Foto Fridays – Best Of 2012 – Music Festivals

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405, 5, Aaron Bruno, adidas, Adidas Superstar, ALLEN STONE, Alternative, Amtrack, ANDREW BIRD, ANIMAL KINGDOM, Atlanta, Avcii, AWOLNATION, Azalea Banks, •ALABAMA SHAKES, •AMADOU & MARIAM, •ANTIBALAS, •BOMBA ESTEREO, •CITY AND COLOUR, •FUN., •JOVANOTTI, •MIMOSA, •OF MONSTERS AND MEN, •SHARON VAN ETTEN, •TAME IMPALA, •THE WALKMEN, •TRAMPLED BY TURTLES, •WASHED OUT, •WOLFGANG GARTNER, •YACHT, BART, Beats By Dre, BECK, Beer Lands, Big Boi, BIG GIGANTIC, BIRDYH, BLOC PARTY, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Blue Lines Coachella Weekend 2012, Bon Iver, Bromance, CA, California, CAVEMAN, Coachella, Coachella 2012, Coachella Valley, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Comedy, concert, CORY CHISEL AND THE WANDERING SONS, Dabs Myla, David Grohl, DIE ANTWOORD, DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND, DISPATCH, Do Lab, DR. DOG, Dr. Dre, dubstep, Earth Day, ELECTRIC GUEST, Empire Polo Club, End, Explosions In The Sky, FATHER JOHN MISTY, Feist, Festival, FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS, Foo Fighters, Foto Fridays, FRANZ FERDINAND, FUTUREBIRDS, Gary Clark Jr., GEOGRAPHER, Golden Gate, Golden Gate park, GRANDADDY, gravel, Haight Ashbury, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop Music, iMovie, Indio, INFANTREE, Instagram, Intel Outside, iPhone, iPhone 4S, iPhone Post, iPhone4s, iPhoneagraphy, iPhoneography, JACK WHITE, Jerseys, Jukebox the Ghost, JUSTICE, Key Yemaya Walker, Lands End Stage, Last Time, Little Dragon, Live Music, Los Angeles, Love, Marraige, Marta, Metallica, MICHAEL KIWANUKA, MSTRKRFT, Muni, music, Music Festival, MW, Myla, Myla Watson, National Basketball Association, NBA, NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE, Norah Jones, Norcal, Northern California, Occupy Coachella, ONE MusicFest, ONEY ISLAND SWAMP BAND, Outside Lambs, Panhandle Stage, PAPA, Park, PASSION PIT, Photography, Portugal. The Man, Proposal, Radiohead, Raise Your Weapon, REBELUTION, REGGIE WATTS, REGINA SPEKTOR, Richmond, Ricky Watts, Roadtrip, rock, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Francisco Outside Lands, San Francisco Outside Lands 2012, Santigold, SBTRKT, SEAN HAYES, Seek Bromance, Shutte, SIGUR ROS, Skrillex, Snoop Dogg, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Socal, Southern California, Stevie Wonder, Straits, Sutro Stage, TANLINES, Tennis, THE BE GOOD TANYAS, The Black Keys, The Grande Wheel, THE KILLS, THE M MACHINE, THEE OH SEES, Tim Berg, TOM MORELLO: THE NIGHTWATCHMAN, Train, Truth, Tupac, Tupac Hologram, Tupac Shakur, Twin Peaks Stage, TWO GALLANTS, UN Square, Vacation, WALLPAPER., Wedding, WHITE DENIM, Wine Lands, YELLOW OSTRICH, ZOLA JESUS

A “Best of… Foto Fridays” Essay of 2012’s Music Festival travels.
2012 Ranking:
1) Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA)
2) Music Midtown (Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA)
3) Outside Lands: Music, Food, Wine, Beer, Art (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA)

A combination of Porta-Potties, Hot sun, VIP Showers, compressed hot bodies, cold, fog, band reunions, amazing covers, crowd surfing, 90’s classics, dirt, dubstep, car camping, road trips, bad artist scheduling, vacation, plane flights, MARTA, BART, gravel, fun!
A super-hot weekend in the California desert where NBA Basketball jerseys seemed to be the uniform, water was the best thing, and music was unbelievable. Enjoy.

Coachella Music And Arts Festival, Weekend 2 2012

Overhead view from “The Wheel.”

Alarm Clock…HOT!!!

The weekend’s boarding.

