A different Latino Sound: Outside Lands

This year, Outside Lands Music Festival of San Francisco will take place August 10-12.

With about 25 artists and bands per day performing in four stages, a comedy tent and another one for DJs, gourmet food, local wines and beers, plus the enjoyable weather and the astonishing scenery of the Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands became a landmark for festival goers and music lovers.

The main headliners for this years are The Weeknd, Florence & The Machine and Janet Jackson.
The lineup is wide and varied, with well known artists such as Beck, Portugal The Man, Tycho, The Growlers, Odesza, to little known emerging ones like Churches, Pale Waves, Billie Eilish, and many more.

Among food vendors there is a strong Latino presence. Many of the 70,000 daily attendees could enjoy from tamales to Chilean empanadas.
For the 2018 edition of Outside Lands, the Latino lineup its a surprise. It looks like organizers decided to bring in Latinos artists living in the USA: Chicano Batman, Jessie Reyez, Sabrina Claudio and Cuco.

Chicano Batman is a four-member band of Los Angeles formed in 2008. They recorded three albums and several singles. Their style is a mix of funk, tropicallia, blues and rock with Latino accent. Their live shows are very entertaining.

Jessie Reyez, 28, could be considered the next Latina indie star. Born in Canada of Colombian parents, she now lives in Florida. She recorded an EP: “Kiddo.” She has a unique style thanks to lyrics in which she talks about feelings in a husky and low tone voice that seams to break apart and with a music that gives the impression to prevent us of something coming up. Reyez has the charm of a marginal, rebel and mysterious music.

Some people bring their work to the Outside Lands festival. / Eduardo Stanley
Sabrina Claudio, is half Puerto Rican and half Cuban. She was born in Miami 21 years ago. Claudio recorded several singles, an EP, and this year she’ll come up with her first studio album. Her music is mainly pop and she seams very comfortable on the stage.

Cuco (Omar Baños) is a 19-year old Mexican-American of Hawthorne, near Los Angeles, whose popularity is growing. Even though he sings in English, he likes to mix in Spanish and Spanglish on his lyrics. Cuco’s music is a mix of romantic indie and alternative pop. He plays several instruments and so far he is responsible for mixing his music on a laptop.

Outside Lands Festival, one of the most important in the country, is part of a new and trendy culture which since about a quarter of a century fills stadiums and parks to listen live music, dance, smoke weed and even wear customs. Thousands of people, particularly young, are part of these events.

Festivals like Outside Lands are a good place to show off. / Eduardo Stanley
Even there are some people who have the hobby to travel around the country assisting to different music festivals. Such is the case of Tucker Gumber, 34, who assist to most of the 800 music festivals in USA.

Gumber, “The Festival Boy,” published a book about his experiences attending festivals: “The Festival Goer’s Guide,” in which he provide all kind of advises and do and don’ts to those willing to assist to festivals.

The economic impact of festivals is considerable. Outside Lands pumps $66.7 million to San Francisco’s economy and $75 million to the Bay Area, according to a recent report conducted by Marin Economic Consulting and commissioned by Outside Lands organizers, using data collected by an on-site survey and an online survey in 2017 of the demographic characteristics and spending patterns of festival attendees.

Another interesting findings of the survey: 65% of the respondents lived outside San Francisco, 41% of non-residents stated that Outside Lands was the only reason for their coming to San Francisco. During the three days of the 2017 festival, 41,448 hotel nights were booked in the Bay Area that are closely linked to the Festival. Utilizing this data, researchers estimated that total direct expenditures from Outside Lands within San Francisco were $29,995,144.

Outside Lands contributes an average of $2 millions per year to San Francisco Recreation and Park, and has established an endowment for a year-round, full-time gardener for the Polo Fields of the Golden Gate Park, where the festival takes place since 2008. Outside Lands is a full cost-recovery event, with the festival paying for all city services related to the festival.