Ep. 57 Festies Recap: Outside Lands 2026

Clark joins us to break down Outside Lands 2026, day by day.

We rank the highs. We rank the lows.

Surprise sets, sound failures, and the stuff everyone was talking about all weekend!

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Transcript

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A Festival Joke And A Catch-Up

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey Vanessa.

Vanessa 0:01

Yes, honey.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Vanessa 0:05

Hmm. I guess you'd call them 50.

Clark 0:26

Music. Friendship. Festies D S D S.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hey everyone. Welcome to Festies. I'm Sunny. And I'm Vanessa.

Clark 0:41

And I'm Clark.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

We have Clark on the mic with us today because this is our Outside Lands 2026 recap episode. It was Clark and I who went to Outside Lands this year. Of course, Vanessa, you were so missed.

Vanessa 0:55

I have not been to one. This is like my third Outside Lands that I haven't been to.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I know.

Vanessa 1:01

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I know you were off having your own fun on your annual eminence trip. I think we've talked about it on the podcast.

Vanessa 1:07

We have talked about it. It's just our annual Missouri trip that we take down to southern Missouri. It's like the first week of August. And it's at this like trail ride camp thing. So people bring horses. And this year we brought horses. So we were riding horses every day and then floating the river every day. And I have the sickest tan. No big sunburn, which I did burn like a little bit, but I was pretty good about putting on my sunscreen. I just burn so easily, and you think I wouldn't because I'm Mexican, but I still do. Yeah.

Clark 1:46

There's still some fair skinned genes that are mixed into the Mexican population.

Vanessa 1:51

So yeah, my mom's side of the family is all super white. They're Mexican, but they're very like fair skinned. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

How is horseback riding?

Vanessa 2:01

Oh my gosh. It was so fun, but my butt was so sore. Oh no. And then it would be five once I got off the horse. It'd be like a little bit sore throughout the day. But then it also felt like I was just icing my ass in the river, you know, because the river's cold and I'm like in the tube. So I just felt like I was like, you know, four hours of horse riding and then put my ass in the river for five more hours. I felt like that helped. But then you'd feel it again, all the soreness. You'd feel it once you got back on the horse the next day. You're like, oh yeah, those are the spots.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Oh no. Yeah.

Clark 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Did you ride the same horse all week?

Vanessa 2:44

Yeah. My little buddy. We named him Foximo.

Clark 2:48

Foxy Mo.

Vanessa 2:49

Yeah. It was one that Ed's mom like borrowed from a friend, but then they actually ended up buying him. So I technically have a horse now.

Clark 2:56

That's awesome. That's so sick.

Vanessa 2:58

I mean, I didn't, it's Ed's mom's horse, but she calls it my horse, so I have a horse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

You're living out your lifelong dream of being a cowgirl. I know.

Vanessa 3:07

I know. I posted I posted a picture of one of the days when we went out to like practice riding. And I was like, in my cowgirl era, I was like, if only 18, 19-year-old me could see me now.

unknown 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

I'm glad you had fun at Eminence. It always seems like the best time.

Vanessa 3:24

Oh, yeah. Our friend Alex commented on my post from Eminence and was like, can we do the whole Outside Lands crew in Eminence one day? And I was like, oh my god, that would be so fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

That'll be you gotta tell him that would mean mean skipping outside lands. Not next year. Well, that's right.

Clark 3:42

Oh yeah, she she's been saying 2027.

Vanessa 3:46

I may or may not be pregnant, but we're doing it.

Clark 3:50

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

We're doing it. I do know you have talked about your buckle on this podcast. And so did you would you like to announce that?

Vanessa 3:57

I got my buckle. I got my five-year buckle. And also awesome that Ed got his 25-year buckle. So we're like synced up in the five-year increments, which is awesome, because then we can always get our buckles together.

Clark 4:13

Yeah, that's so cool.

Vanessa 4:14

But his mom gets her 30-year next year. Well, and those buckles are like really nice. Mine and Ed's look the same. His just says 25, mine says five. But once you get to 30, it's like all blinged out and it looks beautiful. Oh, that's dope.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah. We'll have to put a picture of it up on uh our festi story or something. So people can know what we're talking about.

Clark 4:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

It's a pretty damn cool buckle.

Clark 4:41

Yeah, that's awesome.

Vanessa 4:42

Okay, enough about eminence.

Eminence Horses River Days And Buckles

Vanessa 4:44

Take me to Golden Gate Park.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Take it to the bridge. Quick disclaimer before we start. I'm going to try my best not to ramble. I've listened to our past.

Vanessa 5:02

Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Thank you. I'll need it. I've listened to our past recaps, and we tend to go all over the place with this festival, so I'll try my best to stay the course.

Where We Stayed And Who Came

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Clark, do you want to give us a little context of like where we stayed, our group?

Clark 5:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

So things like that.

