Students commonly attend Outside Lands (OSL), BottleRock and other music festivals close to the Bay Area. Festivals can be fun and memorable, yet many students acknowledge that there can be inaccessible and potentially unsafe aspects. As these Bay Area festivals grow in popularity, students reflect on the fun, cost, accessibility, fashion and safety of festival culture.
Many students go to festivals to see artists perform live. “The experience of seeing artists you love, finding new artists and experiencing the music right there in a giant crowd is just indescribable,” Julien Fisher ’25 said. “If there’s one thing I look forward to months in advance, it’s probably a music festival, whether it’s Outside Lands or BottleRock.”
There is also a social appeal to music festivals, particularly amongst teenagers. “I feel like there’s a city culture that everybody goes. I go and I want to be there all day so that I can see as many people from the city as possible [and] see kids from other schools,” Olivia Argosino-Comer ’26 said. “It’s essentially being seen [as] a part of the teenage social life in San Francisco.”
While festival culture can promote socializing, it can also be cliquish. “Outside Lands is often quite fun, although without a close group of friends at your side, you can easily become lost and left out of all the fun as it can feel hard to join others’ groups,” Remy Kauffman ’26 said.
The price of music festivals can contribute to exclusive aspects of their social culture. OSL — a three-day music festival held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park — charges $539 for a three-day general admission (GA) ticket and $1,371 for VIP. For Coachella, held in Indio, and BottleRock, held in Napa Valley, ticket prices are similar, costing around $500 for three-day GA and around $1,000 for VIP tickets.
Ticket prices make music festival attendance inaccessible for many high school students. A 2024 SFGate article found that an average day at OSL costs $301.70. This estimate includes a single day ticket, water, food and more, but not pre-festivities expenses, such as getting ready and traveling.
High ticket prices can prompt students to find other ways to attend festivals. Fisher reflected on the extremes some teens go to to bypass security. “I know of kids who sneak in because they can’t pay for their ticket. … They cut wire or jump the fence or just run past security,” he said.
Audrey Thornton ’26 echoes how this inaccessibility is apparent for many. “This will be my third year going [to OSL], and I’ve never bought my ticket,” she said. “I know for a fact that if I [weren’t] in a position where [a friend was paying for me], I wouldn’t be able to go because my family can’t afford … to spend that much money for such a condensed experience.”
Festivals’ high cost can leave students feeling left out. “I think it would have been super difficult if I hadn’t been able to go to Outside Lands, because there’s the aspect of not knowing and just sitting at home … thinking of how my friends are going to get three days of just hanging out,” Thornton said. “The truth is that I think I would get very depressed that weekend. I think it would be really hard to know that everyone is out there having peak fun while I can’t.”
Tickets are not the only expensive aspect of music festivals. Many students feel pressure to dress up, which often comes with a high price tag. “Girls are getting their nails done and doing their hair. It’s like prom. … Girls are getting spray tans, wearing expensive outfits — and all of this costs a lot of money,” Argosino-Comer said. “A ton of people are going to be there, and I feel the need to look my best.”
The pressure to look a certain way may stem from the performative nature of festivals. “Everybody’s putting on a performance for another person. … You’re dressing for other people because that’s the way to fit into the culture,” Fisher said. “That pressure is only amplified by the abundance of [social] media portrayals of outfits everyone’s wearing and brand partnerships, particularly [in] celebrities’ posts.”
But social media often fails to show the risks that are present at festivals, including big crowds full of strangers, which can lead to discomfort and an increased likelihood of assault. “Because we’re young women, when I see a girl alone and clearly very out of it, it’s super scary,” Argosino-Comer said. “When you’re young, in this big festival, … older guys may come up and inappropriately touch you.”
This danger can sometimes escalate. “I know people who have been sexually assaulted at every level at Outside Lands, from an uncomfortable touch to the fullest extent. And all these people have been women,” Argosino-Comer said. “I think that in public areas that are so big, and at an event this big, people cannot be directly held accountable.”
Fisher reflected on how safety may not be as big of a concern for everyone. “Most of the time, I don’t really feel uncomfortable. But I’m also a boy, and I know for girls the safety piece is definitely much different,” he said.
While safety, cliquiness and accessibility are important to consider when attending festivals, many students affirm that the positives still outweigh the negatives. Argosino-Comer said, “The reason I want to go so bad and [have] worked for an entire summer to make enough money to pay for a ticket is because it is some of the most fun I have all year.”