Outside Lands’ creators double down on music fests to help revitalize San Francisco

Last weekend marked the 16th year of Outside Lands, the San Francisco music and arts festival that has become a cultural beacon. This year, world-class artists from a multitude of genres performed for 75,000 attendees each day in Golden Gate Park. Synth-pop superstar Chappell Roan, Americana torch-bearer Charley Crockett and avant-garde icon Grace Jones delivered just a few of the standout sets at this year’s festivities. Recently, Another Planet Entertainment, the brains behind the festival since its launch in 2008, partnered with San Francisco officials to produce a series of concerts, some ticketed and some free, intended to revitalize the city.

This Saturday, less than a week after the final day of Outside Lands, a lineup featuring System of a Down and Deftones will use the festival’s infrastructure in what will be the first standalone concert after dark in Golden Gate Park. Tickets sold out instantly, with only an estimated 10% of ticket holders being San Francisco residents. Following the System of a Down show this weekend, APE plans to announce two more free concerts before the end of the year, with more on the way in 2025.

“Ninety percent of the audience is coming from outside San Francisco,” says Scott, president of concerts and festivals for Another Planet Entertainment. “And most of these people are not just coming in for the show, they’re coming and spending the weekend or longer. So it’s going to be a big economic impact for the city.”

APE, now the largest independent concert promoter in the United States, has furthered its commitment to the Bay Area by partnering with the city of San Francisco to produce this new series of concerts with the hope of also changing the perception of the city’s reputation when it comes to its issues with inner-city crime and poverty.

“There’s a narrative out there about San Francisco,” Scott says, “that we’re in a doom loop or there’s urban decay and all that. While we have problems in San Francisco and the Bay Area, these are similar problems that are happening around the country in other cities. But this is where we live. So we’re doubling down on San Francisco. We want to show the world what San Francisco is all about and why it’s a world-class city.”

Over the years, APE has conducted surveys to measure the economic impact of its events. Over the past 16 years, major concerts like Outside Lands have brought more than a billion dollars to the local economy, Scott said. In 2017 alone, 73% of nonresident festival attendees stayed in the Bay Area for three or more nights, resulting in 41,448 booked hotel nights. APE’s new series of events has a goal of attracting concertgoers from both in and out of town to various parts of the city, Scott said.

Main stage at Outside Lands 2024 in Golden Gate Park.

(Julian Cassady Photography / Alive Coverage)

Gregg Perloff, founder and CEO of Another Planet Entertainment, views these events as a continuation of San Francisco’s rich musical history. “San Francisco has always been about music,” he says, “and not just music, but art, culture and dance.” Perloff says APE’s aim is to boost the local economy, create job opportunities and curate unique, safe spaces by tapping into the deep-rooted vibrancy of the city.

Perloff believes that many of San Francisco’s perceived problems arose when the majority of tech industry employees stopped commuting to their jobs in the city and started working from home. “Since people aren’t at work five days a week, all the little mom-and-pop shops went out of business,” he says. With only a fraction of its usual foot traffic, downtown San Francisco saw an influx of unhoused people setting up camp in a centralized area.

“We have a problem with tents and with cleanliness,” Perloff admits. “But even the difference in the last year is spectacular, with how much improvement there’s been. When people are downtown, which is where we’re doing a lot of these concerts, when there’s activity, a lot of these problems go away.”

Chappell Roan can’t be stopped

In June, APE hosted electronic music producers Fred again… and Skrillex at San Francisco’s Civic Center. Tickets sold out within a few hours of being released and 25,000 people gathered to watch the duo perform in front of City Hall. Mayor London Breed could be seen dancing backstage along with other city officials, signifying the city’s endorsement of the event. “We are grateful to have Another Planet as partners in our continued work to bring joy to our residents and visitors through a myriad of experiences and performances,” Breed said. “Bringing Fred Again... x Skrillex was a perfect example of what we can get accomplished working together, and we’re hopeful to build on the momentum we are seeing.”

In addition to ticketed events, APE is producing a number of free concerts around the city. The first of these took place at Embarcadero Plaza on July 21 and featured a roster of DJs from California record label Dirtybird Records. The city had initially approached APE about throwing relatively small free concerts in various local areas, but this event was proof that the production team has larger plans. An estimated 10,000 people gathered at Embarcadero Plaza for a five-hour rave on a Sunday afternoon.

With a few more events in the works for this year, APE is already looking to expand the series next year. “There are a lot of other genres of music that we can tap into and have a lot of fun putting these bills together,” Scott says. “We’re bringing events and culture, and continuing to create excitement in different areas of the city.”