Clark 5:18

Our good friend James, not too long ago, moved to the sunset. He's blocks away from one of the entrances to outside lands. Basically, I know right by the entrance that is the tunnel right into the polo field.

Vanessa 5:36

Oh my god. VIP.

Clark 5:38

Yeah, so we got to stay with him.

Vanessa 5:40

My sister's friend also lives right by the park. So I'm like, oh, they get to have this experience like I did. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

So fun. I was keeping my eyes out for them all weekend, but I never saw them.

Vanessa 5:51

They had like bright wigs on the first day. Yeah, I wish I knew that. I didn't know that until last time.

Clark 5:56

Yeah, we would we would have been uh looking out for them. We did see some posts from your sisters after the fact, and it looks like we were maybe at opposite ends a couple times, which was tough.

Vanessa 6:08

They're young.

Clark 6:10

Yeah, exactly. And we are not. Uh so yeah, we got to stay with our friend James. We also got to spend Friday with Alex, one of my best friends. Sonny was able to find him a Friday ticket. Nice. And Aaron and Aaron's sister, Megan. I think it was a really cool way of starting the weekend for James because it was James's first time ever going to outside lands.

Vanessa 6:39

Baby's first outside lands.

Clark 6:41

Yeah, exactly. And his first time going to a full festival.

Vanessa 6:46

He went all three days.

Clark 6:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

He got a free ticket.

Clark 6:51

Yeah, he got so lucky. But nice. And we kept asking if he'd be down to go next year, and he was like really down to like you know, buy a ticket and go. So yeah, he was stoked.

Vanessa 7:04

She looks so excited. If we don't get the whole band back together for next year, I'm gonna be pissed. Yeah.

Clark 7:11

So that'll be awesome. Something for you to look forward to, Vanessa.

Vanessa 7:15

Oh my god, if I'm pregnant, then I'm gonna like paint my belly.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Oh my god, that'd be amazing.

Clark 7:24

You have to be like extra discerning of the artists you go and see because it influences the baby.

Vanessa 7:30

Oh my god, that would be so funny.

Clark 7:32

So, yeah, that was kind of our our setup and and who we're stand with and and everything.

Vanessa 7:37

Well,

Foggy Weather And Festival Comfort

Vanessa 7:38

I was dealing with like a hundred-degree weather slash feels like 107. So, what was the weather like for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Amazing, yeah. The weather was perfect, and by perfect, I mean mid-60s, foggy. Yeah, uh, it did get cold at night, but not nearly as cold as last year. Like it was tolerable.

Vanessa 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Okay, but I am so grateful for the weather on Outside Lands because I've just been getting so overheated, uh, lightning in a bottle at Bomaru, at Boston St. Lawrence, whatever. Like I have been taking the Coachella, yes. I've been taking the foggy climate at Outside Lands for granted, and not anymore. I am so grateful.

Vanessa 8:24

I mean, it really you guys really do live in the best weather ever.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah.

Vanessa 8:31

Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

If I was just going out to the city for the day to go do something, granted I would be complaining that it's cold. But when you're running around a festival, yeah, yeah, perfect weather.

Vanessa 8:43

Yeah. I would rather be cold, cold-ish at a festival than be really hot. I'm with you, Sunny. Thank you, thank you.

Clark 8:52

Because no matter what, it's like if you get into a packed crowd, the if it's cold, yeah. Oh, yeah, it warms up a bit too. That's that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

You know, there was one time when we were cold and I was like, hey guys, can we move into the crowd?

Clark 9:04

Oh yeah, at the XX.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Right.

Clark 9:06

Yeah.

Friday Highs Lows And Merch Chaos

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Okay, so to keep us from going completely off the rails, we're gonna do some highs and lows, which is actually something we do every day when we leave the festival. We say what our high of the day was and our low of the day. But for this episode, we're gonna do separate categories for highs and lows. We're gonna do music and we're gonna do highs and lows of just our experience during the day overall. Who's going first?

Clark 9:35

Yeah, so for Friday, my music high was Durand Bernard. He's this really impeccable RB vocalist.

Vanessa 9:46

Oh, nice word.

Clark 9:48

The uh I got turned on to him and aware of him through he had a viral moment at the Grammys this last year because I believe he won Grammy for best alternative RB album. Huh. And he was sitting way in the back and he won. So this video is him like sprinting up the aisle.

Vanessa 10:14

It's like I'm just gonna go.

Clark 10:18

And I had seen some other clips of him on YouTube and stuff, and I knew he was a really amazing vocalist. Uh yeah, and he was an insane performer, just really had the crowd in the palm of his hands, uh, in the palm of his hand, not hands. In the palms of his hands, and he had a really incredible story about his outfit getting messed up by a girl backstage, like he was describing this whole outfit, and he's like, I was gonna look so cute for y'all. Uh and then this girl with her clown makeup messed up my messed up my outfit.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Oh no.

Clark 11:00

It was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

You thought that was real, not a bit?

