You might've thought that Jesus himself had showed up in Golden Gate Park this weekend, judging by the wave of humanity that excitedly passed through the Hayes Valley - Upper Haight corridor yesterday afternoon as the OutsideLandsMusicFestival kicked off, promising the first night of amplified music in the park after dark, EVAR.
It didn't take long, though, for the pilgrims to plainly distinguish themselves from anything remotely resembling seeking salvation. More like, reeking from inebriation. Flasks in pockets, running and shouting through the neighborhood and bringing a drunken liveliness to Hayes Street not seen since, well, the Bay To Breakers (Bacchanal On Wheels) just a few months ago.
To be fair, there were plenty of clusters of co-walking folks from Danville and Castro Valley and from wherever else trying not to look out of place. But seeing so many people hurrying in the same direction makes you kinda obvious.
Meanwhile, the RV's are starting to make their way through the streets, picking up plastic crates and (other) excited middle-class white people going to pursue "The American Dream" at Burning Man of all places - a dry dusty lake bed in the middle of Nevada.
I chose not to go either myself, forgoing both an historic music event of apparently epic proportions and a notoriously transformational experience in the desert to focus on my own music projects, which have looming and ever-encroaching deadlines. $300-$1,500 and 3-10 days of time spent losing myself in some form or another didn't feel right to me in light of what's on my plate right now.
And, I have to say it's been kind of hard hearing Radiohead's Kick Drum from 4 miles away and not want to be floating in that sea of humanity. With so many fellow music lovers in the park even as I write this, I feel like a cultural counterpoint of sorts.
So it's been interesting to be an otherwise sympathetic outsider, so to speak, to the Outside Lands Music Festival and witnessing the impact on the festival from the literal fringe - the neighborhoods hosting. This morning I came out to find an orange street cone placed on the roof of my car and a beer bottle smashed on my stoop. Wooo!! RADIOHEAD!!! WOOOo!!! AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!
The festival, to its creators' credit has done an awesome job following the San Francisco music tradition started by Bill Graham, presenting a diverse lineup of world-class artists. The festival's local and online marketing suggests a "Green" festival, but paying $300 and buying $10 beers you have to wait an hour to get (according to a friend who was there last night) will undoubtedly (I suspect as it usually does) give folks a sense of entitlement to lose their grip on their rubbish while they get trashed.
The festival has been getting national press, too. 6 million google results across all kinds of media (pitchfork, rolling stone, etc) From what I've seen from the outskirts of the park, it's pretty f-in hyooj. Another pin prick for San Francisco in the giant music map in the sky and a relative pain in the ass for the folks in the hood.
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