The Best Moments From Outside Lands 2016

For the ninth-straight year, Outside Lands took San Francisco's Golden Gate Park by storm with three days of epic music, food and drink. Though the first two days were chilly, the sun came out on the third day – just in time for the younger crowd to rock their skimpy outfits for Major Lazer and Lana del Rey. LCD Soundsystem played to one of their biggest crowds of their festival run, and indie rock legends Radiohead delivered a hit-filled two-hour set on Saturday. But none topped the memorable performance from soft rock legend Lionel Richie who closed the festival's main stage on Sunday. Here’s a few more of our favorite moments to savor while you count down the remaining 360 days left until next year.

Best Singalong: Third Eye Blind
This SF-native band had one of the thicker crowds Sunday on the main stage, and for good reason. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug and there are few bands that bring the level of sentimentality that Third Eye Blind does. Though they started things off with some of their more recent tunes, they hit their stride midway with throwback classics like “Never Let You Go” and “Jumper,” before closing things out with “Semi-Charmed Life,” the most upbeat song ever written about doing crystal meth. The band certainly gave me a much-needed second wind to make it to the finish line of a long weekend.

Funniest Performer: Ryan Adams
Alt-Americana indie rock legend Ryan Adams must have been really stoned, because all throughout his set he was cracking jokes between songs like he was half-baked. EDM act Major Lazer was finishing up at the main stage several hundred yards behind Adams, who is notoriously anti-electronic music. “Somebody's got their laptop turned up so loud right now,” Adams quipped, before referring to the act as “Major Blazer.” Adams also threw in an improvisational song about someone's balloons in the front of the crowd and cracked jokes about a guy that was lying on one of the hills with his hat covering his face.

Best Party: Big Grams
Big Boi and Phantogram just always seem to be having more fun than anyone else when they've taken the stage together this year on the festival circuit.. Sarah Barthel's raspy vocals provide a nice contrast to Big Boi's smooth rhymes and the heavy beats. One of the best moments was when Phantogram's Josh Carter rapped a handful of bars impressively, and it was almost like we were all taking part in the white boy's ultimate fantasy of rapping to a crowd of tens of thousands, all while a member of one of rap’s most legendary duos looked on proudly.

Best Performance To Watch On Drugs: Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem
Outside Lands had the most creative booking of any festival this year, landing the Muppets house band on their bill. Controlled by puppeteers, Dr. Teeth, Animal. Lips, Floyd Pepper, Janice and Zoot gave their first ever live performance, a 25-minute set full of cover songs including the Beatles' “With a Little Help from My Friends.” If you were on any psychedelics Sunday afternoon (and let’s face it, who wasn’t?), this would have been a massively mind-bending experience. OSL is a family festival and it was nice to see them bring this kind of fun for the whole family, especially if your family loves molly. Check out the entire performance here.