Last week, the annual Outside Lands music festival took place in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco from Aug 9-11. Towards the start of this summer, Tyler, the Creator cancelled his headlining performances at both Lollapalooza and Outside Lands. This year at Lollapalooza, fans were instead able to enjoy Megan Thee Stallion. Similarly, at Outside Lands, fans were instead able to watch Sabrina Carpenter make history as a first-time festival headliner.
Our review takes you through Outside Lands’ highlights, while also shedding light on other notable aspets of the festival.
Outside Lands Marks First Headlining Set For Sabrina Carpenter
Outside Lands marked Sabrina’s first time ever headlining a festival, and she did not disappoint. Throughout the show’s entirety, the pop artist was joined by a band and team of backup dancers.
The performance was split into two acts; at the very start of Act II, Sabrina welcomed special guest Kacey Musgraves to sing a cover of Nancy Sinartra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” together.
During Act II, Sabrina also played three songs off of her upcoming album, Short n’ Sweet, which is set to release on Aug. 23. While fans had expected the artist to perform “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please,” her unreleased single “Slim Pickens” came as more of a surprise.
Sabrina first debuted “Slim Pickens” only one week prior to Outside Lands at the GRAMMY Museum, and it has yet to become available on streaming platforms.
Chris Lake’s Set Draws A Seemingly Unsafe Mosh
While Sabrina headlined on Outside Lands’ main stage, known as Lands End, Chris Lake simultaneously performed on another stage, known as Sutro. That being said, in the hour prior to his performance, the crowd got very out of hand.
Being in the mosh pit towards the front barricade, I watched the chaos unfold myself. Fans began crowdsurfing to the front of the stage, security consistently ordered people to take steps backwards, and those trying to leave to another performance were unable to do so.
I even watched as an entire crowd of people fell down into a giant pile as a result of so much shoving: at least 15 people had fallen on top of each other, and others surrounding were pulling them back up to their feet.
As the set itself began, the mosh definitely calmed down over time. The DJ set was complete with a laser light show, while Chris Lake played a combination of his own hits and other surprise mixes. He even played a few of Fisher’s songs, including “Take It Off” and “You Little Beauty.”
Altogether, while the set was super fun, the lack of help from security in controlling the crowd was very disappointing. I even noticed that many stages had run out of their supply of free water bottles very early on each day. At other festivals I’ve attended, security has always prioritized providing water throughout crowds to ensure everybody’s safety; at the Twin Peaks stage on Sunday, for instance, I noticed water was out by 4 p.m., even though the headliner, Kaytranada, was set to play until 9:55 p.m.
Chappell Roan’s Crowd Makes Outside Lands History
Similar to at Lollapalooza, Chappell Roan’s Sunday set was the most anticipated performance of this year’s Outside Lands. Chappell performed late afternoon, yet her crowd easily rivaled those of the headlining acts. The San Francisco Chronicle was even informed by the festival that an estimated 50,000 of the 75,000 Outside Lands goers attended on Sunday with the sole motive of seeing Chappell. Clearly, she was the star of this year’s festival.
In celebration of the one-year anniversary of her hit, “HOT TO GO!,” Chappell explained to her audience that she was wearing the same leotard that had appeared in the song’s music video. Noticing a lack of energy from the VIP section, she even proceeded to call them out: “It’s so weird that VIP thinks they’re so way too cool to do this!”
Ultimately, this year’s Outside Lands seemed to be catered towards genres of pop, indie, and house, although I do wish to see more rap and country artists on the Outside Lands lineups to come.
