The 10th edition of ‘Outside Lands’ Arts & Music Festival was one of the most awaited this year.
Their stellar lineup comprising acts such as Metallica, The Who, Gorillaz, Empire of the Sun, Lorde, Tove Lo, A Tribe Called Quest, Above & Beyond, Fleet Foxes, Alt-J, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man among many others, had fans excited months before the festival began.
Empire of the Sun.
(Photo Courtesy: FilmMagic)
Produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly and Starr Hill Presents, the festival took place in one of the world’s most famous locations, a thousand-acre haven called The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco – a jewel on an already beautiful crown.
The 2017 edition opened its gates to the audience with five stages, various entertainment sections, wine and beer and multiple beverage and food stalls.
Of course, you had to get through the ‘foolproof’ security first. On each day, the gates opened at 11 am, with acts beginning an hour later – and people poured in by the hundreds! A bunch of them were found crowding food stalls (one served doughnuts wrapped in bacon, is all I’m saying!), washing down languidly-eaten festival meals with a glass of wine, whiskey or beer.
As the day progressed, the park seemed to swell and burgeon – finally reaching a crescendo when it was time for the headlining acts to play. The crowd marched like an army of ants to one of the main stages and waited in rapt attention.
While Queens of Stone Age (due to an apparent injury) cancelled, A Tribe Called Quest (apparent travel issues) who were originally scheduled to perform on Friday were rescheduled to perform on Saturday before they, too, cancelled. (We met a bunch of fans who were visibly upset about this.)
Peace was restored, however, over a period of three days, as acts like Rag N Bone Man, Cage the Elephant, Tove Lo (she flashed the audience whilst performing her track Talking Body!), Kali Uchis, Empire of The Sun, Lorde, The Who – among others – enticed the audience with their performance.
In my biased and personal opinion, Gorillaz and Metallica created memories of a lifetime for a musically-enchanted audience.
Gorillaz, particularly, took the audience into a realm completely their own – a dreamy, flashy, fog-filled realm – as they belted out popular hits such as Busted and Blue, On Melancholy Hill, El Manana, Carnival and Andromeda. We heard a bunch of people in the audience say they felt like they were “in one of their music videos”, and we couldn’t agree more.
Metallica were playing on their home turf and they, in layman’s terms, slayed it. As a voice amongst the audience pronounced with assertion – “Even after all these years, they fail to fade, mate. They’re beasts.” Their set began with Hardwired, For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Unforgiven and in between graduated to Harvester of Sorrow, a jam between Kirk and Rob – ending with an encore of Battery, Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman. The lasers and pyrotechnics were an added treat.
Thousands braved 15 degree celsius weather to sang along and head bang the night away; perhaps James Hetfield – Metallica frontman – described it best when he said: “It’s great to be part of a festival where all genres of music are celebrated”.
Amongst all this, The Quint (the only Indian media house to be invited), caught up with some of the festival goers who added a dash of ‘different’ to the festival.
Juliana and Michael were locals from San Francisco, who were there to watch Gorillaz.
Our favourite performance so far has been Rag N Bone Man, we could connect to his show – it was as though he was performing just for me!
Are you wondering what an old woman like me is doing at the festival? (Laughs). I’m here to see Lorde and The Who. No, the lineup changes don’t matter to me.Cindi O’Brien from Napa Valley
(And she ran into her friends as she was talking to us.)
Victor, a 26-year-old software engineer from Canada who was enjoying his doughnut with bacon, was here to see Metallica for the first time ever,
I did not know they still do shows!
Danny and Tifani from Santa Cruz are regulars to the festival; they loved Paul McCartney and Elton John’s performances from earlier editions.
Tifani is fondly known as the ‘bubble lady’ – she brings out her electric bubble gun to the festival every year and blows bubbles across the length and breadth of the festival. It’s probably what makes her one of the most photographed ladies at the festival!
Dan, the ‘free hugger’ was trying to spread positive vibes by giving out free hugs. He wasn’t free for a bit though, with people queuing up to hug him!
Phil and Abby, a couple from Australia, were disappointed that A Tribe Called Quest had cancelled, but nevertheless were excited for whatever the festival had to offer. They were happy to exchange some Australian Dollars with us as well! (The photographer is a currency collector).
(Prashanth Vidyasagar is a columnist from Bengaluru. He has interviewed Hans Zimmer, Juan Pablo Escobar – Pablo Escobar's son, Anonymous, Eric Clapton, Madonna among others. He has interviewed several popular musical artists, such as Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Children of Bodom, Raghu Dixit, Indian Ocean, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Hariharan, David Guetta and many others. He was also the only columnist from India to cover the famed Outside Lands Festival that took place in San Francisco which was headlined by Metallica and Gorillaz.)
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