Festies

Ep. 56 Outside Lands 2026 Prep

Sunny Balopole, Vanessa Gutierrez, Clark Lawson

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Vanessa and Sunny are joined by Clark this episode, gearing up for Outside Lands 2026: Reddit finds, the fog you need to dress for, and a few side quests in Golden Gate Park worth ditching a set for. Plus our battle-tested tips for surviving crowds, staying warm, and dodging the mistakes every first-timer makes.

Head to Spinning Platters for their top 10 of the bottom half of the Outside Lands 2026 poster.

Check out the Festies Tool Kit for festival packing lists, planning resources, helpful guides, and products we actually use to make festival weekends smoother and more fun: Free Festival Planning Toolkit 

And for more Festies content, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @festiespodcast

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Cold Open And We Are Back

Vanessa

Hey, Sunny.

Sunny

Yeah, Vanessa.

Vanessa

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Sunny

Hmm. I guess you'd call them festies.

Clark

Sunny

Hey, hey, welcome back to Festies. I'm Sunny.

Vanessa

And I'm Vanessa.

Sunny

On the mic with us today is our engineer Clark.

Clark

Hey.

Sunny

Hi. I just want to apologize for the gap. It's been a little more than two weeks since our last episode. Um, some family stuff came up on our end, some work stuff.

Vanessa

But we're back, baby.

Sunny

And we've got a good one for ya. Outside lands is coming up fast. Let's get into it.

Vanessa

Oh my god, I'm I I already have FOMO

Outside Lands 2026 Basics

Sunny

Outside lands 2026 is August 7th through the 9th at Golden Gate Park. Headliners this year are Charlie XCX, the Strokes, Rufus du Sol. Also playing are the XX, Turnstile, Clipse, Death Cab for Cutie, Baby Keem, Wet Leg, Glorilla, Empire of the Sun. Just to name a few. Outside Lands has seven stages, plus the food, wine, and art that San Francisco is known for. And it's also famous for its foggy microclimate.

Vanessa

Foggy microclimate. That's what Ed says all the time. Like that the Bay Area has a bunch of microclimates.

Clark

Yeah.

Sunny

And even in within San Francisco, too.

Vanessa

Yeah, it's crazy. This year I won't be at Outside Lands, so I'm gonna send these two out on some side quests, and I'll walk you through exactly what those are in a bit. But Clark's got the latest on what's new with cocktail magic. You're gonna make sure you go to that again, Clarky.

Clark

Yeah.

Vanessa

And then um some interesting finds that he dug up on Reddit. And Sunny's gonna be giving us three tips for surviving Outside Land's weekend.

Sunny

Yay! Who wants to go first?

Clark

Let me uh let me go first if that's cool with you.

Sunny

Men first. Stupid.

Vanessa

As always.

Microclimate Planning With Mr. Chilly

Clark

Uh um I because you said microclimate, it reminded me, uh, my aunt reminded me of this app when I was in the city for Porch Fest called Mr. Chilly. And it's an app that someone made that breaks down the neighborhoods of San Francisco and all it's giving you is the real-time temperature in each of those areas, like mission versus sunset versus Richmond.

Vanessa

That's insane.

Clark

And you slide your finger across the screen, it goes like you know, whatever time it is to 10 hours Can it also predict what the temperature is gonna be in those areas, or it's just at the current time? It's forecasting.

Sunny

Okay, okay.

Clark

But it's a lot sharper, I've found, because it's not doing the world like all the other weather apps are doing. The world just like it's just super specific. Right. And it's it's expanded so it is a little bit more of the Bay Area now.

Vanessa

What's it called?

Clark

Mr. Chilly.

Vanessa

I'm gonna get it even though I don't live there anymore.

Clark

Yeah, you can just check it out and be like, yo, you guys should go check out mission today. It looks like it's great.

Vanessa

Yeah, when you're missing home. Yeah. What's the weather like over there?

Clark

Yeah, it's right.

Vanessa

No. Yeah. Carl's out thick.

Leaked Merch Highlights Worth Hunting

Clark

Um, I actually sent y'all a uh a link to uh have you ever said this website? I don't think I've ever said this website out loud. Is it just Imger or Imgur?

