadn’t occurred to me about how country artists were missing as a genre from my weekend plans of acts to see. 

My friends and I had been talking about how the Outside Lands crowd is more youthful and definitely more progressive, so it makes sense that the lineup leans more towards appealing to that crowd with more indie, alternative, and pop artists. Just as I was reminded of this, the lead singer of Wednesday, Karly Hartzman, told the crowd between songs “People think they have an idea of country music but there’s a lot of different types and we hope we can change that for you.” They continued through their soulful discography that was calm yet simultaneously full of passion and heart, and I held a new perspective. 

Before their last song, Hartzman shared with the crowd a humane intro that I would consider a highlight to my entire weekend: “There’s a lot to love about the Southern United States but that’s also where old men like to tell trans people what to do with their bodies and rule the right for women to have an abortion and police people of color into unlivable spaces. We choose to stay there to fight these things and if enough people stay there to fight then change will happen. If you agree with us, feel free to scream with us at the end of this song.” 

Later that afternoon was Alvvays, again a band of five! They had brightly colored, erratic visuals on the screen behind them to match their boldly colored outfits and ⅖ of them sported red lips. Their lead singer Molly Rankin’s strong yet melodic vocals over their rock-heavy drum beats caught and held the festival-goer’s attention yet their vibe continued to be cool and collected. That evening, Father John Misty led his ensemble of men in suits and sunglasses, scattered amongst keyboards, saxophones, guitars, and flutes. 

As a frequent concert-goer myself, I find that many performers fall into their routine each show as they sing and dance through their setlist but don’t ever seem like they are present or aware of the venue they’re in and crowd they’re in front of; Father John Misty was the exact opposite. Frontman FJM had complete control of the crowd and he knew it as he paced the stage, held prolonged eye contact, pointed at audience members, and told the camera crew “you better put those teens on the jumbotron!” He swung his microphone stand all around and sang wholeheartedly on his knees, danced sporadically throughout his set as if he was the only person in the world, and spoke-sang his lyrics as if it was just a conversation between the two of you. 

Maggie Rogers followed on the Lands End stage and also knew how to take charge of the stage, yet her soulful pop music and similarly energetic, impulsive dancing contrasted nicely to Father John Misty’s set. She began her set by excitedly telling the growing crowd how she had played Outside Lands in 2018 and to this day, that was in her top 5 shows she has ever done. Maggie danced, power-posed, and interacted with many of her musicians on stage, but never stopped moving with the biggest smile on her face. To conclude Day 2, Lana Del Rey was 100% one of, if not the most anticipated set of the entire weekend, as she drew a majority of the festival away from co-headliners Foo Fighters that night. Although she had done other festivals this summer, Outside Lands was happy to be the first to announce that they had secured her as a headliner. Her music raised much of the Gen Z festival population and she simply put on an ethereal performance with crystal clear vocals that perfectly matched her iconic recordings of the past decade. She went over her set time as she serenaded the emotional crowd to finish a perfect second day.

The Final Day Of The Festival

The last day came with an exciting lineup that had me glued to the main Twin Peaks stage all day. A young alternative pop star Holly Humberstone, who recently opened for Olivia Rodrigo, brought her moody but thoughtful lyricism and catchy sound from London to San Francisco for her SF debut! Her backdrop of choice was a creative design of lyrics from her songs, which I found useful so attendees who weren’t familiar could sing along. 

She switched between playing guitar and singing with her microphone on a diverse, quick setlist of slower, emotional songs such as Antichrist and Deep End and upbeat favorites such as The Walls Are Way Too Thin and Scarlett. After her came Inhaler, a popular boy rock band also from overseas in Dublin, Ireland. Inhaler has truly rock ‘n roll in their bloodstream as lead singer and frontman Elijah Hewson’s father is none other than Bono. 

They switched their shiny guitars almost every other song and continued their set with straight faces; they knew they had a job to do! The four-piece of young Irish heartthrobs have recently opened for notable names like Harry Styles and the Arctic Monkeys and are surely on the rise. In contrast, the soft-spoken, feminine beabadoobee followed. 

Beabadoobee rocked her iconic bright pink guitar, with substitutes of silver and lime green guitars, as she displayed her rockstar ability to whip her hair while shredding the bass (rightfully so to She Plays Bass) and also solely singing her most popular love-centric songs such as the perfect pair and Glue Song that have racked up over 200 million streams combined between the two. Much of the younger crowd knew the name of Cigarettes After Sex as they were also raised on their most popular song Apocalypse but most people weren’t sure who was about to walk out on the stage or what the vibe of their set was. 

Three men in sunglasses came out to the blank black screen and only a fog machine, although that was hardly needed considering Karl the Fog was draped over the entire park. 

Throughout their smooth set of nostalgic, slow beats, occasionally the visuals on the screen behind them displayed a black-and-white burning flower and black-and-white stormy ocean waves. Of course, they closed with Apocalypse, leaving the attendees at that edge of the park ready for one of the last sets of the weekend. The 1975 drew a similar crowd in music taste but opposite energy. An unfamiliar onlooker may be appalled and confused if they were walking by. Still, the crowd of dedicated 1975 fans (who had to choose between them, Noah Kahan, or ODESZA at this final time slot) were nothing but ready for the unhinged shenanigans and quips to follow, because that’s just what frontman Matty Healy is known for. 

With his classic flask and cigarette on hand, Matty successfully led 1975 through performing a full set (doesn’t always happen) but still kept the audience on their toes as he threw himself around the stage, tightened his wired microphone around his wrist twenty times, and cough-gagged into the microphone in the placement of a song intro. “Our lawyers told us not to say anything but,” Matty teased during their infamous on-stage bit before being interrupted by the beginning guitar riff to It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You). Similarly to Lana Del Rey, the 1975 holds many loyal Gen Z fans, and their discography from over the past decade has birthed many popular songs that many of us have grown up with over the years. 

It was a real treat to see them, especially on good behavior. “We are the world’s greatest band, ladies and gentlemen. This is the 1975,” Matty cooed before finding the energy to absolutely explode into their encore, People, closing the 15th Outside Lands weekend on a high. 

See you next year!