Outside Lands felt like a different beast this year.
In a break from tradition, more than half a dozen high-profile performers — Vampire Weekend, Rebecca Black, Anderson .Paak — played twice. And in contrast to years past, when the first couple hours are typically given over to less well-known artists, San Francisco's biggest summer music festival gave attendees ample reason to show up early.
Nobody lit up the early afternoon quite like rapper Big Freedia, New Orleans' "queen of bounce," who's been a regular at Outside Lands for at least a decade. But rather than play to a narrow demographic at a smaller stage like Dolores,' she teamed up with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus for a 45-minute celebration of spirituality.
Big Freedia took everyone to church. The gay chorus became a choir.
It was overtly Christian, yes. But it was unabashedly inclusive, the type of faith that might send certain conservative quarters into a frenzy. Joyful, queer, and punctuated by air horns, it was a marriage of hip-hop and gospel, with a cover of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" thrown in to acknowledge what would have been the late singer's birthday.
Big Freedia's collaboration with the chorus was a pointed contrast to Beck's pairing with a symphony on Day One. He was the headliner on the Sutro Stage, weaving through the mellower tracks from his three-decade catalogue at an hour when many people want to dance.
Like Vampire Weekend on Saturday, Freedia's set anchored the afternoon. Call it a millennial honeypot, but giving early time slots to established acts makes sense.
If nothing else, it helps populate a festival that has sometimes felt like a dead zone until 2 p.m.
Capping off a weekend of numerous celeb sightings, including Conan O'Brien, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Daniel Lurie was spotted on Sunday afternoon grooving to indie rock band Bleachers.
The Standard ran into then-candidate Lurie last year as well. Given his desire to revive downtown's economic fortunes through live music — and that he booked San Francisco-born DJ and producer Zhu for his inauguration party — it's more than fair to say the mayor is a legit music fan.