Vanessa

What are you talking about?

Clark

It's on our group chat.

Vanessa

Oh, let me look.

Clark

Yeah.

Vanessa

I've never even seen this before.

Clark

It's a website that you know people can host photos or images and stuff. So like people will put their photo portfolios or like you know, a paparazzi will be like, oh, I s I found these photos, stuff like that. But a person on Reddit was asking on the Outside Lands subreddit if anyone had like cracked into a leak for the merch for this year, because someone did that last year where they like plugged in the year into the URL for Outside Lands website, and they were able to like find the new merch before it was you know, like kind of like like the web the web page existed, but it's not like public yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sunny

Got it.

Clark

Okay, so someone did that this year, and I saw it too. So this is just a bunch of screenshots someone took of some of the like 2026 merch.

Sunny

Oh. Did you get that, Vanessa? Yeah, I was following.

Clark

Check out the blankets, like probably one of my favorite blanket designs I've seen in a long, long time. I like that. It's like a trippy painted ladies blanket.

Vanessa

Look at this hoodie. Wait, I want that crew neck. I want that gray crew neck with the bridge.

Clark

Yes, I I was looking at that one too, Von. I was like, this is sick.

Vanessa

Ooh, the painted ladies blanket.

Clark

Yeah, right. I was like, yo, is this Bonnaroo merch? It looks so trippy.

Vanessa

Very uh I'm gonna send you guys money so you can get me this crew crew neck. No, we'll just get it for you.

Clark

Yeah.

Vanessa

No, no, no.

Clark

We're just gonna send it, yeah.

Sunny

Oh my god, I love that one. Oh, there's multiple blankets.

Clark

Oh, there's two different ones, yeah. And it's just like quick screenshots, so it's kind of choppy.

Sunny

I feel bad that we're not going into detail really about what we're seeing on this webpage, but I'm sure the actual merch link will come out.

Clark

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll they'll I'm sure they'll have the actual release. Yeah, they they already patched it. That's why it has to be this.

Vanessa

They're waiting. What I love this boombox bear blanket.

Clark

Oh, yeah, the other blanket's so cool.

Vanessa

Oh my god.

Clark

With like the with the poppies and stuff.

Sunny

Poppies. Yeah.

Clark

Yeah, it's dope.

Sunny

I think I like the bear one.

Clark

I like the bear one. Y'all, y'all can both be wrong. That's okay.

Sunny

The other one's cool too, but I really like the bear one.

Clark

Yeah, yeah.

Sunny

The merch this year is awesome. I haven't liked the merch this much in a while. I might have to actually buy some. I can't even remember. I can't even remember the last time I bought something.

Clark

I'm sure Outside Lands wasn't pissed that it happened because universally all of the comments are all like, take my wallet. Everyone's like, yo, we're about to spend so much money on the phone.

Vanessa

I'm not even going and I want you guys to get me stuff.

Clark

Yeah. Yeah, people are stoked on it. So it they they did a really good job.

Vanessa

Wait, which are you talking about? The bridge event hoodie. Yeah, that's a good one too. I'm just not a huge hoodie fan.

Sunny

Oh, actually, I do remember the last time I bought something, it was a beanie out of necessity.

Clark

Oh, yeah.

Sunny

It's always out of necessity. A beanie because I was freezing, a blanket, because we were freezing. But this year, maybe I'll treat myself and get something actually.

Vanessa

I know. I don't have an outside lands blanket, one of these blankets yet. You don't? No. What? I know I want that bear. I want that bear one.

Clark

Yeah, the bear worm's so good. Because our California bear looks silly sometimes. Like the actual design, like the the bear is kind of goofy looking. And I feel like we goofy. The aesthetics of this blanket are dope.

Sunny

Cool find.

Clark

Yeah. So so I was when I was trolling around on the Reddit, I went, Oh, pfft, gotta talk about that. That's that's awesome.

Reddit Finds And A First Timer Join

Clark

The other thing I found on Reddit, someone linked this article they write every year and their uh blog and uh website that's called uh Spinning Platters.

Sunny

Uh-huh.

