Coachella in Golden Gate Park

Outside Lands festival began four years ago and has quickly one of San Francisco's--and Carve's--most anticipated music, culture and style-gazing events of the year.

And, 2011 was no exception.

Smack dab in the middle of Golden Gate Park, Bay Area culture aficionados and out of town guests descend upon this temporary miniature city to eat local cuisine, mingle and take in music from very conceivable genre from about a half dozen stages.

Friday night we checked out lo-fi, The Shins and old school Vermont jamband Phish. The former have stayed true to form, strumming out songs with lyrics that feel West Coast but their lyrics and occasional minor chordation give their songs a sense of urgency and longing other indie bands lack. The latter, on the other hand, is all dancing, smiles and good times. The fans are older, which is a good thing, because the Phishheads all seem to be a lot less dirty than we remember going to shows in the 90s. Which is a good thing.


The next night we tuned into The Roots “who were off the hook“ and then stayed to catch Muse. It seemed like a hundred thousand people filled every available space to see this this Devon, UK three-piece electronic, glam, pop outfit play with sheer rock abandon. It's amazing to see a band at the height of their powers thrill every single member of the audience.

When the sun finally peaked it's head out on Sunday, we were enjoying the fun and entertaining Decemberists. But the best was yet to come when Arcade fire closed out the weekend. Even though the band memebers look like theyve just fallen out of a clown car on the way to the circus, these nimble and gifted Canadians always put in an extra effort and bring their best to every performance they put on. It was awesome.

Style-wise, we were noticing a lot of what you'd see at Glastonbury, what with our similar temperatures and all. There were a lot of cute dresses paired with boots that could withstand and rain or mud. Likewise, leggings and Nike high tops paired with multiple layers were abundant. It’s a sort of style meets function look. Though the fuzzy bear animal hats we noticed peaking their way through the crowd didn’t seem to serve neither style nor function. Perhaps they should be left in the plushy box from whence they came, only to be doned on Halloween or for a Berenstain Bears school play. Just sayin.

All in all, a fan-freakin-tastic three days and we’re already looking forward to next year.