S.F. Outside Lands Festival: lineup announced; presale begins April 15; get a jump on hotels

The Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival will once again, this summer, fill a good chunk of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with thumping music and thousands of revelers for three days in August. The lineup for the 2009 fest (Aug. 28-30), just announced, is something to get excited about.

Pearl Jam will be headlining, and other biggies will include the Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews Band, M.I.A., Thievery Corporation, Incubus and Modest Mouse. There are many more on the list, and more as-yet unannounced acts will likely be made known in the coming months. The featured acts in last year’s premiere festival included Radiohead, Beck, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.

Visa cardholders get the first opportunity for advance tickets, which go on sale online at 10 a.m. April 15. Three-day tickets for general admission will cost $199.50. Once that price level is sold out, the cost will increase to $225.50. The cost will further increase (the amount is TBA) after those are sold out.

For the funds-strapped, there’s a layaway plan available for the $225.50 price level, in which you can spread the cost over four payments. But the extra payment-plan service fee of $34.90 per ticket makes this, in my mind, only a last-resort option.

Once you’ve got your tickets booked, it’s never too early to start researching your accommodations. Last year, I booked a hotel last-minute, and the closest option I could find to the festival grounds was near the Civic Center. It took me two hours to reach the festival on the first night (a Friday), as at least 20 packed Muni buses and 200 occupied taxicabs passed me by, ignoring my flapping arms.

Start your research well ahead of time and aim to stay as close as possible to the western reaches of Golden Gate Park — walking distance would be ideal.

Contact: Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready; PearlJam.com]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 3:35 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under Arts & Culture, California, Festival, Hotels, News, Tips & Advice, Northern California, San Francisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.