Clark 11:02

I think it was a bit because it the the song was like about that type of thing, like someone like ruining your day kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Okay, okay, okay.

Clark 11:11

Yeah, so I really think it was like a bit, but it was very funny. It was like a very good bit. So yeah, that was my high for Friday for music. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

And the low?

Clark 11:21

Um, oh, I just wish I had been paying more attention when we saw Labyrinth on the main stage. He was doing such cool visuals and interpretations of his songs, like doing these dancier versions of his tunes and stuff. And he's playing a bunch of live keys and uh and guitar, but we were kind of also syncing and meeting up with our our other good friend Sydney and her boyfriend uh Paul and their whole big friend group at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So we was chit-chatting.

Clark 11:56

Yeah, yeah. I and I and just looking back, I kind of wish I'd like been more honed in on the set.

Vanessa 12:03

Did you see any clips like online afterwards of parts of it?

Clark 12:08

No, I it was kind of like watching the videos that we had for our reels and for the vlog. I was like, man, I like I really am enjoying listening to these videos. Yeah. I kind of wish I'd been a little more present. That's all.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

I tried. I kept tapping on you guys. Thank you. I know, I know.

Clark 12:27

You were you you were you were I got distracted too because there was like busy socializing. Well, an emergency happened not far from us in the crowd. And I was just and I kind of clocked it and I was trying to see if no one was getting anyone, you know. So I was I got distracted too. Yeah, exactly. I was like, uh, what's up? But that that got resolved. Um so that was my that was my low. So I mean, if that's the only low, it was a pretty solid day. Friday was a pretty solid day for music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Should I go next with the music?

Clark 12:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. Okay. We'll do it like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

My high was also Duran Barnar. He's like progressive funk. What I really loved about him was how theatrical he was.

Clark 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

He was just the whole package. He could have just stood still and sang, and that would have been amazing. He could have just danced and not sang at all, and that would have been incredible. Like and he started with Earth Wind and Fire, so immediately just had us glued because we love Earth Wind and Fire. And my low was geese. Um geese was Friday on, right? Are you laughing because of the what podcast?

unknown 13:33

Yeah.

Vanessa 13:34

Yes. And and Ed too, because Ed's always like because there was this whole thing where like they said that they sucked or something, and then they like took it back, and then and then I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Oh, I didn't know they took it back. It's just not for me. Yeah. It's psychedelic rock kind of prog rock.

Clark 13:57

I don't know, kind of rock, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

I'm bad with really specific genres. Some kind of rock. But yeah, it was just okay for me. When I hear music, it's really difficult for me to comprehend lyrics. So maybe a big part of their music is their lyrical content and people like are really feeling the words.

Vanessa 14:14

Clark's speaking its head now.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Okay, well, I saw a bunch of TikToks today, and like people just with their selfie cameras like yelling the lyrics and stuff. And I'm like, okay, like if I don't know the words, then that's not like a part of it for me, you know? Yeah. And that's that's a sunny problem.

Clark 14:30

Yeah. I was just more joking because the lead singer does these really long, rambly vocals sometimes. And I'm like, if you can understand the lyrics, you know, cool. Like, like that's more what I was like shaking my head. I was like, but hey, I love the lyrics for like modest mouse, and they're hard to understand.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

So to each their own.

Clark 14:50

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

You're high and low for their just the festival.

Clark 14:55

Just general. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For Friday, my overall festival high was having James and Aaron and Alex all there, like we talked about.

Vanessa 15:05

Yeah.

Clark 15:06

And even though I wasn't with them for a couple things, they all kind of landed at the same stuff during the day. Just hearing how great of a time they all had at that stuff was awesome. Yeah. They had a great time at turnstile. Mm-hmm. I'm sure Aaron did. Uh punk and rock bands. Yeah. That was a huge story. I don't know if you saw on any like posts from people from outside lands, but there were like six different pits in the crowd during turnstyle. Nice. And not in a bad way, but in like a everyone was just going off.

Vanessa 15:41

Yeah. I think it was Alex who was like, I've never seen this kind of energy at Sutro. Is that where they were?

Clark 15:48

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Friday was like a super great rock heavy day. And then for Lowe, I said, I'm just a little sad that Cocktail Magic, they've upped the prices again across the board, they're $20. I was looking back, and last year they were all 19, and I think the first year is all like 17. So they're going up in incremental amounts, but at a certain point it does become too, I think, too high for what it is. Concept though, love.

Vanessa 16:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Prices going up.

Vanessa 16:30

Inflation.

Clark 16:31

Yeah. Bay Area.

Vanessa 16:33

Love Bay Area, yeah. I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

My turn?

Vanessa 16:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

My low was I lost my pill case right when we got in that had all of my pills in it. All of them. So no Advil for me.

Vanessa 16:48

Sounds like a sunny thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Sounds like a sunny thing. Well the first time that's happened. The first time I was telling everybody that last time this happened, I found them on the last day. So maybe they'll turn up.