Clark

Like Spinning Records. And they do interviews and stuff. They have a podcast as well. It's called Um How Did I Get Here? Spinning Platters presents How Did I Get Here. And each episode is like whoever they're interviewing. It's like their name and how did they get here.

Sunny

Right.

Clark

So super cool in that aspect. I went, Oh, I'm just gonna follow these peeps. But they posted this article they do every year on the Outside Lands poster where they take the bottom half of the poster and they do their top ten. So like everybody else is big enough, you know, you're gonna find more stuff out about them. Let me do this bottom half and kind of do some research into them and I'll give people my top ten.

Vanessa

Nice. I like that.

Clark

Which was mm-hmm, yeah, it was it was fun, and it got me like excited to do our research because I recognize some names they said, and it's just a little blurb about them, each of the top ten, and then like a YouTube video of a performance of theirs.

Sunny

Can we link it in the show notes?

Clark

Oh yeah, totally. That'd be that'd be awesome. So Yeah, they seem to be putting it out there for the Reddit community, so yeah, that'll be awesome. Yeah, shut up.

Sunny

Yeah, I'm scrolling through their website, and all of this looks right up our alley and right up our listeners.

Clark

And they've been doing that website since 2009. They've been doing spinning platters. Wow, wow, wow. That's awesome. Um, yeah. So those are the things I found on Reddit that's getting me excited to be back in Golden Gate Park.

Sunny

Excited.

Clark

Especially one of our good friends is coming with us for the first time for outside lands.

unknown

Who?

Clark

Uh James.

Sunny

Drumroll. Oh.

Clark

Sorry.

Sunny

I didn't hear it. Oh, she didn't hear Drumroll.

Clark

James.

Sunny

She still didn't hear you.

Clark

James.

Sunny

Oh, James? Oh yeah.

Clark

Sorry, I thought I thought there was probably a delay or something.

Sunny

This lucky duck found a free ticket for Friday and a free ticket for Saturday. Oh, that's awesome. Good for him. I know, right?

Clark

Yep. Someone is like only able to go to Saturday, Sunday, and then someone else didn't want to go to Saturday, so he's gonna be like swapping wristbands and stuff.

Vanessa

Yeah, that sounds stressful.

Sunny

Yeah, no, it's not, it's gonna be fine.

Clark

It'll be good. It'll be good.

Vanessa

Yeah, it'll be it'll be so much fun. He's gonna have so much fun. Yes.

Sunny

Especially because he lives, what, two blocks from the entrance? Shut up. Oh not exaggerating.

Vanessa

Okay, so it'll be not stressful at all. They can just meet him at his house.

Sunny

Yeah. Yeah, straight up. Sweet. Well, are those the is that is that those are those things you found?

Clark

Those are the those are things I got from Reddit.

Cocktail Magic Goes Experimental

Clark

And then I am stoked this year for uh cocktail magic. I'm always excited for the craft cocktails at Outside Lands. But this year they're doing a new, I think it's a whole other bar that's just called Tasting Menu. And the one that they're teasing here is this trend that took storm in the cocktail food social media sphere, and it's putting parmesan with an espresso martini. And it was like this whole thing.

Sunny

Why?

Clark

Cause supposedly the flavor is incredible, like it's actually really great pairing and it all makes sense. Yeah. So they're doing a version of that where it comes it's like a espresso martini, but with like a uh parmesan foam on it.

Sunny

A parmesan cold foam?

Clark

No, like foam, like uh think more like sea foam, you know. Not it's not like it's not like uh cream based, more like airy.

Sunny

I'm not coming for the music. I'm coming for the parmesan foam.

Clark

Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely interested to see what else they have going on with that. It kind of remind reminds me of like when they had the the culinary stage was was really robust some years back. And they had celebrity chefs and they were doing like demos and stuff, which they do some parts of that still.

Sunny

But for those who don't know, Clark is a bartender slash craft cocktail connoisseur. Creator, is that the right word? True, creator, I don't know. Creator curator.

Clark

Some type of aider. Some one of those aiders.

Sunny

All right, well we'll see. Uh uh we'll see how that goes.

