After a year of waiting, Outside Lands is back and in full swing! Outside Lands is an arts and music festival held yearly in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The first ever festival was in 2008, and ever since then, Outside Lands has gained popularity throughout the Bay Area.

In recent years, the festival has had to adapt to restrictions due to COVID-19, by delaying the festival in 2020 and later changing
to an online experience. However, with vaccine and negative covid test requirements, the public now has the opportunity to enjoy the festival in-person. I was able to see first hand how exciting and enthralling the festival was.

COVID restrictions limited many opportunities for live performances, and because of that, Outside Lands last year was streamed instead. This year however, we were back in person with the encouragement of masks. The air was buzzing with excitement from people being able to finally see their favorite artists after a year of quarantine.

The people working at the festival were very inviting, and everyone was really enthusiastic about being back. Tents full of food and drinks were lined up around the park, each having different varieties to choose from. The food itself was amazing, and there were some tents with cool drinks such as boba or alcoholic drinks for adults, that looked delicious as well.

In previous years, Outside Lands was held in the summer during August, but this year it was held on Halloween weekend. A majority of the people were dressed extravagantly in beautiful and funny costumes all weekend, and some had very well thought-out group costumes as well.

Huge crowds of people surrounded almost every stage, and there were also some people who sat on blankets on the hillsides, too. The setup of Outside Lands is similar to many other major music festivals, in which there are multiple stages with different acts performing at the same time. Because of this, time collisions between artists that you would like to see is possible.

Depending on the stage’s lineup, securing a good spot early on was key to being able to see your favorite artist close up.

There were lots of underground artists, such as Boy Pablo, 070 Shake, and Post Animal, that played during the day, but the night was when the bigger and more popular artists performed. The Strokes, 24kGoldn, Tyler the Creator, Lizzo, ZHU, ARIZONA, J Balvin, Kehlani and Tame Impala were some of the most popular artists this year.

Every act was unique and captured everyone’s attention to the point where no one wanted their set to end. People danced and sang while music blared through the air; the environment was exhilarating.

If you’ve never been to a music festival, Outside Lands is the perfect place to start because of the overall good vibes coming from everywhere throughout the park. It was a long weekend, packed with many new adventures and sto memories that were created. The environment, the food, the people, and especially the artists made the whole event very special and enjoyable.