Rock out at home with Inside Lands
Bad news: No festivals are happening this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Good news: The promoters of the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival are hoping to make it up to fans by bringing the experience home.
Inside Lands, scheduled to run FridaySaturday, Aug. 2829, is a twoday virtual event that plans to feature past Outside Lands performances, premiere new livestream content and highlight the local businesses that shape the annual festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The virtual festival will be streamed for free each day exclusively on Twitch, where fans will be able to safely interact with each other in a way that resembles the festival experience, according to promoter Another Planet Entertainment — hopefully with no lines for the restroom.
“When COVID hit, we thought, ‘How do we celebrate Outside Lands while not being able to have Outside Lands?’ ” said Allen Scott, head of concerts and festivals at Another Planet Entertainment, which coproduces the yearly event with Superfly and Starr Hill Presents. “It seemed like the natural thing to do is look at some of the most memo
rable performances that happened in the past and talk about all the things we loved.”
Here is everything you need to know about Inside Lands.
Inside Lands is scheduled to stream for free both days exclusively on Twitch at www.twitch. tv/sfoutsidelands. The live broadcast, hosted by Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born, begins at 4 p.m. each day with the music set to end at 1 a.m. Friday and at midnight on Saturday.
“One of the things we like about Twitch is that it’s very interactive,” Scott said. “We’ll have a chat room with moderators, artists and chefs jumping in there as well. That’s an important part of this — not to be a passive viewer but to be part of an active experience.”
The lineup for the free virtual event features archival Outside Lands sets, including those who played the festival’s first 12 years like Elton John, Gorillaz, LCD
Soundsystem, Jack White, J. Cole, Kehlani, Beach House, Brittany Howard, Sofi Tukker and Sharon Van Etten, among others.
There will also be exclusive live musical performances by acts that are scheduled to appear at Outside Lands 2021, including Sharon Van Etten, ZHU, Bob Moses and Yung Bae.
Livestreamed virtual interviews are also part of the mix featuring special guests like “Blindspotting” star and East Bay native Rafael Casal, plus an “Ask Me Anything” segment with Another Planet Entertainment representatives.
The cannabisthemed exhibit Grass Lands debuted at Outside Lands in 2018, and in 2019 began offering festivalgoers a safe space to light up. This year, of course, the marijuana haven won’t be around for you hang out at to puff, puff, pass with your buddies.
Instead, festival producers have partnered with Eaze, the online cannabis marketplace and delivery service, to provide a legal means to get high in the comfort of your home.
Eaze is even offering festivalwatchers a discount: For newbies, use promo code OSL to get $20 off your first Eaze delivery. Everyone else can use promo code OSL15 for 15% off all other deliveries. (You must be age 21 and older to place an order.)
Outside Lands has a history of pairing platinumselling artists with megawatt culinary attractions to offer more than 80 food vendors, 45 wineries, 30 breweries and five cocktail bars from around the Bay Area spread out on the festival grounds.
This year, you are on your own. So choose your preferred delivery service and indulge in festival food offered by Outside Lands regulars like 4505 Burgers and BBQ, A16, Rich Table, Chef Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food, Wise Sons Deli and many others.
Pair your meals with a frosty mug from one of the brewers at Beer Lands (Fort Point, Almanac, Magnolia, etc.) or a bottle of wine from one of the vintners at Wine Lands (Long Meadow Ranch, Scribe, Rodney Strong Vineyards, etc.) and it will feel just like being there. Almost.
Outside Lands is scheduled to return on Aug. 68, 2021. The lineup features headliners the Strokes, Lizzo and Tame Impala, along with Tyler, the Creator, Vampire Weekend, J Balvin, the 1975, Zhu, Young Thug, Khruangbin, Beach House, Big Thief, Sofi Tukker, Nelly, Brittany Howard, Melanie
Martinez, Angel Olsen, Polo & Pan, Sharon Van Etten, Mxmtoon and more.
“For all of us who work on the festival, it was a surreal and sad moment not having Outside Lands a few weeks ago,” Scott said. “This will be the closest thing we will have to it this year. We plan on being back out in the park with everybody next year.”
Tickets for Outside Lands 2021 are on sale now at www.sfoutside lands.com, with general admission tickets at $395 and VIP tickets ranging from $835 to $855. A payment plan is available for a threeday festival pass, starting at $99 down with no additional payments until 2021.
People holding tickets for the canceled 2020 festival will be able to use them for next year’s festival.
Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic and Mariecar Mendoza is the senior arts and entertainment editor. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com, mmendoza@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF, @SFMarMendoza