Clark

Yeah. Catch me at cocktail magic.

Sunny

Oh is that it for Clarky segment?

Clark

Yeah. This is stuff I had.

Sunny

Vanessa, you want to give us our side quest? Yes.

Vanessa

Okay.

Sunny

Should I take notes?

Vanessa

No, you don't have to take notes.

Sunny

Okay.

Vanessa

Okay. Okay. So

Side Quests Weddings And Festival Swag

Vanessa

I think I don't know if they did this last year. I don't think they did. I think they had City Hall last year where people could go get married. Right?

Clark

Yep, yep.

Vanessa

But something that I noticed that they had as an option for one of these ceremony packages was a lands and ceremony package, which is priced at $15,749. And basically, you can get married on stage. Let me just let me just read the description here. Okay. Take center stage and say I do, and one of the most unforgettable wedding experiences imaginable. The Land's End ceremony package invites you to exchange vows on the iconic main stage of Outside Lands, standing before a crowd of up to 50,000 festivalgoers in the heart of Golden Gate Park. So, um, wait, as the music pauses and all eyes turn to you, celebrate your love in a once-in-a-lifetime moment surrounded by the energy, joy, and magic of the festival. What that's crazy. So I need you guys to see one of those ceremonies while you're there.

Sunny

So I need you guys to get married while you're there.

Vanessa

Um they're actually all sold out, so good luck. But um, you get like a professional photographer. Let's see. Your ceremony will be for professionally captured by a festival photographer creating timeless images for an extraordinary day. That is crazy. So you'll have like a wedding officiate, a photographer, first dance at Land's End stage soundboard. Oh, cute, like that little section behind it. Yeah, I think so.

Clark

That's sick.

Vanessa

And then two-hour reception at the Land's End Soundboard immediately following the ceremony for up to 20 guests. A just married golf cart ride, boutonier bouquet, or flower crown from Flowerlands, wedding announcement on the main stage screens, wedding cupcakes, 20, champagne toasts, four bottles, commemorative certificates, small size festival locker, two outside lands drink vouchers, city hall concierge, paperwork processing support, and uh option to purchase festival tickets for a day of city hall reservation.

Sunny

Everyone gets one cup of course.

Vanessa

That is crazy. Yeah, I need you guys to see one of these weddings.

Sunny

Wow. Yeah, what do you guys think? Is that worth the cost? I feel like it is, which based off how much weddings are.

Vanessa

Especially in California. Yeah. Yeah. That's like I mean, what a venue costs typically. I feel like that's less than what a venue costs in California.

Sunny

I feel like you would know more than us if you've done the research more recently.

Vanessa

I think one venue was like 25,000 just for the venue. I was like, oh god.

Sunny

Well we're eloping.

Vanessa

Yeah.

Sunny

Ooh.

Vanessa

No, I that wasn't serious, but probably I'm like, it's gonna be on Zoom. Yeah, it'll be on Zoom. Everyone can log in.

Sunny

All the festies. We'll make definitely make sure to check one of those out.

Vanessa

Yeah, please do.

Sunny

What's next?

Vanessa

Okay, the other thing I saw, we know that beatbox is always there. They always have an activation, but apparently they have like all this gear that you can customize: bandanas, fanny packs, hats, bucket hats. You guys need to go customize one of these things.

unknown

Cool.

Vanessa

Come back and share with the class in a little show and tell.

Clark

Cool, yeah, we'll check it out.

Vanessa

Okay.

Clark

That sounds like um what uh Toyota was doing that year at Bonneroo. Oh, yeah, right.

Sunny

When we went to little pictures, oh yeah, you customized. How long did you boys wait in line for that bucket hat at Bonaroo?

Vanessa

Too long.

Sunny

Too long.

Clark

I mean, yeah, too, too long. But it there's no way it was more than two hours.

Vanessa

What?

Clark

30?

Vanessa

No, I was gonna say an hour.

Clark

It was like it was like 30, 40 minutes, I think. It wasn't that long.

Sunny

Too long. You guys looked cute in your bucket hats, though.

Clark

It's yeah, those were those were cute bucket hats. That bucket hat was too small though. It definitely gave me a headache that day that I wore it all day.