Foto Friday – San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music + Art Festival 2012 – Photo Essay

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adidas, Adidas Superstar, ALLEN STONE, Alternative, Amtrack, ANDREW BIRD, ANIMAL KINGDOM, Atlanta, •ALABAMA SHAKES, •AMADOU & MARIAM, •ANTIBALAS, •BOMBA ESTEREO, •CITY AND COLOUR, •FUN., •JOVANOTTI, •MIMOSA, •OF MONSTERS AND MEN, •SHARON VAN ETTEN, •TAME IMPALA, •THE WALKMEN, •TRAMPLED BY TURTLES, •WASHED OUT, •WOLFGANG GARTNER, •YACHT, BECK, Beer Lands, Big Boi, BIG GIGANTIC, BIRDYH, BLOC PARTY, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, CAVEMAN, Comedy, CORY CHISEL AND THE WANDERING SONS, Dabs Myla, Dave Groh, DIE ANTWOORD, DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND, DISPATCH, DR. DOG, ELECTRIC GUEST, End, Explosions In The Sky, FATHER JOHN MISTY, FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS, Foo Fighters, Foto Fridays, FRANZ FERDINAND, FUTUREBIRDS, GEOGRAPHER, Golden Gate, Golden Gate park, GRANDADDY, Haight Ashbury, Hip-Hop, Indio, INFANTREE, Instagram, Intel Outside, iPhone, iPhone 4S, iPhone4s, iPhoneagraphy, iPhoneography, JACK WHITE, Jukebox the Ghost, JUSTICE, Key Yemaya Walker, Lands End Stage, Last Time, Live Music, Los Angeles, Love, Marraige, Metallica, MICHAEL KIWANUKA, MSTRKRFT, Muni, music, Music Festival, MW, Myla, Myla Watson, NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE, Norah Jones, Norcal, Northern California, ONE MusicFest, ONEY ISLAND SWAMP BAND, Outside Lambs, Panhandle Stage, PAPA, Park, PASSION PIT, Photography, Portugal. The Man, Proposal, REBELUTION, REGGIE WATTS, REGINA SPEKTOR, Richmond, Ricky Watts, rock, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Francisco Outside Lands, San Francisco Outside Lands 2012, Santigold, SEAN HAYES, Shutte, SIGUR ROS, Skrillex, Socal, Southern California, Stevie Wonder, Straits, Sutro Stage, TANLINES, Tennis, THE BE GOOD TANYAS, THE KILLS, THE M MACHINE, THEE OH SEES, TOM MORELLO: THE NIGHTWATCHMAN, Train, Truth, Twin Peaks Stage, TWO GALLANTS, UN Square, WALLPAPER., Wedding, WHITE DENIM, Wine Lands, YELLOW OSTRICH, ZOLA JESUS

San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival is one that combines music, food and arts into a weekend playing out at Golden Gate Park.

Based on last year’s lineup, it was virtually a no brainer. This year’s lineup, though, included headliners who were more established and had decades of success. Stevie Wonder rounded out a group including Metallica, and Neil Young. The major highlight was Foo Fighters Friday performance on the Land’s End stage, where they performed Aurora, from the 1999 album There Is Nothing To Lose. Dave Grohl stated that they performed it especially for Outside Lands, and it was speculated that they added it to their setlist due to the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. Again, Foo Fighters were the shining star of the weekend, spending time listening to my favorite band for the first time, with a fave.

Using Coachella as a measuring stick, the pros were definitely the cooler weather, though by Sunday night the fog easily made one glad that the event was ending. The app was definitely better, and the spacing of the stages was tremendously better than Coachella, where I remember rocking to The Black Keys on the Coachella Stage, and during breaks in play, I heard Explosions In The Sky (who I got to see at OLF) playing on the Outdoor Theatre which was steps away. Only two stages (Twin Peaks Stage and the Panhandle Stage) closely bordered each other at OLF. However, the sets that neatly fit between the hours of 12 noon until 10 left you wanting for more, and the commute back and forth was taxing, as opposed to walking back to your tent and crashing.

Coachella’s car camping, and sets that ran well into the wee hours of the night, morning…take your pick, were a definite added bonus. Also, the diversity of Coachella’s acts compared to Outside Lands 2012 were a bonus that ranked Coachella higher. Other than a sprinkling of Atlanta’s (yeah) Big Boi (likely making up his set from 2011) and a lack luster Santigold set (she killed her set at Coachella in the heat with her energy, but she has me NOT anticipating her Atlanta debut next month), most other acts were similar in genre and nothing really separated the acts.

Listening to people I ran into after the festival, who had been to Coachella, Outside Lands, Bonaroo, and some others, they were not as high on this year’s OLF, due to the lineup, length of show, and the crowds (that they said were the biggest they had seen) though reports said after a certain point fans rushed the entrances and jumped the gates (which would explain why people were running/pushing there way through the crowds.

I cannot rate the festival, simply because on this level, I have been to two, and with the exception of the Foo Fighters, I had seen Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, and Metallica in their own shows prior to this festival.

I am glad that I was able to enjoy the festival. Would I go again, and go without knowing the lineup, yeah, I’d do it, hopefully it will mirror 2011 more than 2012. Just change some of the particulars to better fit the fun.

Outside Lands Music Festival

The walk to Golden Gate Park through Haight Ashbury.