Outside Lands Belonged to Chappell Roan

Without a doubt, 2024 was Chappell Roan’s Outside Lands. She was already a pop star in the making when the festival booked her months ago. But on Sunday at 4 p.m., as she pranced across the stage in a sequined leotard singing the opening lines of “Femininomenon,” she became the center of gravity, eclipsing the actual headliners.

Vocally, Roan is a maximalist: She packs a lot into her songwriting, and tracks like “Hot To Go” and “Red Wine Supernova” show her range. She belted out with power, seduced the audience in a husky near-whisper and then talked-sang in sassy call-and-responses that everyone could sing along to. Her lyrics were often displayed on screen, as if to remind the audience that not only does she want to impress you — she wants you to feel like you’re part of this.

While dancing during “After Midnight,” a coy, spicy track about making trouble (“I love a little drama / Let’s start a bar fight”), Roan landed into the splits like a drag queen. And in her darkly funny revenge song “My Kink Is Karma,” she got on her knees and bent over backwards while delivering the track’s psychosexual climax.

“Pink Pony Club” was the scream-along moment of collective catharsis fans seemed to be waiting for. The high-drama song might be a little tongue-in-cheek on the surface, but its central conflict — a gay club go-go dancer defending her job to a disapproving mother (“I’m just having fun / on the stage in my heels / it’s where I belong”) — clearly resonated with everyone who’s had to fight for individuality within their family of origin, whether they’re queer, straight, 16 or 46.

When the screen above the stage showed aerial shots of the massive audience dotted with pink cowboy hats, it was hard not to feel vertigo looking down at sea of people jumping up and down and putting their hands up.

Roan is good at creating a spectacle, but her set proved that her astronomical rise is a product not of gimmicks or virality, but of raw talent. I haven’t seen an underdog ascend to greatness quite like this since the Warriors clinched their victory in the 2015 NBA finals and launched a dynasty. As a fan, you can feel that Roan is on the cusp of something magnificent, and it’s thrilling to watch. — Nastia Voynovskaya

More Outside Lands highlights

Shaboozey took Golden Gate Park down south

Shaboozey showed immediate gravitas on stage, and his voice was potent, coarse and honeyed all at once as he spun invisible lassos and threw his mic up in the air Friday afternoon. The Fairfax, Virginia artist, whose music melds hip-hop country and rock — and who appeared twice on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album — sounded as good in person as he does recorded, if not better.

He pivoted easily from more heavy songs like “East of the Massanutten,” about leaving his hometown, to upbeat bops like “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which had him tipping his red solo cup to christen the stage with beer. Sepia visuals of wild horses, the open road shimmering in the southern heat and a pickup truck under a starry sky helped transport fans during Shaboozey’s energetic, hearty and salt-of-the-earth set. — Olivia Cruz Mayeda

A dry set for Tyla

Tyla’s highly anticipated Friday appearance turned out to be more anticipation than performance — the artist was over 30 minutes late. Her presence felt a little lackluster, too, maybe because she had so little time to actually be present. But in the four songs that she fit in, Tyla still wowed her audience, whose roars were increasingly deafening with each undulation of her body, especially to her viral song  “Water,” which has had folks all over the internet pouring water all over themselves while twerking.

Unfortunately, the singer left the stage as quickly as she entered it, her enormous prop inflatable tiger collapsing back to the ground in a pitiful heap as festival employees prepared the stage for Kevin Abstract. Audience members, though visibly disappointed, were still murmuring how incredible she was. — Olivia Cruz Mayeda

Daniel Caesar really was Friday’s ‘Best Part’

If Tyla left more to be desired, Daniel Caesar gave the people what they wanted for as long as he could. While the Killers headlined Friday, Caesar arrived on the smaller Sutro stage in a shroud of fog that accentuated his heavenly vocals in front of a jam-packed crowd. He was captivating for over 15 songs straight. From newer hits like “Always” (from his 2023 album, Never Enough) to classics burned into our core romantic memories like “Best Part,” the crowd was right there with him, word for word. But the jewel of Caesar’s performance came as he seemingly ended his set only to suddenly reappear in a nearby grove of Eucalyptus trees singing his cover of Kanye’s “Street Lights.” The moment was cut short by the festival, but was beautiful nonetheless. — Olivia Cruz Mayeda