Clark 17:04

She was like, everyone, hold your breath.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah.

Clark 17:07

We'll find them.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

So it's okay though. We survived the day. And then I was having a hard time thinking of a high outside of music.

Clark 17:17

The music.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

It was just go, go, go with the sets.

Clark 17:20

Um yeah, on Friday, huh?

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Oh, I guess my high, we actually got some merch this year, if you could believe that.

Vanessa 17:26

Yeah, I believe it because it what okay. So was that stuff that we saw online that was like leaked? Was that all real?

Clark 17:32

That yeah. We have this for you, Von and we'll send it to you.

Vanessa 17:39

Oh my god, I love it. Thank you. Yeah, isn't it so cute? It is so cute. That's the one I wanted.

Clark 17:45

I know I've never seen the merch be so sold out.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, immediately.

Clark 17:51

Yeah. The lines all weekend, every merch stand was getting mobbed.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Oh my god.

Clark 17:57

I think they did very, very well.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

We probably got in the merch line at one on Friday, and like things were already crossed out. I was like, how? It's only been open an hour.

Vanessa 18:05

Don't ship that. I'm coming home on Sunday.

Clark 18:08

Okay.

Vanessa 18:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

She'll have to come get it.

Clark 18:12

Yeah. Okay. She'll have to come get it.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Saturday.

Saturday Big Sets Food Wins And Security

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Saturday. Saturday. You wanna go first, Clark? Yeah. Music. Sure.

Clark 18:20

My high for music for Saturday was the XX. I really, really love them. I was a huge fan of that first album that came out. But Romy and Jamie XX, two of the three members of the band, have had a bunch of other stuff, uh, other projects since they've started their career. And the set really did a great job of doing the XX music that everyone knew, and then doing these cool transitions of totally different energy that Jamie XX and Romy's own music has that it was like really crazy fun dance music, really super upbeat instead of just kind of like more moody, groovy.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Um moody groovy.

Clark 19:12

James was like, dude, I was not expecting to feel all this this set, you know? Yeah, he was like, Whoa, this is crazy. Like, what the hell? The bass player, he uh really had a fun joke about calling everybody millennials.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Oh, yeah.

Clark 19:27

Yeah, he's like, Yeah, we didn't know what the turnout was gonna be, but uh look around because uh now you know you're a millennial.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

It was like, if you're here, congratulations, you're a millennial.

Clark 19:42

Yeah, just like and he's like, Gotcha. It was very funny. And then my music low was going over to Malcolm Todd's set, which less anything about Malcolm Todd and more having to do with trying to get over there. It was just a rough time at the moment of everyone was moving around to different stages. That time. And we were just too we were just too far enough back from Twin Peaks where it was still during the day, so they weren't firing on all the towers, the sound towers yet.

Vanessa 20:18

So, like so you got panhandle bleed and nothing was going on panhandle bleed.

Clark 20:25

All we could hear was kick and maybe a little bit of bass from his mix, and I was like, Well, that's I I don't know what he's doing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

But we didn't want to get more in there, sop womp.

Clark 20:37

Yeah, kind of but again, not so much to do with him, but just more where we were in the day.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, we're like so scared of talking shit about somebody. Okay.

Clark 20:49

Well, it's like I couldn't, I don't even think I could give you like a the set was this or that, you know? Like we weren't watching the set.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

My turn?

Clark 20:58

Yes, go ahead. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

My hi was Sienna Spiro. Sienna is it Spiro or Spiro?

Clark 21:04

I believe it's Spiro.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Sienna Spiro. We saw her on Saturday at the Sutro stage.

Vanessa 21:12

She was a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I think my sister saw her too. Top of the line vocalist. And she's only 20. Oh wow. She kind of sounds like Adele, but a little more raspy.

Clark 21:21

Yeah. Adele Amy Winehouse.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah. And I actually ran all the way up to the front, if you can believe that. That's how like drawn in I was to uh this artist. She's super soulful. She even did a jazz cover of or the song is inherently a jazz song, so it's a jazz cover, um of a song called Autumn Leaves.

Clark 21:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

And that was really pretty, and it was so cool to see how all of the crowd was into it. She almost apologized for it before starting it because it was gonna be quote unquote like slow. But that apology was not necessary. Everyone was so into it. That was my high for the day. Yeah, she was my low was DJ Trixie Mattel, and it wasn't her fault. It was the sound issues. But this was like blatant. The track would start and it was like really exciting building build, and then it would just cut. And then all the dancers would keep dancing. So for a second we were like, is this a bit? Are they joking? Like, what's happening? But it was obvious that they could hear in their monitors the song still, but none of us could. The sound people stopped it and then started again, gets up to the same point in the track and then cuts in the same exact spot. And everyone was just like, oh, like it was so sad. Three times. So then yeah, yeah. Wait, but on the third time it worked, right?

