Another Outside Lands done and dusted. This is our second year covering the festival for Gazetteer, and each year has brought new delights and even weirder disappointments. In lieu of a conventional review about the best and worst acts from the weekend, we present to you a roundup of observations that you may have missed.
Vampire Weekend’s brilliant bookend move
As I meandered to the Twin Peaks stage to watch Vampire Weekend on Saturday, I couldn’t wrap my head around why such a big legacy act would book an hour at 12:45 p.m. and a closing headline set later that night. The band promised that there would be no repeat songs across about two hours of total playtime, but wouldn’t they be splitting their turnout in half?
Apparently not: The band attracted the biggest crowd imaginable for a midday set at a mainstream festival. Thousands showed up early to see frontman Ezra Koenig and his ferociously talented band jam through classics like “Oxford Comma” as well as deeper cuts like “Stranger.” Later that night, an even larger crowd descended on the field, growing in energy until the frenetic rhythm of “Walcott” closed out the set.
Two shows on a single day comes with the risk of an artist cannibalizing its own crowd, but Vampire Weekend’s double play at Outside Lands was a win-win-win: Diehard fans got more music, casuals had a household name to see early in the day, and the festival profited off more food and drink sales thanks to the band’s gravity. Let’s see who pulls it off next year… — EK
New booze scootin’
“Please pull your pants leg up,” a security guard told me as I approached Hellman Hollow Saturday. The guard dutifully felt my ankles up, checking for any liquor shooter-sized bulges in my boots — and then let me through once he found that my gams were not boozed up.
It's been a bit of an open secret now that you can smuggle all manner of illicit substances in the gaps of your boots. But this might be the first year that Outside Lands is actively policing people’s boots for booze — Eddie heard two young women on Muni on Saturday discussing how to get around the protocol, which neither of us noticed in 2024. Seems like it’s less for the grown folks looking to spike a few drinks, and more for a way to curtail under-21s getting hammered at the festival. Should I be flattered that I got a boot inspection? —JB
My favorite rave props have disappeared
I started raving and attending music festivals at the turn of the 2010s, so it’s not shocking that I have a lot of gauzy, misguided nostalgia for the tropes of that era. That being said, where the hell did all the kandi bracelets and totem poles go? Outside Lands may not be a true rave in focus and scope, but it is a destination for dance music, so I hoped to see diehards trading beaded trinkets or waving poles topped with goofy signs, flags, or plushies.
Readers, I am dismayed to tell you that I saw basically nothing of the sort while dancing through the valley of the EDM-centric SOMA stage and catching the headline sets of John Summit, Gesaffelstein, and Jamie xx. My theory is that totems are out of style because we have cell service at festivals now, eliminating the need for a visual marker to find friends. The dearth of collectable kandi on the other hand, is more mysterious. All fads come and go, but we need Gen Alpha to bring PLUR back from the ashes. — EK
Speaking of…. sprouts are so last year
Instead of kandi bracelets, the festival scene is dominated with plastic clip-on sprouts — a trend that SFGate just declared “the biggest fashion trend” of OSL 2025. With love and light, I just have to point out that I shouted out sprouts a full year ago. These days, the play is to make your own, rather than buy a generic pack off Amazon. And remember, the entire point of the rave sprout is to share them with strangers, not to decorate yourself… — EK
The brands are out of control
We’ve gotta cool it on festival brand activations. Gap had a line out of its tent for its customizable hoodie pop-up, which makes sense: Gap is apparently cool again, and it was actually pretty cold. PacSun’s event made less sense. For some reason, the mall brand had its own Outside Lands merch booth, too, but with fast fashion-y versions of the festival’s own offerings. It did not so much cannibalize the OSL merch line as it did serve as the store-brand equivalent.
But the Nerds brand activation is where I draw the line. What do you mean Nerds Gummy Clusters had a brand activation at Outside Lands, complete with people lining up to take pictures with a life-size Nerds Gummy Cluster mascot? — JB
The surreal horrors of SOMA Beer Can Nightmare
Outside Lands is one of the tidier festivals I’ve attended, with tolerable bathrooms and a minimal overflow of trash, which makes the crushed-can crisis at the SOMA stage all the more hilarious. I’ve never seen so many damn beer cans and plastic Fireball pocket shots on the ground in my life. That includes at literal frat parties. Clearly, we need a grift-y AI android company to design a robot that picks up crushed cans while navigating a crowd of 800 drunk high schoolers. (I would say OSL needs to pay staffers to do it, but that would be worker abuse, given the 800 drunk high schoolers.) — EK
Leave your dog at home
Speaking of heinous shit at the SOMA stage, take a look at this guy. Yes, he’s gone SF Reddit-viral. There are three strikes. One: OSL has strict rules against pets, only allowing legit service animals. Sure looks like a pet here. Two: That poor dog has visibly miserable body language. At a super-loud concert? Shocker! Three: To quote a Redditor: “That guy was a total asshole. Couldn’t see the dog but he was jumping into everyone and throwing middle fingers in everyone’s face… The whole crowd booed him as he left.” — EK
Please don’t pee (or poo) in public
Have we no shame?! I was really hoping that Outside Lands-goers would beat out Lollapalooza’s in the “no bathroom activities in public” category — and it seemed like it did for a bit. There were no daily viral TikToks of people defecating at headliners, the way there was at Lollapalooza. (You can look for those videos yourself.)
But one local TikToker posted that she stood next to someone who popped a squat and urinated in the middle of Gracie Abrams’ set. Sure, the port-a-potty situation can, at best, be described as tolerable, but grin and bear it and find a sanctioned place to pop your squat! Or at the very least, for your dignity, and so that the park doesn’t smell like a bar trough, wear a diaper! — JB
The AI guys are coming for festivals
On my way to Outside Lands Friday, a curious sign caught my eye. It was the doing of a company called AGI, Inc. — a Cerebral Valley startup betting big on “agentic systems.”
The pitch for Outside Lands? “We use your Instagram vibe to build a personalized festival plan: from must-see artists to hidden gems and best food spots!”
“We’re offering a more personalized and social relationship with AI, like a friend who knows you well, that you can throw in your group chat to text for advice or recommendations,” emailed CEO Div Garg — who I’ve spoken with in the past about being able to cheat a DMV driving test.
If you are looking to outsource the pleasure of music and food discovery, then, yeah, this theoretically works! But I couldn’t see the app for myself, and anyone who wants access has to DM the company on Instagram, Garg told me. Perhaps you’re better off just texting your group chat. — JB
Outside Lands Scooter Crash Girl reminds us (again) that scooters are out to kill us
In other news of attendees who accidentally went viral, let’s raise a toast to Outside Lands Scooter Crash Girl. I was genuinely shocked when I first watched camera footage of this poor person losing control of a motorized scooter, clipping the rear bumper of a parked car on Fulton Street, and swinging face-first into the asphalt like some sort of fleshy trebuchet. I was equally relieved this morning to see an update post allegedly showing the woman with nary an injury but for a nasty chin scrape. E-scooters are death sentences on two wheels — I admit I love riding them, but gunning it without a helmet is a bad gamble, especially after the exhaustion of partying at a festival. — EK
