Beck, Petty and Oodles of Vino: We're Pretty Amped About Outside Lands

When I was a kid, large-scale music festivals fell into two inconvenient categories: They were either a) in Europe or South America or somewhere far, far away from my home in Vancouver, or b) chock-a-block with shitty bands who really didn't engender the kind of good, communal festival vibes I'd associated with the legendary U.K. events like Reading or Glastonbury. In '99, for instance, I went to something called Edgefest, a Canadian version of Lollapalooza in its dreams, but not so much in reality. (The year I went, Hole headlined, but the other acts were alt-rock also-rans including Finger Eleven and Moist.) You can't really blame them, though: After all, the late Nineties weren't the best time for commercially-viable alternatives to the mainstream, which may be why the infamous Woodstock '99 was such a colossal mess.

Oh, how things can change in a decade. Now the market is so flooded with three-day outdoor festivals, it makes it difficult for individual events to stand out. But I have high hopes for San Francisco's Outside Lands, which kicks off in but a few scant hours at Golden Gate Park and will feature the first-ever after-dark performances under the city's magnificent Golden Gate bridge. It's environmentally friendly, centrally located, and will offer copious distractions from the music itself. Plus, the event is produced by Superfly, the company behind Bonnaroo.

I'm excited to see bands I've yet to see live (Cold War Kids, Andrew Bird), to cheer on my Canadian brethren (go, K'naan!) and to see Radiohead dry instead of in the deluge of their recent Vancouver show. And, if it blows, I'll just head over to what I anticipate will be the best of all Outside Lands's non-musical attractions: something called Winehaven, which is basically a tent where they serve delicious artisan wines to of-age concertgoers. Watch this space over the next few days for (possibly inebriated) reports on sets from Beck, Tom Petty, Lupe Fiasco and others, plus the low-down from Jenny and Pete on backstage shenanigans. -- KAITLIN FONTANA