Last weekend, Outside Lands proved that the third time isn’t always the charm as the fourth installment of the popular Bay Area food, music, wine and art festival drew a capacity crowd to Golden Gate Park. Foodies, music lovers, artists, wine connoisseurs and everyone in between came together under San Francisco’s signature grey skies to take in live tunes, drink and snack on some of the city’s finest fare from local vendors. Gone are the days where festival attendees are forced to choose between soggy corn-dogs and greasy pie — at Outside Lands the event’s promoters, Berkeley’s Another Planet Entertainment, provided a wide variety of interesting tastes and textures with elevated festival fare to keep customer’s taste buds tantalized.

That’s a Lot of Food!

Over half of the 54 Bay Area food retailers made their Outside Lands debut this year, including Straw serving up falafel wrapped in fried cones, and crunchy sweet potato tots with blackberry BBQ sauce. Haight favorite Memphis Minnie’s boasted slow-roasted barbeque, while Homeroom, Farmer Brown’s Little Skillet and Andalu all presented their own high-end versions of the classic mac n’ cheese. Full of Life Flatbread even lugged an authentic wood-burning oven to the festival as to not compromise the perfect char on their flatbread pizza. Now that is dedication to your craft!

On Friday night, a gray blanket of clouds covered Outside Lands, prompting attendees to head toward Ritual Roasters for a steaming cup of joe, and Woodhouse Fish Co. for a piping hot bowl of clam chowder. Over the weekend, the sun shone brightly in the park, prompting festivalgoers to check out Milk Shake Works for a frozen treat. For the health conscious crowd, Full Belly Farms served up fresh produce to snack on.

New for 2011

Food Truck Forest and Choco Lands were two whimsical ways to get your fill of eats, new for 2011. The forest pays homage to the ever-growing popularity of meals on wheels, while Choco Lands offered an assortment of goodies to satisfy any sweet tooth.

San Francisco continues to set food trends with its dedication to fresh and sustainable food, and Outside Lands perfectly reflected the Bay Area’s passion for the finer things in food. This year’s festival certainly lived up to the city’s reputation for turning out some of the best food in the country — and provided fitting mood music to enjoy your meal to. At the rate in which Outside Lands evolves, this is bound to become a must-see event for epicures everywhere.






Additional Information
http://www.sfoutsidelands.com

Photography provided by Will Tee Yang.