Sunny

Worth it. So we have to go to a wedding ceremony. Yeah, what watch one of the the main ones, the $15,000 ones, the land's end. Got it. And then beatbox customize something.

Clark

Yeah, at the uh beatbox activation.

Sunny

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vanessa

I think we can handle it.

Clark

Yeah, I don't remember seeing beatbox there last year.

Vanessa

I were there. They're at like every festival. If they weren't at Outsidlands, I saw them at. I definitely always see them at Bonroo. Clark got really drunk off of one at Punch. Oh my god, yeah. Dude, okay. Speaking of getting really drunk off of things, Cutwater is also having like gonna have their own cocktail bar for the first time. And those are dangerous. Those cutwaters, they get you fucked up. Yeah, that oh the margaritas. They have like a million different flavors, right? Right. And they're just like a regular size can. Yeah, and they're but they're high.

Clark

So good. Well, it could have been worse. You could have been like, you the side quest, Sunny, is to get high from grass. I literally almost said that. I almost thought that.

Vanessa

I was like, ooh, I should tell her to go. She has to go drink a cannabis drink. But I was like, no, that would literally ruin her outside land.

Clark

That would that would absolutely destroy her.

Sunny

And then what's this last thing that you put?

Vanessa

Oh, the trailhead thing?

Sunny

Yeah.

Vanessa

Uh, I don't know, I was just throwing in random things. But Athletic Brewing has a trailhead bar that's gonna be giving away free samples of their non-alcoholic brew. And there's also gonna be one of those like spinny wheels where you can spin to win prizes and stuff. Um and you can also write a postcard to your future self or a friend back home. So send me a postcard.

Clark

Cute.

Sunny

We could do that. I think we have everything. Okay, is it time for my tips?

Clark

Yeah. Sunny's festival tips. That's a good one.

Sunny

First

Survival Tips For Fog Crowds Bathrooms

Sunny

tip skip the hoodie and wear a jacket you can tie around your waist. You'll be putting it on and taking it off all day as the weather changes. That's my first tip.

Vanessa

Why no no hoodie?

Sunny

For me, it's just annoying to have to take off my backpack and then pull it over my head and while I'm in like tight in the crowd. For convenience. I'd rather just yeah, for convenience.

Clark

And if you get a jacket that's a little bigger, like it's a outer layer where it would go over a sweatshirt. Yeah. If you just need to get it on, you can put it over your camel back. I'll do that towards the end of the night sometimes. I just put it on over my backpack. I don't even worry about taking it off. It's like, yeah. That better like Igor. Yes, master.

Vanessa

Rain jacket would be good too because like again, sometimes the fog just makes it so like misty. It might not rain, but it's so foggy that you get like wet almost. Right. Yeah. So a rain jacket would be good.

Clark

Rain jacket or like windbreakery kind of jacket is good.

Sunny

Yeah, and those are nice because you don't get super hot in them while you're walking/slash running around the festival, too.

Clark

Yeah, you don't, yeah, you don't get as messed up.

Sunny

That's a good one. Yeah. So think about the rain jacket option too.

Clark

Mm-hmm.

Sunny

Something you can tie around your waist.

Clark

Yes.

Sunny

Next tip. Outside lands is one of the few festivals that lets you bring in food. Even if you're planning to buy meals inside, I recommend that you keep a snack or a granola bar on you for when you're stuck in a crowd or need something to tie you over.

Clark

For sure.

Sunny

There's usually a time throughout the day where those lines get long and you take one look at them, you're like, nope. I can stick it out. So uh yes, highly recommend bringing some kind of little snack no matter what.

Clark

Yep. Uncrustables.

Sunny

Our go to.

Clark

Always granoles and granola bars.

Sunny

Alright, tip number three. Okay. This outside lands is the quickest an outside lands has sold out in a really long time. So I would expect a bigger crowd than usual, especially on Saturday. Um, I would budget extra time for lines at the gate. And if you're trying to catch a specific artist, plan ahead, check which stage they're on.

Clark

And knowing what entrance is closest to that stage and you want to be on the rail, knowing that is really helpful.

