Major festivals are a dream come true to most music fans: a weekend
away from home with huge lineups across multiple stages, thousands of
other fans, and, often times, really good art. They can also be a
nightmare: brutal traffic, gut-wrenching decisions between favorite
acts playing simultaneously on different stages, and the bathroom
lines. Dear god, the bathroom lines. Then there’s the Treasure Island
Music Festival. It may not quite draw quite the crowd of Outside Lands
or host big names like Pearl Jam or the Black Eyed Peas, but this could
easily be one of the most unique major music festivals in the
country.
Treasure Island starts next weekend, and it expects to hit full
stride in its third year. Stacey Horne, Noise Pop’s events director,
believes they’ve developed a great partnership with co-production
company Another Planet Entertainment. Running a festival is a daunting
task for anyone, especially with two companies, but after working out
the kinks of the past two years, both companies have learned to combine
the production expertise of Another Planet with the aesthetic and vibe
of Noise Pop to create something truly unique.
Credits: Hali McGrath
Horne calls it a “boutique festival,” one that aims to create the
experience of a major festival with a big-name lineup, but with a much
more intimate feel. And nestled in the middle of the bay and hosting a
number of Bay Area vendors and artists on-site, it also has a very
local feel. And if you can’t tell the difference between the 12,000
people they expect to attend compared to the 40,000 to 60,000 that
Outside Lands attracts standing in front of the stage, you’ll
definitely feel it in line for the bathroom.
The smaller scale also eliminates one of the worst parts about any
major music festival: having to choose between your favorite artists
playing at the same time. Treasure Island’s two stages are scheduled so
that when a band finishes on one stage, the next band starts on the
other, so the music never stops and you never have to worry about
missing a great performance.
This is particularly exciting considering that this may be the
strongest lineup Treasure Island has ever seen. Not only does it boast
big names like MGMT, Girl Talk, the Flaming Lips, and the Decemberists,
there are also some stellar openers.
Take Dan Deacon for example. Deacon, who plays on Saturday, has
developed a reputation both for his wacky, cartoonish, extremely fun
hyper-pop music and for his wild stage antics and crowd participation
at his shows. During his tour in support of his new album,
Bromst, earlier this year, Deacon would walk through the crowd
and pick one audience member to kneel in the middle of the floor while
everyone else was instructed to form a circle around him. Once the
music started, the guy in the middle would start an interpretive dance
that everyone around him was supposed to copy until all would break
loose into a happy, sweaty lump of dancing bodies at the song’s climax.
Nearly every song had its own game, almost all of which are hilarious
to watch and participate in.
But if quirky, dancey stuff isn’t your style, the festival neatly
breaks up its lineup so that the electronic and hip-hop acts play the
first day, while the second day hosts the folk and indie rock bands.
The Flaming Lips, who are known for their extravagant stage setups
involving confetti cannons, psychedelic dancers, and singer Wayne Coyne
rolling on top of the crowd inside a giant inflatable ball, are enough
to look forward to on the second day, but the Decemberists, Beirut, and
Grizzly Bear, all of whom have put out critically acclaimed material in
the last year, should be just as exciting. The second day also boasts
some solid openers including Spiral Stairs, the side project of
Pavement’s co-founder, Scott Kannberg.
And if you feel like taking a break from the stage, the festival
also hosts a number of local artists and vendors, midway and carnival
games, and a sixty-foot Ferris wheel; a nod to the island’s 1933 World
Fair history. Some of the highlights include a thirty-foot mural wall
to be painted at the festival by Bay Area graffiti artists, a drawing
lab, and the Universal Record Database. The URB is an organization that
aims to set and record any quantifiable record you can think of,
including “the longest break-dance wave chain,” “most number of people
singing ‘Don’t Stop Believing,'” and “fastest time eating a banana
while standing on the Great Wall of China and wearing a purple
T-shirt.”
While it would seem that music festivals would suffer in this
economy, Noise Pop and Another Planet seem to be coping just fine.
General admission ticket prices are $65 for one-day passes and $115 for
both days, and VIP packages have been brought down from a minimum
purchase of four passes to a minimum of two. Even in a slow economy,
Horne says they plan to sell out, so get your tickets soon.
