Outside Lands, 2011
Outside Lands Festival, 2011
by Joshua Krage
Summertime– it’s festival season, and for any Northwestern U.S. residents (or really committed and globetrotting fans) this year’s Outside Lands Festival provided food, festivities, and (most importantly) a wide array of popular music artists to allow the 100,000+ attendees to cram half a year’s worth of shows into a single weekend. Before recapping the three days of aural bliss, a few things I learned while spending time amongst the glorious throngs of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this weekend:
1. Bacon-covered funnel cake will replace every food on your “favorites” list and you will thank it for doing so.
2. Fuzzy-eared hats are becoming waaay too popular. Among adults.
3. The tiniest women will be the most aggressive people pushing past you to the front of the stage.
4. When Phish headlines the main stage of a festival, every other stage is blissfully less crowded. Phish need to headline more festivals.
5. Whether you’re smoking it or not, at a festival you must be prepared to be high on marijuana, even if it’s just a contact high (see #4).
On to the recap, with limited picture interruption:
Day one: Phantogram, Foster the People, MGMT, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Limousines, The Shins
Day two: Ximena Sariñana, The Vaccines, OK Go, Sia, Eskmo, The Black Keys, Muse
Day three: Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band, tUnE-yArDs, Grouplove, Little Dragon, Deadmau5, STS9, Arcade Fire, Mavis Staples