Getting inside was one thing, explaining where we’d come from was another. “Oh my god, CANADA?” became a common reaction whenever we mentioned where we were based, delivered with the same mixture of fascination and confusion usually reserved for someone who has just announced that they grew up on the moon. As a first-time Outside Lands attendee, I found myself spending almost as much time explaining Vancouver as I did explaining what RANGE was. 

Another recurring discovery was that San Francisco in August is, in fact, fucking cold. The festival managed to thoughtfully provide the perfect conditions for watching people wear tank tops over hoodies over jackets while pretending this was a normal way to dress for a music festival.

Still, once you got where you were going, there were moments that made the logistical warfare feel worthwhile. PinkPantheress turned the hills around the Sutro stage into one of the festival’s most joyful pockets, her signature, fluttery vocals floating above a crowd that seemed to know every word (myself included). It was uniquely satisfying watching an artist whose career was built so heavily through the internet command an enormous, very physical crowd, and the set had enough personality beyond the obvious hits to make it feel like much more than a victory lap. 

Charli xcx, meanwhile, had the slightly more difficult task of being Charli xcx at a festival that had apparently decided a gigantic tent should sit between her and a significant percentage of the people without VIP access who wanted to see her. The crowd had been gathering for hours before her set, and unless you had treated the preceding afternoon as an extended camping exercise, your view was largely a matter of negotiating shoulders, heads, phones and the occasional glimpse of a screen that would project visuals just slightly out of sync from what was happening on stage. 

Still, Charli managed to make the obstruction feel beside the point. Her new Music, Fashion, Film material, released just two weeks prior, gave the set a distinctly grimier vibe than the maximalism of her BRAT era. It was a particularly good match for a Friday lineup that had subtly become one of Outside Lands’ most guitar-heavy in recent memory.

Charli xcx by Lea Garn.

Geese’s Friday afternoon set descended into such a violent, gleeful mosh that the dozens of inflatable goose balloons floating above the crowd – an impressively committed bit of fan branding – were eventually sacrificed to the cause. Turnstile followed with an even more unhinged crowd, producing the kind of enormous, constantly shifting and pulsing mosh pit that makes you briefly wonder whether festival security has simply decided to let nature take its course. 

Turnstile.

Tinashe’s set began with the precision you’d expect from an artist whose performances are built around choreography and energy – the problem being getting anywhere near enough to actually experience it. By the time that I reached the back of the crowd, “the back” felt like a technicality; the entire area was packed so tightly that even reaching the further most speakers was an achievement. 

Tinashe.

After three days in San Francisco, Outside Lands left me with a slightly complicated feeling. The city itself was wonderful; the festival’s lineup was undeniably strong; and there were more than enough moments where I found myself thinking, “okay, this is why people come here.” But there was also a persistent feeling of being managed rather than welcomed. For media, particularly at a smaller publication, the Outside Lands festival experience can sometimes feel like you’ve been invited into the room only to be reminded that you’re not really supposed to touch anything. 

By the end, even leaving the festival had become its own event. We joined the collective post-show panic outside the gates, watched Uber prices become increasingly deranged, and eventually surrendered to the obvious solution: finding a dive bar and waiting it out. After walking for more than an hour in a direction away from the festival, The Nag’s Head provided the necessary refuge while the surge pricing slowly came back down to earth. It was probably the most peaceful part of the entire weekend.

Outside Lands is very good at reminding you why festivals are exciting: huge artists, strange (and massive) crowds, beautiful surroundings, and moments of genuine communal insanity. It is slightly less good at remembering that there are actual human beings trying to get between those things. Maybe that is part of the charm. Or maybe I just need a festival where getting from Point A to Point B doesn’t require a Lime bike, a sprint through the woods, and the emotional fortitude of someone fleeing a natural disaster.