Outside Lands is the annual three-day music festival that’s been rocking San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park — and annoying neighbors of the Richmond and Sunset districts — since 2008. And it seems that 2026 was its biggest yet, with a sold-out weekend that boasted
75,000 visitors per day, over 100 food vendors keeping those crowds fed, and big music acts, including headliners Charli XCX, The Strokes, and Rüfüs Du Soul.
The details
From Friday, August 7, through Sunday, August 9, nearly a third of Golden Gate Park was devoted to the Outside Lands festival, with several music stages and food booths built for the event. Tickets ranged from $250 for a single-day pass up to $510 for a three-day pass (and more, depending on when you buy your tickets), and even higher for those who shell out for VIP tickets. This doesn’t even begin to cover any food or merch purchased during your time at the festival. Still, for those invested in seeing plenty of musical acts and local restaurants in one place, Outside Lands delivers — though you’ll likely have to make some tough decisions on what food you’ll spend your money on, and what acts you’ll want to see (Saturday night’s music fans, in particular, had to make the crushing choice between The Strokes, The XX, and Pinkpanthress for their final act of the day).
The vibe
Depending on who you spend time with, the vibe can swing wildly between chill and not-so-chill. Set against the backdrop of the aforementioned 74,999 other people vying for space and waiting in lines, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. While there were little conveniences that made the day easier (drinking water stations, sunscreen and hand sanitizer stations, places to charge phones), there were also plenty of things to complain about, including the wait time to get into the SoMa stage and porta-potty sinks running out of water at inconvenient times (Ew.). (SFGATE caught most of the highlights and lowlights, for those craving more detail.) The weather barely broke out into sunshine, but most veterans of the festival were already used to it, and for those who weren’t — there’s always the insanely expensive merch booth to cover yourself in a sweater that will last much longer than that Instagram story you posted.
Best dishes for Outside Lands 2026
Eater SF covered the most exciting dishes they were looking forward to ahead of the weekend. And while editor Dianne de Guzman and freelance photographer Patricia Chang mostly stuck to the plan, there were some regulars they couldn’t help but return to. Here are the dishes the duo loved throughout the weekend.
Repeatable bites
La Gringa from Reem’s
La Gringa, the Arab-style lamb quesabirria flatbread wrap with consomé ($25) from Reem’s, was a hit with the Eater SF team. Patricia called the wraps “comfortingly warm handheld pockets of flavor.” The bright, pickled onions and greens held up nicely against the rich shredded lamb and cheese. The flatbread was nice and lightly seared on the outside, and the wrap was easy to bite into after a dip in the consomé, which was also easy to drink separately as a broth. While we didn’t get to sample the festival-only fried eggplant and potato vegan wrap option made in collaboration with Lion Dance Cafe, I did hear a couple of raves for that particular item. Although Reem’s in the Mission is closed through September due to damage sustained to the building in a hit-and-run incident (the team is raising money via GoFundMe to help with cash needs as they navigate what insurance covers), the new Oakland location in Jack London Square sells La Gringa year-round.
Uni burger and dac biet burger from Smish Smash
Smish Smash was one of the most popular food stops at Outside Lands, commanding some of the lengthier lines on the Polo Fields. The dac biet burger ($26) is a favorite special of mine from Smish Smash, and I was curious to see: 1. How it holds up at a festival versus being made at the restaurant, and 2. If it’s just as good as I remember, since I believe the last time I had it was at Smish Smash’s opening at Saluhall in January 2025. Thankfully, the burger still holds up even in the harried environment of a festival, and while I’ve mostly been sharing bites with anyone and everyone I could — it helps with sampling more food! — I wolfed this whole thing down before the morning Death Cab for Cutie set on Sunday. The sprouts and jalapeño really cut through the meatiness of the crisp smash burger patty and cheese, and the pho aioli really pulled it together with just a touch of lime. Patricia, meanwhile, tried the limited-edition uni burger ($60), made with 6 ounces of American wagyu, Santa Barbara uni, plus yuzu kosho ponzu aioli. After trying it, she ultimately had mixed feelings about the uni burger: “I love uni, I love burgers, so I thought I would doubly love an uni burger. While delicious, the result didn’t live up to those heights. The saltiness of the burger might’ve distracted from the delicate uni, and it felt like I was trying to concentrate to fully appreciate the luxe-ness of this combo.” Both burgers float onto the Smish Smash menu from time to time, so it’s possible to snag them throughout the year, if you pay close attention to their Instagram, @smishsmash__.
