The big Lizzo and Tame Impala party will also accept proof of a negative COVID-19 test, but the test has to be taken on certain, specific days leading up to the Halloween weekend event.
When the Outside Lands festival announced in March that it was moving out to Halloween weekend in 2021, it seemed a reasonable bet that we’d be more or less out of this COVID-19 mess by late October. Boy was that not correct! Now the proposition of Outside Lands is like, “Are we still doing this?”
Apparently they are, for the time being at least. On Tuesday, the festival announced on their Instagram page that Outside Lands will require proof of vaccination, or at least a negative COVID-19 test that has been taken specifically “within 72 hours of attending the festival.”
And what has the response to the announcement been? The response in the Instagram comments has been almost entirely just people looking for tickets.
“Your safety remains our top priority. To attend Outside Lands, a full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result will be required,” the festival said in their Insta post. “Those who are not fully vaccinated must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of attending the festival.”
Whether you’re doing the proof of vaccination thing or the negative test thing (and you should do the vaccination thing), there are specific dates you need to keep in mind. It doesn’t really matter if you’re already fully vaccinated, but if not, you’ll need to get your first shot in mid-September. After all, there are multiple-week intervals between your two shots, and you’re not fully vaccinated until two weeks after your second shot.
Things get highly technical if you’re doing the negative test. “3-Day ticket holders must get tested either Thursday, October 28th or Friday, October 29th for their negative COVID-19 result to be accepted on all three days of the festival,” according to the Outside Lands Healthy & Safety page. “If you are attending only on Friday, October 29th, you must take your test no earlier than Tuesday, October 26th. If you are attending only on Saturday, you must take your test no earlier than Wednesday, October 27th. If you are attending only on Sunday, you must take your test no earlier than Thursday, October 28th.”
Home tests are not going to cut it for entry. “Test results must be from a lab with confirmation of results, including date, time and name matching the ID of the ticket holder,” they say, noting that they will not accept home tests, rapid tests, or antibody or serology tests.
It appears they’re still doing this event at full capacity, which is typically around 75,000 people per day. So yeah, there will be mobs of people near the stage, and many situations where social distancing is simply impossible. But last month’s even larger Lollapalooza in Chicago did not turn into the superspreader event public health officials had feared. So that’s reassuring, but we’d still recommend you wear a mask to go see Vampire Weekend on Halloween weekend.
Related: Outside Lands Single-Day Tickets Sold Out In Under Two Hours [SFist]
Image: SF Outside Lands
