Outside Lands 2026: Saturday Highlights
Outside Lands 2026 returned to Golden Gate Park on Saturday, August 8th for another sold-out day of festivities. Read on for all the highlights and takeaways of the fest’s second day!
Music is Healing
Chances are, if you’re at a music festival, you already know how much healing power music has, especially in a live context— but every once in a while, it’s nice to be reminded!
I started my jam-packed day of music at Haute & Freddy’s set, which kicked off at 1:25PM at the Lands End stage. The duo of Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp drew a large crowd even at the early set time with their circus-chic costumes and theatrical performance, but a highlight of their show was the performance of their single “Dance The Pain Away,” which did in fact, have the crowd dancing away their troubles. Aside from that song, Buzz and Shipp kept the crowd captivated with fun moments like an interlude of circus show tunes while Shipp juggled onstage, or a dramatic speech about the queen and the opera from Buzz. “We’re very inspired by musicals. This is for anyone who needs to feel a little bit more like a queen today,” she later told the audience. Haute & Freddy’s performance felt more like a musical than just your average concert, and left us all feeling like royalty at the Opera house.
Photo by Alive Coverage
Along that same vein of being rejuvenated by music, Yard Act played a few hours later over on the Sutro stage, bringing to life many of their new songs from their third album entitled You’re Gonna Need A Little Music—which just came out on July 17th. The album’s title and its title track are a friendly reminder that music really is a necessity, and Yard Act’s stellar performance at Outside Lands provided a mid-afternoon invigoration to the festival-goers. Lead vocalist James Smith commanded the crowd with his dynamic vocal abilities that at times included a powerful howl and rapid, rhythmic delivery that rivals rappers. The crowd also seemed particularly tickled when the band played the aforementioned “You’re Gonna Need A Little Music” and Smith delivered the line “Headed from the Isle of Balamory to the San Francisco Bay.” If you enjoyed Yard Act’s set at the fest, stay tuned for an interview with them coming soon!
Sibling Support > Sibling Rivalry
Siblings Audrey Hobert and Malcolm Todd both performed at Outside Lands on Saturday, with Hobert taking the Lands End stage at 2:40PM and Todd playing at Twin Peaks at 4:45PM.
Audrey Hobert kicked things off by drawing a large crowd to one of the main stages again, especially for so early in the day. As she danced and twirled across the stage, fans joined her in grooving on the field, loudly singing along to her quirky yet relatable narratives. Between songs, Hobert told the crowd she didn’t need their cheers or screams, but they were very nice to have. She was granted many screams when she started her hit song “Sue Me”— which she actually performed twice so that the audience could soak in the moment sans phones for one of the performances but still get their recordings the first time if they wanted.
Audrey Hobert fans got another opportunity to double dib on one of their favorite songs if they caught her brother Malcolm Todd’s performance as well; Todd invited Hobert onstage in the middle of his show to perform her song “Phoebe” together for a sweet family crossover. We love to see siblings supporting each other!
Photo by Alive Coverage
2/3 of Boygenius
On day 1 of Outside Lands, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus made a small but mighty cameo on the stage screens for Turnstile’s set during their song “DULL.” I had a feeling that meant we might get an appearance from Baker during Dacus’ Saturday afternoon set. My hunch ended up being right when Baker joined Dacus to perform her song “Bullseye” from her 2025 album Forever is a Feeling. The studio version includes a feature from Hozier, but the Outside Lands version had her Boygenius bandmate! The cherry on top was Dacus performing the Boygenius song “True Blue” as a follow up.
Photo from Outside Lands via Instagram
Charli(e)’s Garden at Djoutsidelands
Outside Lands became Djoutside Lands for an hour, kicking off at 6:50PM when Djo hit the Lands End stage. The musical brainchild of Joe Keery (who you may also know for his acting chops) packed the polo field again for an energetic performance. Throughout the show, Keery often zipped across the stage and at one point hopped off the stage to run through the middle barricade. I saw a post on Instagram this morning that said “Djo’s Outside Lands set but it’s just him having the zoomies” and I can’t think of a better way to describe it. He ran around onstage so much that he gradually shed two of the three layers he started the show with, quickly warming up despite the chilly San Francisco breeze.
Djo’s setlist featured a mix of his discography, including some of my favorites from his 2025 album The Crux, “Potion” and “Charlie’s Garden.” In the studio version of the latter, the song includes a clip of a voicemail that’s interjected about a minute into the track, but during his live set, Kerry has made it a tradition to have a “Charlie’s Garden” caller that’s usually relevant to the specific show (i.e. in New York, he had a video clip from Mayor Mamdani). For Outside Lands? The song was rebranded to “Charli’s Garden” because the special voicemail came from queen Charli xcx herself. In the video, she tells Keery “I had no idea that you wrote this song about me, that is like so sweet of you” before telling him to call her back after the show.
Djoutside Lands wrapped up with an extended version of his massive hit “End of Beginning,” which marked my first time hearing the song performed live outside of Chicago. While the crowd still loved it, nothing will ever top seeing that song at Lollapalooza with a bunch of fellow Chicagoans last year.
Outside Land’s Barbenheimer IRL
In July, Outside Lands posted a screenshot of a fan’s comment saying “The Strokes and Charli xcx having the same album release date is like Barbenheimer for bisexual people” in response to The Strokes releasing their new album Reality Awaits on the same day as Charli xcx’s Music, Fashion, Film. Well, to close out Saturday, festivalgoers got to experience that phenomenon IRL when The Strokes invited Charli onstage to perform their song “Take It Or Leave It” from their landmark Is This It album. The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas gave the pop icon her flowers, saying her album blew theirs out of the water, but it was nice to see them come together as comrades rather than competition.
Aside from the guest appearance, The Strokes were the perfect way to wrap up the second day of the fest. Fans completely filled the field to see them, and it almost felt like we were in a snowglobe with The Strokes because Karl the fog returned along with very fine mist that was illuminated by the festival lights. It was the perfect Saturday sendoff after a wonderful day of music and culture.
Photo by Alive Coverage
Festival Free(dom)bies
On the second day of Outside Lands, I had a little bit more time to explore even more of the sprawling park grounds. On Friday, I completely missed checking out Hellman Hollow, which includes the Panhandle and Twin Peaks stage, along with several brand activations. Along with the brand activations comes plenty of freebies for the festival crowd!
Some highlights included La Croix passing out free cans of sparkling water, Monster Energy also providing free samples, and TheraBreath’s refresh station that included sunscreen, body mists and of course their signature mouthwashes. However, the real star of the festival perks was the Chase Freedom Cashback Club. There, attendees could score freebies like fannypacks and ice cream or watch the shows on Panhandle and Twin Peaks from their special viewing platform. The real winning perk though? They had air-conditioned bathroom trailers that actually flush, so fans with a Freedom card could avoid the stinky porta-potties.
Speaking of that— I’d like to encourage festivals across the world to start offering “V I Pee” passes, which would be a fraction of the price of traditional VIP passes because the only perk it includes is clean, flushable toilets. Speaking for myself, I don’t need designated viewing platforms or free drinks, but a clean bathroom makes all the difference at a festival. Outside Lands 2027, want to take me up on this idea?!
Stay tuned for the Day 3 highlights, and check out the takeaways from Day 1 here.
