Celebrate Ten Years of Outside Lands With Metallica, The Who, Gorillaz and Lorde

Jordan Bailey

San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival is commemorating its ten-year anniversary this summer with a lineup to top all lineups. Taking place at the famed Golden Gate Park from August 11-13, this urban celebration will feature a full weekend of rock, hip-hop and everything in between.

Mainstream metal band Metallica tops this year’s bill. Hot off the release of their tenth studio album, “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct”, Lars, James and the boys will swing through San Francisco during their full US summer tour. The Who will once again reunite for a set. Surviving members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have been busy since they embarked on their 50th anniversary tour last year. They’ve even been on a recent “2017 Tommy & More” Tour, which features the band playing “Tommy” in its entirety for the first time since 1989.

Gorillaz will solidify their comeback this summer with a slot at Outside Lands. Slated for a new album release this month (April 28), these formerly anonymous musicians have been on a five-year hiatus since “The Fall” album in 2011.  Everyone on the festival circuit has been clamoring to book Lorde since she announced her upcoming project “Melodrama” set to drop mid-June of this year. This young New Zealand singer burst onto the scene in 2013 with her smash single, “Royals.” A Tribe Called Quest has been on their comeback game as well this year, with a performance on SNL and a new album by the name of “We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service.” Expect classics and new hits alike as these New York rap icons take the stage.  

The rest of Outside Lands’ lineup is just as juicy as the headline acts. Included on the poster for 2017 are Alt-J, Queens of the Stone Age, Above & Beyond, Fleet Foxes, Empire of the Sun, The Avett Brothers, Belle and Sebastian, Solange, Future Islands, Schoolboy Q, Young the Giant, Rebelution, Little Dragon, Vance Joy, Kaytranada, Bleachers, Sleigh Bells Thundercat, Louis the Child, Warpaint, Dawes, K. Flay, Tove Lo, Royal Blood, Action Bronson, Shovels & Rope and many, many more.

Outside Lands is in San Francisco proper and not far from downtown, meaning camping isn’t an option. Hotels, however, are plentiful: Hotel Triton near Chinatown is an art project in every sense of the word. Each chair, table setting, and piece of wall art is unique. This hotel will surely satisfy the eclectic hankerings of any hotel guest.  The Fairmont, on the other hand, taps into the classic, elegant side of traveling, and is filled with the trappings one expects from a top-tier hotel.  Hotel Vitale seems to split the difference between the two aforementioned guesthouses; modern, design-friendly and affordable.

Outside Lands will take place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park from August 11-13. Passes can be found here.