Outside Lands 2026: Friday Highlights
Outside Lands 2026 kicked off on Friday, August 7th and I was there for ANCHR’s inaugural attendance of the beloved Bay Area festival. Read on for top takeaways and highlights from day 1!
Attending the festival for the first time as a Chicagoan, I couldn’t help but compare Outside Lands to festivals back home, like Lollapalooza, Riot Fest and (RIP)Pitchfork Festival. In terms of size of the grounds and crowd size, I’d say Outside Lands falls between Riot Fest and Lollapalooza, but the Outside Lands lineup this year reigned supreme for me, even over Lolla’s lineup. However, the vibes reminded me a little bit of the old Pitchfork Festival because a majority of the crowd seemed to really care about the actual music, and many fans were trekking from stage to stage between acts rather than camping out at the main stage for the headliner.
San Francisco’s Natural AC
A big discrepancy between Outside Lands and essentially any outdoor concert/festival in Chicago during the summer is the weather. Not only is it significantly cooler in the summer in the Bay Area, but there was a consistent breeze throughout the day and lots of cloud coverage. The San Francisco cool weather felt like nature’s own air conditioning, and even though it got actually cold in the evening (with feels-like temps of low 50s), it was nice to not be sweating all day during the shows. Additionally, with the venue being set at Golden Gate Park, you could smell refreshing eucalyptus from the trees in many parts of the grounds which felt like Nature’s air freshener that also melted away any of the stress from being in a large crowd.
Another highlight of the sprawling park as the venue was the plethora of food, drink, and vendor options throughout the space. I felt like I rarely had to wait in long lines to check out a brand activation or grab something to eat even during peak dinner time because there were so many options for food, spread out between the main stages.
Now onto some of the musical highlights!
Photo by Alive Coverage
Wet Leg, Arms Pumped!
I flew in Friday morning from Chicago, so regrettably missed some of the earlier afternoon acts, but fortunately made it to the grounds just in time for the highly anticipated show from Wet Leg. Friday afternoon’s performance was Wet Leg’s first time back to Outside Lands since their debut in 2022, where they played the Sutro stage. This time, Rhian Teasdale entered the Lands End stage with arms flexed upwards as the band launched into their single “Catch These Fists” from their sophomore album Moisturizer. The 2026 set featured several of the newer songs from their second album, but still included some of the debut favorites like “Chaise Longue,” “Wet Dreams,” and of course “Ur Mom”— the latter of which featured a cathartic scream. During the performance, Teasdale asked the crowd to join her in their longest and loudest scream, and it went on for an impressive 30 seconds. Here’s to group scream therapy!
Photo by Alive Coverage
The Sutro Stage had Geese and a (Modest) Mouse
After Wet Leg’s set, I took some time to walk the grounds to people-watch and get my bearings on the site before making my way to the other main stage, The Sutro Stage. The last three bands to perform on that side were Geese, Turnstile (more on them shortly), and Modest Mouse—who was up against Charli xcx’s co-headlining slot.
As I meandered up towards the stage area, walking along the right side of the grassy hill of Lindley Meadow, I was pleasantly surprised to see stands of bleachers with open seating for GA attendees. In speaking with another fest attendee, I heard that this is the first year the stage had this seating option, and I have to say I’m a big fan. The raised spot on the hill and stadium style seating allowed for a bird’s eye view of the stage and gave me a chance to take in the massive crowd showing up for the Brooklyn-based band. Also, in total happenstance, I sat next to two other festival-goers who happened to live in Wisconsin, just over the Illinois border. Us Midwesterners have to stick together!
I first saw Geese at Lincoln Hall in 2022 (and they were also featured as an artist of the week that same year), so it was incredible to see them completely pack a festival main stage in the early evening on day 1 of Outside Lands. The band had mosh pits sprawling throughout the entire length of the meadow—not just in the front of the crowd; however, in the front of the crowd, fans could be seen bouncing around inflatable Geese to add to the fun.
Photo by Alive Coverage
Turnstile’s Phone Calls and Mosh Pits
There was a 30-minute gap at The Sutro stage between Geese and Baltimore’s Turnstile, and while the crowd thinned out significantly with fans bopping around to other sets during that time, the meadow filled right back up by 7:20 when Turnstile was slated to start. The band began a few minutes late, but made an explosive entrance to their most recent album’s title track “Never Enough.” Immediately, frontman Brendan Yates exerted his high-energy stage presence, doing jumping jacks, leaping around the stage, and joining the audience along the barricade to sing amongst them. The crowd returned the energy back to the band, filling the meadow with giant mosh pits.
During the 5th song of the set— “DULL”—when Yates sang the lyrics “I'm waiting for the call,” fans were greeted by a surprise cameo of 2/3 of Boygenius picking up a prop telephone on the screen. Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, who is performing at Outside Lands on Saturday, were watching Turnstile’s show from the side of the stage and joined in by making the call. Here’s hoping this was a foreshadowing of a guest appearance during Dacus’ set.
Another one of my favorite observations during Turnstile’s incredible performance was a couple in the crowd in front of me wearing BRAT shirts join in on the mega mosh pit. We love to see fans going hard for different genres!
Karl was Charli XCX’s Natural Fog Machine
Speaking of Brat, Charli xcx closed out the Lands End stage next, and fans flocked to join Club Charli on the other side of the park.
As nighttime fell over Golden Gate Park, San Francisco’s infamous fog, Karl, rolled into the grounds and acted as the world’s biggest natural fog machine to set the tone for Charli’s vibey performance. Of course, Charli’s production also included tons of strobing lights and choreographed dancers to enhance the show and really make it feel like a party (4 u).
Charli xcx’s Outside Lands set opened with some of her latest material from her album Music, Fashion, Film—which was just released at the end of July, but she also sprinkled in hits like “360” from 2024’s BRAT and “House” from the Wuthering Heights album. Fittingly, her set wrapped up with her song “No One Lasts Forever” to close out day 1 of the festival.
