This weekend San Francisco held one of its largest outside concerts, Outside Lands, which featured 60 acts on six stages in Golden Gate Park’s Polo Fields. More than 60,000 attended over the three days. Headliners such as Beck, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Primus, Steel Pulse and Bela Fleck, as well as many local bands, took the stages from Friday evening to Sunday night.
The reports of problems at the concert were fairly mild. People jumped over barricades to avoid bottlenecks in the crowd, but no violence marred the event. Most who attended were calling the weekend a total success.
If a festival like Outside Lands was held in San Jose, what would it look like? Could we have 60.000 fans together with no problems? Or would we have the same problems that mar our downtown on weekend nights? Could our police handle such an event?
Sadly, I feel that we are far away from having this type of festival. But then again, no one has ever had the foresight to organize a musical concert of this magnitude, so how would we really know?
Another factor is that this event had high ticket prices— much different from the free concerts that we see in San Jose in the summer. Prices for tickets to Outside Lands ranged from $60 for one concert to $695 VIP packages for the 3 days. (Do you actually get to go backstage for that price?) With those prices, would this event work in San Jose? Are ticket prices a major determining factor for the behavior at such events?
I am not trying to say that people who have money are any better behaved than anyone else. It’s just that when you spend that kind of money you have more of a vested interest in coming for the music, not just to drink or cause trouble.
Outside Lands is just one more event that makes us San Francisco’s stepbrother to the south. How can we change that?
First of all, a large majority of those bands suck, so it was basically an overpriced Primus concert. That doesn’t make anyone less than SF.
To your point, these things go on up at Shoreline all the time. I don’t see how that’s any different. Golden Gate Park is not downtown San Francisco. Hell, that’s where the festival gets its name, from the originally “uninhabitable” western half of their city. From what my friend’s told me, it was chaos, anyway. People toppled fences and climbed felled trees.
Let’s stop bemoaning our alleged failures just because San Francisco’s music festivals have more famous bands that you hear in Target commercials and Ikea commercials.
Who says that we need huge, 6-stage festivals, anyway? There are plenty of musical offerings in the valley right now.
There’s Mountain Winery, Shoreline, the Shark Tank, Music in the Park. Each year in Discovery Park there’s the Khincert, a whole day of music for $15. That’s just for starters. There are plenty of music listings in each week’s Metro.
So what if it’s not 65 bands on 6 stages for $100 a day? You can only watch one band at a time anyway. I really don’t see a problem.
Single Gal, move to San Francisco!
Nam Turk,
Shoreline was built on top of a city dump. The putrid stench of methane still overpowers even the best reefer…and how dare you disparage Golden Gate park-undoubtedly the most beautiful urban park in the nation.
Blandbung
Single Gal,
Your low self-esteem is showing again. Why do you feel the need to compare our fair city to San Francisco?
Yes, Nam Turk. How dare you?
Explain yourself this instant.
I wasn’t aware that I had disparaged it. All I said was that “big” events go on further south without any failure. I added that it’s easier in both instances because neither locale is all that congested to begin with.
Oh very well then.
Just take care in the future that you don’t transgress the unwritten law regarding criticism of verdant public lands.
If you do you may find yourself as all who challenge the fundamental rules of our society- in an iron coffin with spikes on the inside.
John Gault,
Go to county hospital and reup your meds.