Best Places to Hear Outside Land for FREE in Golden Gate Park
Davidydave via Flickr
Outside Lands 2019 has beefed up its fencing and road closure system so much that you can no longer rubberneck from sidewalks and paths to watch Outside Lands for free like in years past. But there are still Golden Gate Park quirks that can position you to pretty clearly hear performances from Childish Gambino, Twenty One Pilots, Paul Simon, and anyone playing at the Land’s End stage — or the Twin Peaks stage, if you are particularly resilient at hiking and navigating through brush.
The Broke-Ass Investigative Gate-Crashing Unit has assessed the more-draconian-than-ever perimeter of this year’s Outside Lands fence, and found the best “free show” spot to be closest to the main Outside Lands stage.
Image: MRFraley
LANDS END STAGE (SPRECKELS LAKE / NEAR BISON FIELDS)
You will not be able to see the stage, but there’s some pretty cool light-up art you’ll be able to see. More importantly, you’ll totally be able to hear Twenty One Pilots (Friday), Childish Gambino (Saturday), and Paul Simon (Sunday) from the sidewalk along Spreckels Lake.
But Chain of Lakes Drive behind the stage is closed the entire weekend, taking away one of the very best forested listening spots.
TWIN PEAKS STAGE (THE TRAILS BETWEEN MIDDLE DR. WEST AND MLK DR.)
We’re talking about the hills behind this year’s Twin Peaks stage, seen above under in recent state of construction. There are some weird and awesome little trails between Metson Lake and Mallard Lake (or in plain English, between Middle Drive West and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive) that will place you in those trees. You’ll eventually run into Outside Lands’ gates, lights, and loud generators, which are unpleasant. But can also finagle to wooded spots where you’ll hear the Twin Peaks Stage with pretty good clarity.
That stage has the Lumineers (Friday), RL Grime (Saturday),and Kygo (Sunday).
SUTRO STAGE LOOKS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET NEAR
With so much of JFK Drive super aggressively fenced off, there’s seemingly no way you’re going to penetrate the Sutro Stage for Hozier, Flying Lotus 3D, or Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals. Or is there? Chase your diminishing/outstanding returns and see what happens!
We’ve confirmed that once again, there is no Outside Lands livestream this year. But if you know of any more great free Outside Lands crasher spots, let’s hear ‘em in the comments.