Clark 22:46

Yeah, they finally started out. After that second time, it was like a longer pause.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

They were running around. It was gnarly. But then they gave Trixie a microphone and she just like smoothed it over. Yeah. She was like, they had gay people do the electrical.

Clark 23:06

Yeah, totally in the back, just like that's what you get.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah. Yeah. And then they did it again and they got through it.

Clark 23:14

So she was great when she was.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

She was so funny. She just like before the first drop, she was just like, Can I just ask you guys a question? And they were like, Yeah. It's like, are you gay?

Clark 23:24

And then she was like and the whole crowd, everyone's like, screaming.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

And then she did, she played uh Oasis.

Clark 23:32

Oh shit, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Everyone's like singing along. She's like, come on, you cringy white people. It was so good. It was so funny.

Vanessa 23:42

I wanted to see her at Bonneroo. I think it wasn't to see her at Bonnaroo. But yeah, I know she's so funny because I've seen her like on the housewipes and stuff. She's hilarious.

Clark 23:55

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

She was out lighting in a bottle, and we were like, uh, we'll see her in the Bay Area because we knew that she was gonna be at Outside Lands.

Clark 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Okay, high and low for the fest.

Clark 24:04

Yes. Let's keep keeping moving. For Saturday, my festival high was this curry chicken udon bowl that I got from Woolly Pig. It was so delicious.

Vanessa 24:19

So good.

Clark 24:19

Someone on Reddit on Saturday night was like, hey, for the last day, anyone have food recommendations? And I put in that and then instantly got a handful of upvotes and a bunch of other people commenting on my comment, going, Yo, I got the other stuff from them too. Hella good, too. Like everyone was just all like hyping up uh the same place. So uh hope they got some more business. Yum. But yeah, it was it was delicious, incredible.

Vanessa 24:47

The food looked amazing. I saw this the snack sensei's Instagram, you know, that guy from the Bay Area that does all those like food reviews. He was there reviewing like a shit ton of food, and I was like, oh my god, all of this looks so good. How come when I'm there I never find these good things? And no, it's because I'm not looking. Of course, they're there.

Clark 25:06

I just don't really eat too much. But I don't remember if they did it last year, but on the app, you could do your own food lineup. They had all the food vendors and they had the items, and you could even be like, Oh yeah, so you could remember and then you know, you can see like, oh, they're they're over on Polo Field North. I know exactly where to go to them and go get what I wanted.

Vanessa 25:32

Oh my god, that would be amazing. Like menus with pictures, and you can just like it's like you're putting them in your cart. Oh my god.

Clark 25:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're insta-carting all your sizeful food. And then my festival low for Saturday was that security took some of my food.

Vanessa 25:52

Oh, I heard about that.

Clark 25:54

Yeah. We walked in, you know, had my pack all ready to go, and the guy I was walking to was like, oh yeah, so uh no food today. And we're like, today today. What? No, that's like the thing with outside lands is you guys allow food. And do you even go here? Genuinely Sonny, do you even go here? I pushed back on it, and then you know, he even had like a he like called somebody over, and then that's all she said too. And I'm like, okay. And Sonny was ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

I was ready to politely escalate, but Clark shuffled me along.

Clark 26:29

I I was moving along because I had more snacks in my bag, and they literally didn't touch my bag. So I'm more annoyed that they weren't doing that other level of security of feeling in my bag. Obviously, you walk through detect metal detector, but they didn't even touch my bag and had me throw away food. So how much of a rule is even that? Right. Really, what sucks is I had to throw away some homemade scones that I made that not the scones.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, I had to throw away scones. Uh we should have eaten them. Why did we just two in the moment?

Clark 27:08

I know.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Yeah, I was like, okay, so they threw out your scones, but you brought your shank in. Cool.

Clark 27:13

Yeah, exactly. It's like, I got my weapon in though, you know, like what Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

So I I apologize if anyone listened to our episode and brought food in and got it taken. In the 14 times I have been, that has never happened. I asked on Reddit if anyone else got their food taken. A bunch of people said no. Bunch of people said, you know, I should have complained. I got one person today who said their food was taken.

Vanessa 27:38

So I'm thinking it's like a miscommunication between like the say on the website that you can bring it in. Did you guys look?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

It doesn't say anywhere that you can bring food, but it's not on the prohibited list anywhere. Yes, I looked the second we got in there.

Clark 27:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Like I said, I was ready to go back to information and be like, there's some confusion here. For being a lot of talk about a sustainable festival and no food waste. Well, you're about to waste a lot of food by making everyone throw it away, not letting everyone know it's not allowed.

Clark 28:08

So true, true.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

All right, but let's move on for that because I can't keep complaining. My high low high was hanging out with my friend Michael, um, who I haven't seen apparently for 10 years, according to him, but we've known each other since preschool, so it was nice to catch up. And he actually like walked around with us and our group for a little bit. Shout out to Michael, that was really fun.

Clark 28:29

Yeah, yeah, and we and we having your energy around. When we posted up on the hill at uh Sutro.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah.

