Treasure Island fest back in new location
After a one-year hiatus to secure a new location, the promoters of Treasure Island Music Festival announced this week, that the two-day outdoor concert will return to the bay on Oct. 13-14 at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland.
Tame Impala and A$AP Rocky will headline the festival, topping a bill that also includes Silk City (the new project by producers Diplo and Mark Ronson), Lord Huron, Santigold, Courtney Barnett, Jungle, Pusha T, Sharon Van Etten, Aminé, Cigarettes After Sex, Hiatus Kaiyote and others.
“It was never a question of whether or not the festival would come back,” said Noise Pop Industries co-owner and festival co-founder Jordan
Kurland. “It was taking a year off to make sure when we returned we did it right.”
Treasure Island’s promoters, Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment, enjoyed a 10-year run at the festival’s namesake location until they were forced to make way for a long-awaited redevelopment project on the site.
Despite the change of address, Kurland said they are determined to keep the laid-back Treasure Island experience the same, with more than two dozen indie and dance music acts playing music on a pair of adjacent stages, with no overlapping sets.
They also plan to bring back its iconic 60-foot Century Ferris wheel, interactive art installations, midway attractions and food trucks, all with the sweeping view of the San Francisco skyline as its backdrop.
“We knew we weren’t going to find something as unique as Treasure Island,” Kurland said. “But the reality is that it was really difficult to do the festival there.”
The Treasure Island Music Festival left the island in 2016 on its 10th anniversary under less-than-ideal circumstances. Heavy winds and rain delayed or completely washed out sets by several acts over the weekend, while a festival attendee was injured after a vending machine toppled over on her due to powerful gusts. But the promoters called it a fluke, with many factors out of their control.
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park is a largely underused 38-acre plot of land owned and operated by the Port of Oakland on the site of the former Oakland Naval Supply Depot. Last weekend, it successfully hosted the Blurry Vision Festival and, in 2011, a concert by Mumford & Sons. Still, it is largely new terrain for the Northern California festival landscape.
“That’s part of the appeal,” Kurland said. “Ultimately, it’s going to be a better venue. There’s more flexibility with the grounds. Getting in and out is going to be more seamless. And it’s on the water — we couldn’t call it Treasure Island if it wasn’t on the water.”
Two-day general admission and VIP tickets, priced between $165 to $345, will go on sale at noon Friday, May 18, at www.treasureisland festival.com. Details for single-day tickets and transportation information will be announced in the coming months.
Kurland hopes to build on the rich history of the outdoor event, which started in 2007 and has hosted memorable performances by the likes of the National, Massive Attack, Beck, LCD Soundsystem, Death Cab for Cutie and countless others.
“We’ve always said we’re a boutique music festival,” Kurland said. “Especially with so many festivals, you want to be unique — you want to provide something that isn’t at every other festival.”