Outside Lands 2024 marked the San Francisco festival staple’s sweet 16th year of operations, a benchmark that should be celebrated as more and more festivals head to the graveyard, especially since a global pandemic stopped live music in its tracks for more than a year. This was also my seventh year attending my hometown (I’m an East Bay kid really) festival. Only Coachella has lured me back more times.
This year’s main stage headliners were The Killers, Sabrina Carpenter, and Sturgill Simpson. Of those three, only The Killers have regularly closed out major festivals. Sabrina Carpenter got called up to the big time to close out Saturday after original headliner Tyler the Creator dropped out about six weeks ago. For Sturgill Simpson, along with a Saturday night aftershow at Bimbos 365, it marked a return to the stage for the first time in nearly three years following a recovery from throat surgery that threatened his career.
Sometimes you just strike lightning with the right booking at the right time. That was certainly the case with Chappell Roan, whoo pulled a Sunday main stage crowd at 4 PM that might be the largest Outside Lands has ever seen before the sun has gone down. Everywhere you looked you saw pink hats, it was inescapable.
Overall, Outside Lands 2024 showed that this festival is a well-oiled machine that is humming nicely. After three days in the mostly cold confines of Golden Gate Park, I’ve recapped what I found to be the best and worst the Bay Area fest had to offer.
BEST: Outside Lands fills need for niche subgenres
Coachella has drifted away from its ethos from its earliest days and even from the first few years I attended beginning a decade ago. It has done cool things like bring in lots of music from around the world including Latin acts and Asian artists. But it’s done so at the expense of some genres and acts that would’ve been in their wheelhouse a decade ago.
Thankfully, Outside Lands 2024 showed that there are festivals willing to plug those gaps that other major festivals are failing to cover. A band like Slowdive would have been a perfect fit for Coachella if they returned 10 years ago instead of five. Though they pulled a light crowd up against Kaytranada and Sturgill to close out Sunday, there were a lot of happy faces enjoying that show, which fit perfectly tucked into the beautiful backdrop of the trees at the Sutro Stage. The Postal Service were relegated to an all-indie Just Like Heaven Fest by Coachella promoter Goldenvoice this year, but closed out Saturday at the Twin Peaks stage. Grace Jones, Ben Howard, and Allen Stone were just a few of the other many acts that would probably me ignored my many mainstream festivals that found adoring crowds at Outside Lands 2024. Keep it up.
BEST: Soma Stage forgoes stage for open air vibes
The big fuckery of the last couple years of Outside Lands had to do with the addition of an all-electronic tent called the Soma Tent, tucked back left of the already far as hell Twin Peaks stage. But after three years of a tent that couldn’t withstand the feet stomping all over it — which culminated in the stage’s programming being completely shut down last year — they smartly opted to just make it another outdoor stage. Sure, people missed out on the shelter that a tent provides as respite from the elements. But overall the vibes were immaculate, with my favorite moments being Kaleena Zanders and her energy on Saturday as well as the back-to-back of Honeyluv and Jaden Thompson on Sunday. It was during the latter I saw a couple people attempt to jump the fence and trespass the festival, with half of the Chads being caught.
WORST: What is that!? No! Not the bees!
It really is hard to find things to bitch about when it comes to Outside Lands 2024. But if I had to come up with one major gripe, it would have to be the extremely noticeable presence of bees and in some cases even wasps around the festival grounds, particularly near the Panhandle and Sutro Stages. If you had anything with sugar, the bees were always close. I’ve never been stung before and kept thinking how this would be a terrible place to find out you are deathly allergic. I overheard at least three different people throughout the weekend mention being stung. I’m not sure what even legally a festival can do about this or what right they even have to affect where these things roam, but it was something that was noticeable.
BEST: BALTHVS finds the groove Saturday
One of my favorite last-minute discoveries when trying to fill a hole of who to see Saturday afternoon came in the form of Colombian three-piece BALTHVS — who I was hoping would say their name so I knew how to pronounce it. I believe it is “BAL-TIS”? As in Balthazar? Either way, they had some serious Khruangbin meets Warpaint vibes. Mostly instrumental but super groovy. It felt as though most of the people at the Sutro Stage for this set didn’t know what they were getting into but as time progressed, everyone was fully on board. The trio has only played a handful of times in the US and this marked their first non-SXSW festival appearance. Their first, and certainly not their last.
WORST: Tyla performs abbreviated set, issues no apology
South African signer Tyla had one of the most anticipated sets of Friday and had prominent placement on the Sutro Stage before Kevin Abstract and Daniel Caesar. I missed this set to get a great spot for Jungle’s main stage performance, but heard many complaints about her as she showed up 30 minutes late for a 45-minute set, performed three songs, and didn’t apologize for being late. She had the sixth-most amount of people that had her added to their schedules in the Outside Lands 2024 app, which means she missed out on a major opportunity to create a ton of hardcore fans.
BEST: Dolores Stage a welcome addition
I only got a chance to check it out a few times, but the Dolores Stage at the back of the main drag of the park was an awesome DIY kind of vibe. I caught some of the drag queen stuff on Saturday and it seemed to be a big hit over the course of the weekend. I wanted to check out Crystal Waters but was on the other side of the festival, but that was a really cool niche booking that earns Outside Lands 2024 some extra praise from me.
Five Favorite Sets
- Men I Trust — I’ve seen this band grow from their first-ever US tour into being a true indie darling now capable of pulling large crowds to the furthest away stage at a major US festival. Their lush synths and groovy bass lines along with the smoky sultry vocals of Emmanuelle Proulx were a perfect match to the cold SF fog. I was parked at the front of the stage for this one and the crowd was probably the best acting crowd of the weekend.
- The Killers — There’s a reason they continue to be one of the few guitar bands that get booked to headline festival main stages and it’s because they have real rockstar energy, mostly thanks to the positive energy of frontman Brandon Flowers who was all smiles for the duration of their Friday night set at Lands End. Also props to Flowers for stopping down on a song early when he saw there was some duress deep in the crowd, allowing medical to get to them and make sure they were OK. The Killers have proven that they will be one rock band that festival bookers can count on as they are consistent, unlike their era counterparts The Strokes, who delivered a dud on this same stage a couple years back.
- The Postal Service — Outside Lands 2024 is one festival that has a hefty over-30 crowd attending. Whether that be because the weather is manageable or that’s the most common people who can afford to live in the city, the festival does book acts that cater to millennials. The Postal Service wrapped up their 20th anniversary tour but have done a couple spot shows since, and this was a magical one. A truly breakthrough album getting its just due on Saturday night as everyone’s favorite mom and dad Jenny Lewis and Ben Gibbard rocked out was a great way to close the night.
- Jungle — These UK disco giants have earned their way to being a main stage festival act on the strength of their live shows and the word of mouth that follows. Though they definitely got a bit of a nudge towards more popularity thanks to the TikTok success of “Back On 74,” anyone who turned up to their Friday night set before The Killers just for that one song are certainly are fans for life now.
- BALTHVS — This was easily my favorite discovery of Outside Lands 2024. I listened to a couple songs on Spotify and thought this would probably be much better live and I wasn’t wrong. The Colombian three-piece made new fans out of more than just me and I hope they play an LA show soon.