Clark 28:35

We continue hanging out for a bit, so that was nice.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah. And then Milo, other than the food, I lost my earplugs right when we got in there.

Vanessa 28:44

Sunny.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

I think I think I lost them in the Uber, but those are outside lands, branded earplugs, so I'm very sad about it.

Vanessa 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Oh no.

Vanessa 28:55

They're sitting somewhere at the bottom of some Uber with the ear pills.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Yeah, they're all someone's gonna have a great day.

Clark 29:02

Um earplugs and pills?

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah. Sunday, high and low.

Sunday Surprise Guests Art And Sore Feet

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Go for it, Clark.

Clark 29:09

Music High for Sunday was the surprise set from Leon Bridges that we got to go see. That was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

An hour before they announced it.

Clark 29:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Oh my god.

Clark 29:21

Yeah, over at uh at uh DeBose Triangle. So the little mini stage, and yeah, it was absolutely magic. He came out and had a DJ playing basically the backing tracks for stuff, but he had a live trumpet player and a live tenor sax player and three backup vocalists. Yeah, that was Yeah, it was amazing. Having that surprise set was was such a was such a a nice surprise.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Surprise that was a surprise.

Clark 29:54

And then my music low was that the lead singer, uh Ben Gibbard, from Deathcab for Cutie, he uh woke up with like no singing voice. Uh he still sounded great, but if you know their music very well, there was you know, he couldn't do everything he would want to do.

Vanessa 30:16

Is this the same guy you saw years ago with that other band? Postal service.

Clark 30:22

Yes, that's his other big project. He still was fantastic, they still sounded great, but it was also crazy because they were the band that was doing the double set.

Vanessa 30:33

Oh, yeah.

Clark 30:34

Opening and closing sutro. But I thought they still did a stellar job.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

I couldn't tell. If Clark didn't say that, I would have never known. He sounded perfect to me.

Clark 30:45

They've been doing things since 1998.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Oh my god. Wow, they're old.

Clark 30:50

Yup, yep, yep, yep. Yep. So um that was just my low. They still sounded great, though.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Mattern?

Clark 30:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

My high was Magnus Farrell, who is Will Farrell's son. Oh, he was there. Yeah, yeah. He was the opening set on Twin Peaks, and I was really looking forward to the set because, like many, I discovered him thanks to Will Farrell showing off his music to Michelle Obama on the on her podcast.

Vanessa 31:18

That's where I saw it too.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Right. And since then I've loved his music. This was his first festival set ever, so he was in such a happy mood. It was infectious. His band was perfect. Horns, backup vocals, drums, bass, keyboards. So right up my alley. Super funky, groovy, disco. And the band was just so in the pocket. I felt like every song got better and better. Was Will Farrell there? That was my high for the day. I was looking around, like I think everyone was, but no, I couldn't. If he was there, I'm sure in some ultra VIP.

Vanessa 31:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

I feel like he would stick out, right? He's pretty tall.

Clark 31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah.

Vanessa 31:59

Hiding side stage, maybe.

Clark 32:01

Hey, it's Conan doesn't stick out and he's at Outside Lands every year, basically. He is.

Vanessa 32:07

He was there this year. Oh my god, I love him. And he's so tall. Not only is he so tall, he's a redhead too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

So yeah, Magnus Ferrell, that was my my high. Okay, my low for Sunday with the music was disco lines. Oh no. There were some good moments in the set, but it was just kind of fell flat. And then for maybe like 10-15 minutes, you couldn't really hear it. And all of a sudden in the mic, he's like, Yo, can you guys hear it out there? And everyone was like, No, and thumbs down. And he was like, I can't tell if that's yes or no. And everyone's like, No. Like, thumbs down. He's like, Oh, they said no. And then he kind of like looks around and he's like, Oh, fuck. And then like turns up a knob and then the sound fixed. So people are saying he had some kind of low pass filter on for a long time.

Clark 32:59

There's been a lot of discussion on Reddit and stuff that we've seen.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

I think it was clearly something he had because he said, Oh, shh, and then turned something and then it fixed itself. So that was kind of a bummer. But that was my low for Sunday. All right, for the festival.

Clark 33:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Oh.

Clark 33:15

Hi for Festival for Sunday was I don't even think I talked to Sonny about this, but they had all these different bison sculptures around the festival this year. Oh yeah. And they all were themed differently. And I kind of wish I had made it a side quest for myself to like go find all of them. Oh. Because yeah, there was like a disco-themed one near Dolores. There was a wooden one that was right at the beginning of Hellman Hollow, which is what leads to Twin Peaks. And it was like built out of wood, but it had touch-sensitive horns and stuff that uh did there was like a sound um what's it called? Element. It was it was like almost like this exhibit with this sound interaction stuff, which was cool. There was another one, it looked like it was built out of like cliffs and it had trees and stuff. As if it was a mountain, like it was built out of rock. I like the idea of stuff like that, not just Ranger Dave, and now at the main windmill in the polo field, there's a a big outside lands letters, like mirror, yeah, reflective letters. You know, those like photo op places having all these other unique things, but that are connected to outside lands that could be little photo ops for people, I think is super cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Yeah, they had more of those for sure. Have you guys seen the bison out at Golden Gate Park before?

