Music

Photos of You at Treasure Island Music Festival Under Looming AT-AT Walkers

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Founded by Noise Pop in 2007, Treasure Island Music Festival has been located on Treasure Island until this year when it was moved to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. How long until the branding changes to reflect the location change?

Formerly branded by its location on an island, the new location is huddled under the impressively tall container cranes at the Port of Oakland. According to local lore, the cranes were the inspiration for the AT-AT Walkers from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Throughout the festival weekend, I had a lot of fun imagining we were all part of the Rebellion, simply celebrating a day off between battles.

Each Oakland crane stands 253 feet tall which is about a 25 story building, thus fully visible from all locations in the park. Similarly, the All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker, used by the Imperial ground forces, stand over 20 meters, these massive constructs are used as much for psychological effect as they are for tactical advantage. The huge Oakland cranes made a major effect on my psyche and played a major role in my festival photography.

Whether you were there to see Tame Impala or A$AP Rocky there were epic bands to see each day. Who was your favorite act? Perhaps it was Silk City, Lord Huron, Santigold, Courtney Barnett, Jungle, Pusha T, Sharon Van Etten, Aminé, Cigarettes After Sex, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laff Trax, U.S. Girls, Moses Sumney, Alex Cameron, Polo & Pan, Pond, Shame, George Fitzgerald, Soccer Mommy, serpentwithfeet, Jpegmafia, and Gilligan Moss!

Treasure Island Music Festival is two days long. Each day is very different from the other. Day one focuses primarily on electronic music and hip-hop, while day two tends to be more rock & roll focused. However, what I like most about the festival is that if you mess up your fashion choices on day one, you can always adapt and update them for day two. Did you see any festival outfits that you absolutely loved?

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Stefan Aronsen

Stefan Aronsen

I am the co-founder of Balanced Breakfast, a meetup for music industry professionals. No, I do not sing or play any instruments ... but I have tried! My passion for music began at 7 when my parents bought me a drum set. I was BAD at drums. So I moved on, joined the school band, and played clarinet. I was BAD at the clarinet. Trying and failing at instruments continued through elementary school and into college. It turns out that while I could recognize good music; I lacked the skill to make it.

Now I'm broke, beautiful, and writing about music for Stuart...