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SF neighborhoods hopeful second weekend of Golden Gate Park concerts will have limited noise, trash, traffic
San Francisco is expanding its summer concert offerings in Golden Gate Park, allowing Another Planet to host three concert series, instead of just the one Outside Lands Festival, that has been bringing hundreds of thousands of people through residential neighborhoods for the past 17 years.
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco laid out the welcome mat over the weekend with the Grateful Dead and Company concert series launching the first of three major summer music events.
"I think over the three days we brought nearly 170,000 people into the park," Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, said.
Expanded footprint
What we know:
The city agreed to allow the producer Another Planet to expand its concert offerings beyond the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park, now in its 17th year. This year, Another Planet was allowed to hold music events the weeks before and after Outside Lands with the Dead and Company event August 2-3 and a Zach Bryan concert on August 15.
"We're really grateful to our neighbors in the Sunset and Richmond and appreciative of them for putting up with the inconvenience," Ginsburg said.
Complaints
Over the past 17 years, residents in the Richmond and Sunset districts just north and south of Golden Gate Park have had complaints about noise, traffic, rideshares, trash, parking and blocked driveways.
"I had to get them towed. That was unfortunate, not something I wanted to do, but it was difficult to get our cars out," Arun Seetharam, a resident in the Richmond district, said.
Another Planet established a dedicated hotline for complaints.
The city says this past weekend, there was an average of about 20 calls a day about sound, eight calls a day about parking, and four calls a day about illegal vendors.
Improvements
Residents say this past weekend was much better than in past years.
"I'm okay with it. I haven't had any driveway problems or anything like that. It's been smooth for me," Tris Thomson, a San Francisco resident who lives near the park, said.
"I think Outside Lands will bring the most amount of traffic, but up til now, not too bad to be honest, which is surprising," Danny McElmury, a Sunset District resident, said.
Some residents suggest the city alternate road closures through the summer, to alleviate some of the inconvenience to residents along heavily traveled streets.
"Maybe alternating it so that not one area gets all the traffic or 50,000 people traipsing through their front door at 10 'clock at night," Seetharam said.
Economic impact
The foot traffic is good for business. Seetharam's daughter, a high-school student opened a lemonade stand with her sister.
"It was pretty busy. We set up a lemonade stand originally in the early afternoon and we got a few people, but we decided to come back out with cookies at 10pm when everybody was coming out, and that sold way better. We did $70 an hour," Amiya Seetharam said.
"I hope it will have an economic impact that will get us more money and keep property taxes level and things like that," Thomson said.
Ginsburg says the economic payoff for the city has been great.
"We are projecting as much as $175 million in economic impact to the city," Ginsburg said.
Outside Lands runs from Friday through Sunday, with about 120 musical acts including Tyler the Creator, Doja Cat, and Beck.
Residents just hope people will be respectful as they leave the concerts.
Dead & Company draws 180K fans, wraps historic 3-night run in San Francisco
Dead & Company closed out their three-night concert series in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Sunday night, drawing roughly 180,000 fans in total.