Sabrina Carpenter brought out Kacey Musgraves

Let’s get this out of the way: Sabrina Carpenter did a great job. “It’s my first time headlining a festival,” she said on Saturday night before thanking the crowd — but you couldn’t really tell at first glance. Her setlist had its peaks and valleys: A highpoint was an epic duet of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” with surprise guest Kacey Musgraves. Carpenter’s ballads, however, came off as dreary, and are proving to be her greatest weakness as a songwriter. Nonetheless, her humor shined through during performances of smash hits “Espresso” and “Nonsense,” the latter of which included a special pseudo-Shakespearean outro: “Soon cometh my album, so exciting / My heart doth pound beneath my breasts, so mighty / Outside Lands, it’s like thou art inside me.” — Ugur Dursun

Grace Jones showed club kids how it’s done

Fashion icon and dance music legend Grace Jones set the tone as soon as the curtains parted to reveal her suspended midair while sporting an approximately 20-foot-long gown. The entertainer extraordinaire went on to change into different getups for nearly every song, taking the audience on a journey from 1981’s “Nightclubbing” to church and even her native Jamaica. “I’m gonna pretend I’m hot,” she joked after experiencing the brutal San Francisco chill we’re all too familiar with. Oozing with charisma for the whole hour, the superstar ended her set by getting herself seated on the shoulders of a festival staffer, who carried Jones along the barricade to greet the audience. By this point, Jones had clearly won over even the younger-leaning Sabrina Carpenter fans, who were patiently camping out for Carpenter to take the stage. — Ugur Dursun

Dolores’ drag stage rivaled the main stage

Over at Dolores’ Stage, San Francisco queer nightclub Oasis curated drag performances worthy of the headliner slot. SF drag powerhouse Nicki Jizz MCed a captivating 90-minute version of the club’s recurring all-Black drag show, Reparations, which featured a 12-minute tribute to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour from local queen Mahlae Balenciaga and an energetic “brat summer” number from Jax. RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Yvie Oddly closed out the show, highlighting her out-there style. She included a history lesson, too: “It blows me away to still get to do things like this,” Oddly proclaimed before showing a compilation of political figures speaking out against LGBTQ+ rights, reminding the audience of what’s at stake in the upcoming elections for trans and queer people of color in this country. And that was the perfect message to end on after a remarkably well-executed show. — Ugur Dursun

Victoria Monét got her flowers

Despite heavy Golden Gate Park mist coating the stage, Victoria Monét threw down. The R&B star emerged in a pinstriped suit, hat downturned, flanked by four dancers who popped their hips to “Cadillac (A Pimp’s Anthem)” while working their pimp canes like poles. Monét’s voice was sturdy and strong, unassisted by any sort of backing track, as she performed an hour straight of athletic choreo that called to mind 2000s divas like Ciara.

After stripping down to a brown ensemble of a crop top and chaps, Monét was giving sexy and self-assured, but she also allowed herself to let loose and be playful. During “Stop (Askin’ Me 4Shyt),” she threw in an ad lib: “Stop acting like the Bay Area don’t got some of the finest women in the world.” Later, during “Smoke,” she did a lap around the audience and got audibly emotional when a fan handed her a bouquet of flowers. The moment felt surprisingly intimate, even as it happened on a massive festival stage. — Nastia Voynovskaya

A disjointed festival finale

Sturgill Simpson is clearly a talent, but Outside Lands severely miscalculated, and did him a disservice, when they booked him to headline the main stage Sunday. The country star was in prime fighting shape after a three-year hiatus from performing due to a vocal injury. He had a band of the highest order, with instrumentalists seamlessly switching between guitar and lap steel, keys and saxophone as Simpson shredded on his guitar.

A dedicated group of head-banging, foot-stomping, hat-tipping fans were feeling it. But in my years of covering this festival, I’ve never seen such a sparse crowd for a headliner, especially one giving it their all like this. That was disappointing.

Outside Lands took a risk by stacking the lineup with country acts this year. But San Francisco isn’t much of a country town, and the audience continued to atrophy from Simpson’s set over to Kaytranada’s. The Canadian house music producer and DJ was presiding over a massive dance party on the other side of the park, and one couldn’t help but think that the booking didn’t allow for either act to fully shine.  — Nastia Voynovskaya

More performers at Outside Lands: