SF residents clash over Golden Gate Park music fests
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The three-day long Outside Lands Festival at Golden Gate Park welcomes about 75,000 people daily. Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images
Golden Gate Park wrapped up three weekends of wall-to-wall music this month with Outside Lands, Dead & Company and country singer Zach Bryan taking center stage — and you all had thoughts.
The big picture: The concerts packed the park with thousands of attendees and boosted local businesses, but also sparked a flood of takes from neighbors about noise, traffic and large crowds — reigniting debate between those who want calm and a city seeking revival.
We asked you last week to share your thoughts. Here's what locals had to say:
🎉 Lily T., a four-year Richmond resident, welcomed the festivities: "This year's park festivals weren't any crazier than years before.
- In my opinion anyone complaining is just grumpy. Traffic and noise are part of living in a lively city. The park is for everyone to enjoy!"
🤷♀️ Shamsi M., a fellow Richmond local, agreed, adding that neighbors can't have it both ways: "It's actually fantastic to see the neighborhood come to life and help the local merchants thrive for a bit.
- You want the city to recover and stores to stay open, but you don't want events and other humans in your neighborhood? Beyond selfish."
❌ Jacquie P. offered a starkly different take: "How much does it cost (the city) to manage the crowds coming to these huge tourist events and how much are they charging the profit-making promoters?
- Meanwhile, residents like myself are blocked from walking on JFK south of Crossover Drive for a month and find all the north-south corridors in SF west of Divisadero gridlocked with all the tourists heading to these concerts (especially with the Great Highway closed)."
🅿️ Cole B. said the park is meant to bring people together, though "the city could do more to help enforce illegal parking."
❤️ Neil W. loves that the concerts are helping revive San Francisco: "It's the best 'comeback sauce' the city could ask for... A city's strength is its people and density is a necessary component of that."
🗑️ Amelia G. suggested that event organizers could host neighborhood cleanups to mitigate litter: "There should be some collaboration with the city on this or with Outside Lands — if you do trash pick up the morning before... you get a drink coupon or something."
The bottom line: Concerts come and go, but one thing never changes: San Franciscans will disagree about them.