Outside Lands 2025 Popped
San Francisco’s annual summer party at Golden Gate Park has finally passed. Outside Lands 2025 was a massive success and drew many new faces to the festival. Among improving aspects from the previous years, they also accomplished some firsts for the festivals.
I got into the festival pretty early on Friday. After exploring a bit around the Polo Field, I headed to the SOMA stage to catch my first set of the weekend. As I made my way towards the edge of the festival, I noticed that the crowd flow inside the venue was very different this year. Soma Stage is divided from the rest of the festival by a road used by the festival crew to travel behind the scenes. Because of this, passage in and out of the stage is paused at times to allow road usage. However, this year the crowds entered this waiting area from both sides, yet there was only 1 line to enter the passage from the Sutro Satge. This caused a massive roadblock of people trying to walk through the exiting crowd to line up for the entrance. I don’t think this change in crowd direction was beneficial, infact it created frustration and anxiety in fans who were tightly packed in shoulder-to-shoulder traffic to line up.
Tight crowds were a common theme this year. With a huge variety of fans attending, the crowds weren’t unanimous in their tones. On the one hand, you had dedicated fans who arrived early to camp spots for their favorite artists. On the other hand, you had fans who were hardcore festival goers who were flowing from stage to stage to experience the entire festival. As someone who frequently attends EDM/dubstep festivals, the crowd vibes were not the best. Hardcore fans were often rude and disrespectful to others, pushing and shoving through others, pummeling themselves into already packed crowds at the rail, foregoing any sense of communal respect and enjoyment. It was upsetting to see excited fans being treated this way.
As wonderful as it is to attend a festival with a mix of genres like Outside Lands, crowd manners seemed to be nonexistent. This difference was strikingly obvious in the Levity, DJ Pee Wee, ARMNHMR, Blondish, and Black Coffee crowds. EDM fans, who are familiar with crowd unity and respect, had the best crowds of the weekend. One can argue that attendees don’t have a responsibility to others. But I think this mindset is wrong and dangerous because it leads to crowd crush situations that not only ruin the experience for everyone, but also harm attendees as well as festival organizers.
Although the difficult crowds were a hurdle, they didn’t take away from the amazing weekend. Outside Lands is a festival with a strong sense of respect and love for its community. This was the first year the festival hosted The Working Families’ Party at the People’s Parlour. The WFP, backed by Zohran Mamdani and AOC, was spreading their message that “culture shifts politics” and through community outreach they can collect and amplify the voices of those in their community. Check out my interview with Nalini to learn more about the WFP.
Massive events like this, San Francisco’s largest music festival, create mountains of waste. It’s common to see people in the crowd throw their empty cans into the air to dispose of them. Although there are many trash and recycling bins around the venue, they aren’t in the crowds. As a result of this, some attendees carelessly litter their waste in the crowds or anywhere they please. However, this year I was happily surprised to see volunteers walking amongst exiting crowds to collect trash in between set changes at stages. Although it’s unfair to expect them to clean all the waste or to reach the very front of the crowd, it’s wonderful to see such maintenance being done, especially at the back of the crowd where many people choose to sit and lounge.
Overall, Outside Lands 2025 was greatly enjoyable. It being hosted at Golden Gate Park is a unique experience in the heart of the city that people of all ages can attend. I got to see many artists I otherwise never would have taken the initiative to see; Gracie Abrams, Ludacris, NOTION, Doja Cat, Tyler The Creator, Ludacris, Sammy Virji. I’d have to say Dombresky and John Summit were the best sets of the weekend. However, this privilege to see such a pool of genres definitely comes with costs. The festival doesn’t maintain an overall tone; the stages aren’t organized to cater to certain crowds, and neither is the festival itself. But I guess that is exactly the beauty of Outside Lands and the very spirit of San Francisco itself.
It’s a playground for any and all to enjoy themselves and the arts its community has to offer.
