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 standard-bearer Charley Crockett, and avant-garde icon Grace Jones offered just a few of the standout performances 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, some free — aimed at revitalizing the city.
This Saturday, less than a week after the final day of Outside Lands, a lineup including System of a Down and Deftones will utilize the festival’s infrastructure for what will be the first standalone after-dark concert in Golden Gate Park. Tickets sold out instantly, with only an estimated 10 percent of ticket holders being San Francisco residents. After System of a Down’s show this weekend, APE plans to announce two more free concerts before the end of the year, with more to follow in 2025.
“Ninety percent of the audience comes from outside of San Francisco,” says Scott, president of concerts and festivals for Another Planet Entertainment. “And most of these people aren’t just coming to see the show, they’re coming to spend the weekend or longer. So it’s going to be a huge economic impact for the city.”
APE, currently the largest independent concert promoter in the United States, has reinforced its commitment to the Bay Area by partnering with the City of San Francisco to produce this new concert series in hopes of also changing the perception of the city’s reputation regarding its inner-city crime and poverty issues.
“There’s a narrative about San Francisco,” Scott says, “that we’re in a vicious cycle or there’s urban decay and all that. While we have problems in San Francisco and the Bay Area, there are similar problems happening in other cities around the country. But this is where we live. That’s why 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 contributed more than $1 billion to the local economy, Scott said. In 2017 alone, 73% of nonresident festival-goers stayed in the Bay Area for three or more nights, resulting in 41,448 hotel nights booked. APE’s new series of events aims to attract concert-goers from both in and out of town to various parts of the city, Scott said.
Outside Lands 2024 Main Stage in Golden Gate Park.
(Photo by Julian Cassady / Alive Coverage)
Gregg Perloff, founder and CEO of Another Planet Entertainment, sees these events as a continuation of San Francisco’s rich musical history. “San Francisco has always been a music city,” he says, “and not just music, but arts, culture and dance.” Perloff says APE’s goal is to boost the local economy, create job opportunities and create unique, safe spaces by tapping into the city’s deep-rooted vibrancy.
Perloff believes many of San Francisco’s perceived problems arose when most tech industry employees stopped commuting to their jobs in the city and began working from home. “Because people aren’t working five days a week, all the little mom-and-pop shops closed,” he says. With only a fraction of its usual foot traffic, downtown San Francisco saw an influx of homeless people settling into a centralized area.
“We have a problem with the tents and with the cleanliness,” Perloff admits. “But even the difference from last year is spectacular, with the improvement that has taken place. When people are in the centre, which is where we do many of these concerts, when there is activity, many of these problems disappear.”
In June, APE welcomed electronic music producers Fred Again… and Skrillex to San Francisco’s Civic Center. Tickets sold out within hours of going on sale, and 25,000 people gathered to see the duo perform in front of City Hall. Mayor London Breed could be seen dancing backstage alongside other city officials, signifying the city’s endorsement of the event. “We’re grateful to have Another Planet as partners in our ongoing work to bring joy to our residents and visitors through a wide variety of experiences and performances,” Breed said. “Bringing Fred Again… x Skrillex was a perfect example of what we can accomplish by working together, and we look forward to building on the momentum we’re seeing.”
In addition to ticketed events, APE is producing a series of free concerts around the city. The first of these took place at Embarcadero Plaza on July 21 and featured a group of DJs from California-based record label Dirtybird Records. The city had initially approached APE to organize relatively small free concerts in various local areas, but this event was proof that the production team has broader 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 so many other genres of music that we can tap into and have a lot of fun putting on these events,” says Scott. “We’re bringing events and culture, and continuing to create excitement in different areas of the city.”