Sunny

You rail riders out there. You're oh, to be young again.

Clark

Oh bad. I know it's yeah, when we were young, it was for Paul McCartney. Like it's so funny. Stevie Wonder.

Vanessa

I thought that's the only person I remember being for a row for was Stevie Wonder.

Sunny

Yeah, that's the only time we've done that. Like, really at the rail.

Clark

Yeah. Yeah.

Sunny

Paul McCartney, we're pretty close, but not at the rail.

Clark

Yeah, we were we were very close.

Vanessa

Can I add one more tip?

Clark

Oh, yeah, of course, Vonny.

Vanessa

Okay, I feel like I say this all the time, and I've never actually had to use my butt wipes or my my tissues, but it's because it only ever happens at outside lands, and it's so true. You will run out of toilet paper. Those porta bodies will run out of toilet papers. I don't think they're the best at restocking, to be honest, because I feel like that's the only festival where I run into this issue all the time. I agree. Um interesting extra tissue paper or butt wipes with you because they will run out. Yep.

Sunny

That or the very first time I go to the bathroom, I usually like pull out a bunch of toilet paper and stick it in my bag.

Vanessa

And that's why there isn't any toilet paper in the porta potties when you need it. Yep, because everyone's doing that.

Sunny

Everyone's doing that. Good point. Never mind.

Vanessa

No, um do it, do what you need to do, but I'm just saying this is where you will need those butt wipes. Yeah, they are bad at restocking. Yeah, I've I haven't had any like I never had to use them at any other festival, and I haven't been to outside lands in a few years. So, but like I always bring them with me, and I never had to use them, and I was like, you know why? It's because it always used to happen to me at Outside Lands. So I'm scarred.

Clark

Yeah.

Vanessa

But yeah, scarred. Bring some hand sanitizer too.

Clark

Yep, hand sanitizer. Mm-hmm.

Sunny

Alrighty. Is that it?

Clark

Yeah, I think so.

Sunny

I know we could keep going with tips. Oh, actually, I did write down some other information. Just

Sold Out Reality Transit And Final Reminders

Sunny

a few things. Um not to bring the mood down, but uh outside land is officially is officially sold out. But you've got some options. You can join the wait list don't do it. You can join the wait list on their site. Uh if you've got the monies, you can grab single-day VIP tickets through Soma Social Club. Or you can check Ticketmaster's official exchange for resale. But before you buy anywhere secondhand, check out episode 10 of Festies, which is called Scam or No Scamming for How to Spot Scams. But the only legit ticket exchange is through Ticketmaster. They do have a shuttle pass, which gets you round trip service from Billgram Auditorium straight to Outside Land's south entrance. Three-day passes run about 85 bucks, single days about 38. And heads up, plan to take public transportation to Billgram since parking there is tight. They are not offering that shuttle that we took last year. Oh no, the Cal Palace. Yeah. Womp womp. I loved that.

Clark

Yeah, that was great.

Sunny

Oh well.

Vanessa

Also, Ubers are terrible. I would not recommend Ubers. Right. Like it seems like it'd be easy to get one because it's San Francisco, but it's literally a nightmare. Yeah. Take public transportation like a couple miles away and then maybe get off there and then order it from outside of the festival.

Clark

But if you can walk a bit more, try and get yourself away from Golden Gate Park by a bit, and then call whatever ride share because it's it's just so bogged down by all the other people trying to get rideshare.

Sunny

Yeah. For more tips, you can check out episode 26, which is our Outside Lands survival guide.

Clark

Oh yeah.

Sunny

Pretty sure all that information is is still uh revelent. Revelent. Irrevalent. Relevant. This is what I meant to say. All right. That's it for us today. Go download the official Outside Lands app and we'll see you in the park. Don't forget to check out the digital toolkit that's linked in our show notes. There's a full day festival packing checklist in there so you're not scrambling the morning of.

Vanessa

And if you have friends headed to Outside Lands, make sure to send this episode their way. And if you have a second, please like, subscribe, follow, and rate the show. It really helps us out. For more festies content, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Festies Podcast. Until next time. Bye. Bye.

Clark

Bye.