Vanessa 34:50

No.

Clark 34:50

I yeah, we've never gone to visit them.

Vanessa 34:52

That's cool. I just we just saw them like when we were before we moved, we went and were like scootering around Golden Gate Park, and we s we uh we ran into all the bison and we're like, what the fuck?

Clark 35:06

Yeah, the bison paddock.

Vanessa 35:10

And then we saw the we saw the windmill too. I was like, oh, that's why they have the windmills at Outside Lands.

Clark 35:16

Yep, yep. I've been I've been to that windmill, but I haven't been to the bison paddock. And I've been to the archery range randomly in Golden Gate Park, but um But wait, there's more yeah. I mean Golden Gate Park, it's it's huge. It's one of those, it's just so yeah, it's huge and it's just so dense with all this different cool you can go to. Yeah. And then my festival low was seeing that the the city hall area was so minimal, they moved it down to Hellman Hollow, more of a major thoroughfare going to Twin Peaks. They made it a lot more a lot smaller. It looked like you could take photos in there and stuff, which was cute, but compared to the whole area they had by Flowerlands the last handful of years with little benches and stuff for people to watch a wedding ceremony where not nearly a scenic. Yeah. I was like, oh, that's too bad, especially with the side quest you gave us, Vanet, that we weren't able to do.

Vanessa 36:22

I know, I'm sorry. You didn't see any of the bait the one on the main stage?

Clark 36:26

No, we didn't see any weddings. Oh that's okay, but we did the other stuff we did the other ones though. So that was my low. That it it it seemed like that setup was a little diminished.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

My turn? Okay. My high was Carlita at the Soma stage, who's a DJ. All of us went to the little slope that's at the Soma stage and laid down our blanket, and we were just chit-chatting and resting, which was very important because, dude, my legs and feet were like messed up after Friday. Right when we got there, I was like, why do my feet already hurt? So I needed that.

Clark 37:02

She was the millennials at a music festival meme.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Yeah, yeah. So I needed that Sunday rest time, but it was really nice just chit just chit-chatting with everyone. And then my low was walking home. Like I just said, I was messed up. I'm so sorry to James and Clark. I know I was complaining the whole time. But yeah, I don't know. I just I could barely walk. So that was my low, all in all.

Side Quests Fanny Packs And NA Beer

SPEAKER_00 37:27

This was one of my favorite outside lands. I don't know.

Clark 37:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

I had a great time. Um I think there's been like a little bit of a like a little bit of a lull for me. But this year that that was broken. This was an incredible outside lands. Yeah, yeah.

Clark 37:40

Yeah, I agree. The level of music was incredibly high.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

And we did do two out of the three side quests you had us go on. I went to beatbox, I got a fanny pack, and they were pressing patches on them that you could pick from. So I picked a patch that said I love my dog. Oh, and then I could have brought it the next day and the next day and gotten more patches. We also did go to what's the name of the beer for the non-alcoholic? Cut water. Athletic brewing.

Vanessa 38:10

Oh, athletic brewing.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

No, cut water is alcohol. We went to uh athletic brewing and we did spin the wheel. What did you guys get?

Clark 38:19

You got uh pins, little pins that are like you know, a a can of one of their brews.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Oh nice, yeah. But but did it make it to the main stage weddings? Sorry. That's okay.

Clark 38:31

Yeah, it's the one we we did.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Next year. I didn't even see anything about that online.

Vanessa 38:34

Like, you know, normally you'll see.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

I didn't see anyone's videos either. I was like, was there one? But I don't know. Yeah, I'm like so I know we have rambled.

Vanessa 38:45

It's just so hard not to.

Teen Backlash Age Limits And Etiquette

SPEAKER_00 38:47

I know. You're I have a quick discussion point that I want to bring up with you guys and see what you think. Over this past outside lands, immediately there was a lot of backlash about all the teenagers over there.

Vanessa 39:00

I knew this was coming.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

A lot of complaints. People are all up on Reddit saying that it should be 21 and up, it should be 18 and up. What do you guys think?

Vanessa 39:12

I'm gonna sound like a bitch on here because she wants it to be 21 and up. No, it would be nice if it was 18 and up. No, I'm just kidding. Right. No, I don't know. I mean, it's hard because I don't want the kids to not have festivals. I don't want to be like exclude the kids because I you know, we love music, music is for everyone. But they also do annoy the f out of me.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Yeah.

Vanessa 39:42

I wasn't even there, so but yeah, it's a hard place to be because I don't want to say no, but I also am like just maybe to their parents, like teach them proper etiquette.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Listen to our episode on crowd etiquette.

