After dressing as characters from Netflix shows the first two days of Outside Lands, Ryan Jones of Bakersfield saved his best costume for Halloween.
He walked through the gates as the festival’s 2015 headliner Elton John, decked in one of the singer’s most famous show costumes from the 1970s, which was recently reprised by Taron Egerton in the 2019 John biopic “Rocketman.” The only problem was it wasn’t exactly San Francisco appropriate: He was in a sparkly full-body Los Angeles Dodgers uniform.
“I’m maybe risking my life here,” said Jones, 33, from behind oversize glasses. “I haven’t gotten too many dirty looks yet, but it is still early.”
On Sunday, Oct. 31, the third and final day of the San Francisco music festival, was under way under a semi-sunny cool day at Golden Gate Park, and it had already been a remarkable success. Pent-up demand for the first major festival in the city created the first total sellout in Outside Lands history, according to co-producers Another Planet Entertainment.
Perhaps it was Grass Lands, a site-specific marijuana dispensary that finally allowed for on-site consumption after being introduced as a demo space in 2018. Maybe it was the $50 bowl of ramen. Either way, crowds estimated at 75,000 per day adhered to the strict COVID-19 checks and safety protocols along with the chilly autumnal weekend weather to celebrate the return of live music at the park.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for two years,” Jones said.
While the festival is typically held during August, Halloween weekend didn’t feel too different weatherwise as Outside Lands is notorious for its foggy nights. Even Friday’s unusually warm sunny day wasn’t impervious to the thick fog that rolled into the park well before sunset. By Sunday, it broke foggy and cool, with just enough sun for afternoon revelers to show off their costumes, from space aliens and sexy skeleton crews to Beetlejuice and other creative ghouls.
Sure, a summer concert is easier on festivalgoers who like the lingering western sun that adds drama when the lights come on for the headline acts. But this weekend, as it got dark at 6 p.m., it added to the spooky vibe of the Halloween weekend.
Indeed, nobody at the festival was complaining. They were just glad Outside Lands made its long-awaited comeback after pandemic delays, as most had been sitting on tickets long before the 2020 Outside Lands was canceled. It was also clear throughout the weekend how excited festival acts were to be back onstage after waiting in the wings for more than a year.
Among Bay Area performers on the lineup to make their Outside Lands debut after the pandemic hiatus was Oakland-bred mxmtoon, who took to the Sutro stage Sunday afternoon with devout fans — including family and friends — in the crowd who sang along to her hits like her 2019 breakout hit, “Prom Dress.”
Outside of Golden Gate Park, of course, was a mix of love and hate about the convergence of the mega festival and Halloween holiday.
On 30th Avenue at Fulton Street, just a few blocks from a main entry point to Outside Lands, there were no trick or treaters. Resident Shirlene Lim loaded up her own children, Scott, 8, and William, 12, to drive them to Sea Cliff, where all the Outer Richmond kids seem to have gone.
“Because of Outside Lands, there are no little kids walking around,” she said from her post outside where she could hear the concert all weekend. “We love having the concert, but not on Halloween.”
At 30th Avenue and California Street, Tory Francisco, who was escorting his 5-year-old son, Ethan, dressed as Thing 1 from “The Addams Family,” didn’t seem to mind.
“A bunch of drunk 20-year-olds wandering around in costumes adds to the vibe,” he said.
The Bay Area festival season as a whole shifted later this year, as vaccines against the coronavirus continued to become more widely available. After the free Stern Grove Festival, which ran through several Sundays throughout the summer, BottleRock Napa Valley came back from its pandemic hiatus in September. And this month alone saw the return of the Huichica Festival in Sonoma and the birth of a new outdoor music dubbed Halloween Meltdown in Oakland.
But Outside Lands was the season closer, and those who had been on the circuit gave it high marks.
“I was expecting a Coachella vibe, but Outside Lands is way better than Coachella,” said Brittany Donaldson, who was selling hand-picked raw crystal products through a popup of her online store, Creator.
Katie Cornett of Cupertino also described it as “very different than other festivals. It’s colder and more relaxed. It’s easier to get up in front of the artists.” Cornett, 25, had worked her magic to get front and center for Vampire Weekend and the Strokes — there to witness Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas griping about the city’s COVID-19 precautions and the festival’s sound system.
Between Sunday’s noon opener and 8 p.m. headliner were 35 acts on seven stages. Despite not having the usual legacy act like years past — like Lionel Richie, Janet Jackson, Paul Simon and Radiohead — to close out the three-day festival, headliners Tame Impala performed on the Lands End stage for the festival’s last day. But not before pranking festivalgoers with an announcer stating they were eliminated in the “Squid Games” and was to be replaced by the Wiggles. The crowd took a collective gasp and then quickly cheered when the Australian psychedelic band finally hit the stage just after 8:15 p.m.
Still, there was a smattering of unofficial legacy acts, like Dirty South rapper Nelly, who brought a sense of nostalgia as he ran through a tight set heavy on his early aught hits from 2000’s “E.I.” and “Batter,” 2002’s “Air Force Ones” and “Hot in Herre” as well as fan favorite singalong “Dilemma.”
Later in the evening, east of the Polo Fields at the revamped House by Heineken, the electro pioneer known as the Egyptian Lover, who changed the scene in the ’80s, held it down with his 1984 hit “Egypt, Egypt” and a Halloween-themed rendition of his 1994 hit “I Need a Freak.”
Taking it back to the old skool 🙌🏽🤩 #outsidelands2021 pic.twitter.com/nWF4Vbpijb
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) November 1, 2021
The only scheduling hiccup of the day came when Scarypoolparty, the 27-year-old Southern California musician and reality television star whose real name is Alejandro Aranda, canceled his set to “prioritize his mental health,” according to festival promoters Another Planet Entertainment and Superfly. He was the third cancellation of the weekend, joining Atlanta rapper Young Thug and electronic music producer and YouTube star Marc Rebillet as no-shows.
For more updates from Outside Lands 2021, go to datebook.sfchronicle.com.
San Francisco Chronicle Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza and pop music critic Aidin Vaziri contributed to this report.