San Francisco Persists: Lana Del Rey (And, Yes, Elon Musk) Show The Way
Despite The City’s Well-Publicized Woes, The City By The Bay Remains A Hub Of Creativity For The Entertainment Industry
“If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” That iconic line from Scott McKenzie’s classic 1967 “Summer of Love” song welcomed a new era of collective consciousness at a pivotal time of national upheaval – a time that, in many ways, we face today. The song’s “call to (dis)arms” was directly relevant as I ventured North from SoCal to attend this past weekend’s Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park, my first since Covid (but 10th overall). My goal was to experience great music of course (Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters and Zedd all co-headlined), but also to “experience” the city’s overall vibe first-hand.
First, the context. For quite some time, San Francisco has been conservative media’s Exhibit A to demonstrate the purported decline of major American cities. If nothing else, serial indictee The Donald’s “if you repeat things enough, people will believe it” strategy has proven to work – and sadly still does. Media’s Fox-y stark and dark narrative, if it continues to take hold, could have profound implications for the city’s decades-long reputation as being one of the world’s leading hubs of creativity and innovation. After all, the Bay Area is home to “new entertainment’s” biggest heavy-hitters, including Apple, Google and the company formerly known as Twitter (and now simply “X”).
Her'e’s the good news. Despite ample criticism that can be heaped onto Elon Musk (the subject of two of my recent columns in TheWrap, in fact), I applaud him for one thing – he remains committed to keeping his company (X) in the heart of San Francisco. In a recent “X” (is that what we now call Tweets?), Musk wrote that “It is important for more people to come to work in San Francisco or the rest of the city can’t survive.” That’s a critical stake in the ground for other tech giants to follow. And so far, it seems like others in the tech world are heeding his call. San Francisco is now home to 20 of Forbes’ 50 most promising artificial intelligence companies.
Obviously, economic survival comes first in the hierarchy of needs before creativity and innovation can thrive, and daunting obstacles remain. Perhaps most significantly, median rents for one-bedroom apartments now sit at around $3,000, double the national average. And there is no doubt that the economic pain is highly visible on the streets of San Francisco. I witnessed it first-hand throughout the weekend.
But inside Golden Gate Park, and for those who could afford it (festivals never run cheap), Outside Lands remains an oasis of creativity and escape in its 15th year. Consider this the Summer of Love, 2023 edition, with Lana Del Rey channeling the 1960’s and Megan Thee Stallion channeling empowerment and positivity. Like other major music festivals – including neighboring BottleRock in Napa that I covered just a few months back – they offer real world solace and critical counter-programming from our daily digitally-bombarded and frequently heads-down lives. Festivals celebrate more than just music - they celebrate the diversity of life and lifestyles. They offer both artists and audiences a much-needed opportunity to physically connect on a grand scale with humanity’s grand palette. And what better place to do that than in San Francisco?
Unlike SoCal’s Coachella, and despite the promise held in McKenzie’s classic 1967 song, few flowers in the hair are visible amongst festival-goers at Outside Lands. This is an older, earthier crowd. But it is certainly an experiential one. A new open air dance venue called Dolores celebrated the queer and trans communities, enthralling the cross-spectrum crowd. Dolores joined Grass Lands, the first curated cannabis experience at a major U.S. music festival, to highlight how festivals can provide safe havens for all to express themselves without judgment or fear - necessary ingredients to fuel both creativity and community (not to mention a healthy society itself).
Real world human interaction – even amongst the glorious trees of Golden Gate Park – doesn’t mean that technology can’t be used to expand the festival’s overall impact. We’ve seen evermore massive high-resolution screens for years (and they are featured here), but this year increasingly frenetic lights in the form of lasers stole the show at Zedd’s Friday night DJ set amidst the evening’s mist that immersed the crowd. Nature and tech worked together to elevate the experience. (For those of you who wish to experience truly game-changing high resolution screens, that logarithmic leap takes place later this year when MSG’s Sphere finally opens its doors in Las Vegas with U2 as your hosts. I’ve followed that project for years, and covered it here in an earlier column.)
So what’s the verdict on San Francisco itself? Clearly, much pain is visible, which means that hidden pain runs deep (as it does throughout the world, period). But Outside Lands represents an important “constant” amidst the chaos and serves as an important showcase for creativity in Northern California. It also serves as a clarion call to innovators to cast aside the acrimony of alarmists and to “think different” about San Francisco, inspired by the ground-breaking marketing campaign of Bay Area’s most legendary creative force, Steve Jobs. Jobs, of course, created Disney’s Pixar, among his myriad NorCal accomplishments.
So while I disagree with Musk version 2.0 on virtually everything, I agree that the tech community – which built up its trillion dollar plus valuations based on the consolidation of talent in and around San Francisco - should not abandon it now. Talent and a shared commitment to community and diversity - built around creativity and innovation - are necessary to give San Francisco the base it needs to thrive once again for the benefit of all people, not just the captains of the universe who built their fortunes there and then escaped to tax havens like Florida (or neighboring Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side) to horde their personal wealth.