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The Outside Lands' food lineup continues to strike a chord with attendees, as evidenced by the crowds packing into Wine Lands, and waiting in half-hour-plus lines for a fancy food truck pizza. In addition to being a draw for out-of-towners — experience the best of San Francisco, all in one place! — these perks give San Franciscans something to get excited about, too. It's an opportunity to try restaurants you've heard about, but haven't made it to. Not to mention those restaurants that are hard to even score a table at outside of festival grounds, like Rich Table and AQ.
The idea, Duquette says, is to give everyone "something to be a part of." Beyond the food and drink, Outside Lands and Superfly have been working to tap into the tech community with Outside Hack, now in its second year, and kick off environmental initiatives. Those include a beach cleanup on the Saturday of the event, grease recycling, and efforts to donate leftover food from the vendors.
"We're celebrating the whole culture of San Francisco," Duquette says.
These combined efforts make the festival about more than just music, and, ideally, encourage attendees to come for more than just one day. Duquette notes that 90 percent of ticket holders this year have bought three-day passes, in part because Another Planet is now selling fewer single-day tickets than in the past. They want people to fully experience the festival, by trying the wine and the food and the beer; with a one-day pass, you're more likely to only focus on the music and feel the time crunch.
Of course, selling more three-day passes is a financial boon for the festival, too.
This all comes at a premium. Gone is the Woodstock-inspired image of dirty hippies sitting in mud, dropping acid and listening to a band. The $275 price tag for a pass is only the beginning; you don't get wood-fired Neapolitan pizza or grass-fed cheeseburgers for cheap. For those who find the benefits worth it, you find yourself with the opportunity to sample a fine California wine alongside some freshly shucked oysters ... all set to a live soundtrack. But that means that plenty of people are automatically priced out.
Looking at Outside Lands' first five years, the attention to San Francisco-centric detail quickly becomes evident. There's the food, wine, and beer, but there's also a diversity in the musical lineup that reflects the wide array of tastes in the Bay Area. Metallica's 2012 heavy metal headlining set was one example; this year, Kanye West will close out Friday night's lineup, the first hip-hop artist to do so (and a polarizing one, at that). There's EDM, indie hip hop, and the classic "heritage acts" like Willie Nelson.
"You know what blows me away?" Vaziri says. "Last year, there were just as many people at Pretty Lights as at Paul McCartney. There are just as many people watching this guy on a laptop as there are watching a Beatle play 'Hey Jude!'
Take that 2012 Metallica performance. Across the festival, Sigur Ros was playing a set that, in style, approach, and volume, could be considered a polar opposite. But both stages were packed and, in a pretty epic only-at-Outside-Lands moment, Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi and Lars Ulrich ended up hanging out over glasses of wine following the show.
Another Planet is in a unique position to understand its audience — when it's not running this festival, it's booking bands at venues of all sizes, from The Independent to The Greek Theater. It sees what sells out, what's catching on, and what's poised to get big. And it makes a point to showcase local talent, from big headliners to beginning-of-the-day bands like The Brothers Comatose. According to Duquette, 15-20 percent of each year's lineup hails from the Bay Area.
Andy Cabic of San Francisco-based band Vetiver has had a number of friends play the festival, and played it with his band in 2011.
"I can't imagine a better place to play," he says of the Golden Gate Park location. "And, for a festival of its scale, they treat you really well." He also appreciated that the crew from Another Planet, many of whom he'd met before, came out to see his set.
Thao Nguyen of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down played last year's festival, and had a similarly positive experience. She mentions that the festival has the best catering of all of the festivals she's played, and the easiest commute.
"Many a San Francisco stamp is imprinted on the festival," she says. "And the crowd was so kind, so warm and energetic."
The local love comes through in the basic setup of the festival, too — the stages are named after locations in the city, and the scrims surrounding the stages are done by hometown artists. This is in sharp contrast to other large-scale festivals; Lollapalooza has an incredibly prevalent corporate presence, as seen in the sponsor-named stages and branded scrims. The festival itself is named for the historical name of San Francisco's western neighborhoods, dating from the mid-1800s. Outside Lands won out over more generic potential names, including the Golden Gate Music & Arts Festival, On The Green, and The Big One.
Compare this with other big festivals. Bonnaroo and Coachella happen in a field and a desert, respectively; they are cities unto themselves. Lollapalooza happens in Chicago, but the festival isn't really about Chicago and the organizers don't live there.
Ultimately, San Francisco, the city, is one of the festival's greatest marketing assets. And everything about it, from the location to the amenities to the price tag, is reflective of the city today.
"San Francisco's a really hot market now, and it's one of the best places to be in the world, I think," Duquette says. "Obviously, there's going to be another bubble burst at some point ... but right now, the energy in San Francisco is thriving."
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