Clark 40:00

Nice. It is such a dilemma because I think some of the pieces of outside lands that I like the most are those moments. Oh, like when we were hanging out with your friend Michael that we that you haven't seen in a long time, there was like a family with their little toddler, and Michael had his Polaroid camera, and he's like, Hey, do you want me to take a Polaroid of you guys? You know, and he like took one of the dad and his toddler and gave it to him. And then later the dad came running back over and he's like, Hey, look, the Polaro came out great. Yeah, like the Yeah, and that type of thing is what I think is so one of the things that's so cool can be so cool about outside lands, being that it's you know, anyone can can come in. Because if you did an 18, you know, you can't go 18 plus and then have families with their toddler, you know, like you then no one between the ages of like 10 and 17, right? You lose that part too, right?

Vanessa 40:59

So so I think no teenagers, just 13 to 19, you can't go.

Clark 41:04

Yeah, yeah. It's like your first year was when we were 18. I can understand. You know, Sunny said only at one set did she have any issues, you know, like seeing what people were talking about. But I was like, I'm not even at anything that these teenagers are at.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

We're somewhere else. Like, I'm sorry. I'm just like, they're not everywhere, you know. Yeah, you can get away from it. So it's just like I don't know. That's not that's kind of my attitude.

Vanessa 41:34

But it's not just them in the crowds, it's like how they walk through the festival, and yeah, you know, it's not just them at crowds because they are where we don't want to be, they're up against the the rail and like close, which is not where we want to be anymore. You know, but you still have to like you know, there's that point in time in the day where like everyone's going somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

I wish there was some kind of in-between where like the Soma stage could be 21 and up, or like one day could be all ages and the rest of them are 18 and up, or like something, but that would be too hard.

Clark 42:09

No, yeah, you can't have that. Yeah, yeah. But for how busy or how sold out all the tickets were and stuff, I I didn't have any problems. Yeah, they definitely added more bathrooms again this year because I don't think any of us waited longer than five minutes. Yeah, good, and we were all G A.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Oh, there's one point where someone didn't find toilet paper, but I found toilet paper every time. Oh, good.

Clark 42:36

They heard us. Yeah, so that that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Yeah, they heard you.

Clark 42:39

They've added more like little pockets of bathrooms that has made a huge difference. Right behind Panhandle, there's a little one to the left of Sutro.

Vanessa 42:49

There's a well, I think those urinals for guys are a good idea.

Clark 42:54

I still don't understand why that's not just a thing.

Vanessa 42:57

Yeah, because that would take up so much maybe it's some kind of rule with the park. Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Okay, I just wanted to see what you guys thought about that. Yeah.

Vanessa 43:06

Sorry, kids, we love you. We don't want you to not have music, but just like learn how to be in a festival setting.

Clark 43:16

You know what? It's not the singulars, it's my mom used to say this more teenagers together does not make them smarter. Right, it always makes them worse.

Vanessa 43:27

Such a thing your mom would say, too. That's so funny.

Clark 43:30

Exactly, right? You can just hear Laura. I can hear it. I can hear it.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

That's amazing.

Grasslands Celeb Spotting And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Do you have any more questions for us? Anything else you want to know? Did you go to Grasslands?

Vanessa 43:41

Did you guys see any famous people? Well, Sunny, you probably wouldn't know that many, but Clark, did you see any influencers out there? I saw so many people that I follow that were at Outside Lands, and I was like, I wonder if I would have ran into them.

Clark 43:55

It's just so dense and everything with all the people, you know, it's I didn't catch anyone.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

I don't think I've ever seen a famous person there with my own eyes out in the crowd.

Vanessa 44:06

I don't think I have at Outside Lands either, but I have like I have at other festivals, but not at Outside Lands.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Only Coachella when I saw Justin Bieber, that was it.

Vanessa 44:15

There was this girl that I follow on Instagram that's always like has like 10 gummies in her hands, and she's like, let's get lunch, and then she like eats all of like 100 milligrams. She was there, and I was like, she would be there because she's and of course she's at Grasslands.

Clark 44:29

We hyped up Grasslands a ton for James, but we never went over to Grasslands actually this year.

Vanessa 44:36

It's kind of in a weird place, I feel like.

Clark 44:39

Yeah, and after Friday, it made more sense for us to enter on the other side. We actually Ubered the other two days in the morning to get over to the other side because it's just what we were going to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Should we close it out?

Clark 44:56

I think that's what we got.

Vanessa 45:00

Okay, Festies. I hope you enjoyed this recap episode of Outside Lands. Share this episode with your friends that went to Outside Lands. And if you have a second, please like, subscribe, rate the show, leave a rating and review. Really helps us out. For more Festies content, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Festies Podcast. We have Outside Lands reels coming up, and stay tuned for an Outside Lands vlog. And until next time. Bye. Bye.

Clark 45:32

Bye.