“Are you guys freezing?” asked Best Coast‘s front singer Bethany Cosentino as soon as she came out on stage. Of course, she being from sunny LA, couldn’t believe this is what we call summer here in the Bay Area.
That quote kinda summarizes the whole first day of Outside Lands 2011, with the Golden Gate Park covered by the fog and people wearing mucha ropa (for California standards).
It sucks, you wait all year for the summer festival season and then you have to wear a jacket and scarf. I even saw some dudes trying to make a buck selling wool hats by the side of the stage.
Oh well, my expectations weren’t high anyway for Day 1. It was a Friday, lots of people arriving late after getting off work and the line-up, mmmm, not very interesting. “I didn’t know the Bay Area was so overwhelmingly “white” said somebody from OK Go on Day 2, but Day 2 was crazy full of Latinos wherever I looked, Day 1 on the other hand, I only found a few.
The closest to a Latino artist on Friday was Salvadorean DJ Mauricio Aviles, spinning some soulful house music in the tent, and I’m pretty sure I was the only Spanish-speaker dancing to his tunes.
Anyway, since it was the first day and I wasn’t really a fan of any of the performers, I just used the day to walk around and get familiarized with the space. Distances between stages are so huge, you end up spending all day walking, but at least there’s plenty of attractions on the side and lots of alternative things to do and great food offers (take note Coachella!).
I didn’t stay for any show until the end, just caught some bits and pieces of The Original Meters, The Limousines, and Erykah Badu. Outkast‘s Big Boi was schedule to play and I was a bit curious about it but for some reason his show got delayed first, they said half an hour, and then he just came up on stage and apologized for not being able to perform and left his buddy, comedian Dave Chapelle, on stage just talking nonsense and horsing around with the crowd.
Also, read what happened during Outside Lands on DAY 2 and DAY 3.