Roasted Hainan chicken rice from Dabao Singapore
The roasted five-spice boneless chicken with fragrant rice ($25) from Dabao Singapore was a hit for Patricia on Sunday. The dish comes with cucumber and a duo of ginger-scallion sauce and calamansi chile sauce. She writes, “This was one of the best dishes I had at the festival. I’m still thinking about it. All the flavors tag-teamed each other in such a delightful way. The rice was so fragrant! I could have it on its own and be satisfied. The chicken skin was so crispy and savory over the juicy meat; with the two sauces to alternate dipping it was a little flavor party I didn’t want to end.” At Dabao Singapore, the restaurant serves both this roasted chicken version and a poached version.
Festival-only bites
Pizza bagels from Wise Sons x Outta Sight Pizza
We managed to track down the pizza bagel ($16) and cacio e pepe fries ($13) from the Wise Sons and Outta Sight Pizza collab, and it was a pretty perfect bite for the festival surroundings (Read: handheld, portable, and quickly consumed). The bagel was dusted in cheese, and the fresh basil gave it extra oomph that the original latchkey kid snack could never. I’m also biased in that I prefer a sesame bagel. It’s the perfect vessel for this. Sorry not sorry, everything bagel lovers. Meanwhile, the crinkle-cut fries were another solid choice as a cacio e pepe vessel, showered in pecorino and black pepper, but the dipping sauce it came with made the whole thing perfection. (My notes fail me here, so I can’t quite recall what the dip was other than I wished there were more of it.) Unfortunately, this is a festival-only collab, but if you would like me to pass along any compliments-slash-pleas to make this a regular menu item at either restaurant, I’d be happy to make that happen.
Hush puppy corn dog from Sandy’s Muffulettas
Sandy’s Muffulettas has been a regular festival stop for me for the last three years, thanks in part to its festival-ready muffuletta and the brown butter chocolate chip cookie. This year, after a disappointing chirashi sushi bowl from [redacted], I sought out a redemption bite, and discovered Sandy’s hush puppy corn dog with red remoulade sauce ($16), which saved my Saturday night dinner. It featured a really tasty, savory beef hot dog, but it was the batter that stole the show: the fried exterior was studded with pieces of corn and jalapeño. What stings is the fact that this is a festival-only bite that isn’t available in the shop, but I suppose that gives me another reason to stop by Sandy’s booth again next year, in case they bring it back.
Chashao roast pork steam bao from Piglet & Co.
Piglet & Co. featured two bao on the menu, one with chashao-marinated pork and another with chilled sesame tofu ($20 for two). I sampled the marinated pork version during a food tour, and wow. The pork doesn’t overpower the bao at all; in fact, it was kept in balance by the namasu cabbage slaw and the soft, pillowy bao. I was having slight regrets over not trying the mala honey chicken wings, which I heard were the other hit off the Piglet & Co. menu. But it seems those wings make an appearance on the happy hour menu at the Mission District restaurant, so I have a Piglet & Co. trip in my future.
The drinks
While the festival was festival’ing with some of the drink prices — I was a bit flummoxed to find that a White Claw ($18.50) was basically the same price as a Hennessy V.S. Strawberry Lemonade ($19) — I have to say the cocktails and beer were very good this year. The aforementioned strawberry lemonade carried me through the outer wilds of the festival (i.e. the Twin Peaks stage area), and somehow the drink covered up any hint of Hennessy (dangerous, I know). I also got to sample some of the cocktails over in Cocktail Land, and while I personally didn’t go for the carbonara espresso martini served with Parmesan foam ($20), I fell for the citrusy Mex-Hamachi cocktail ($20). It was made with tequila, ginger syrup, soy-olive oil drops, and yuzu, and it was a refreshing cocktail to have while walking around. And while I didn’t have much time to dip into Beerlands, I wound up sampling some beer from local brewer favorite Dave McLean during a media happy hour on Saturday. He poured a highly crushable pint of beer, if I may say so, and given that he was in charge of finding all the brewers for that part of the festival, I can pretty confidently say that the beer selections were (probably) on point. It was enough to whet my appetite for more brews from McLean, who’s opening his new gastropub in San Rafael this fall.
The verdict
At this point, I’m perhaps biased in saying that I’m 70 percent here for the food, and 30 percent for the music — don’t @ me — but Outside Lands has gotten the best of both worlds consistently over the years, especially thanks to food curator Tanya Kollar. She’s one of the reasons why Outside Lands has been called out for having the best food lineup in the festival circuit, and it’s why I keep coming back. Music-wise, I always love to learn about new-to-me bands to add to my playlist rotation, and it keeps me young at heart — even when my joints say otherwise afterward.
