They’re finally making the stage at the cannabis area Grass Lands a music destination, with Dub Mission’s DJ Sep on Saturday, and six-piece tiki band Ape on Sunday.
The Outside Lands cannabis area Grass Lands was indeed the first major U.S. music festival to sell legal cannabis in 2019. But cannabis has always been its main (and really only) draw, the acts on the Grass Lands stage were never really anything you’d hike up there for. In its first iteration in 2019, the Grass Lands Stage hosted mainly talk show-type segments; a hash-making demo, or a contest where people made bongs out of vegetables. They scheduled a couple of standup comics in 2021, perhaps as a replacement for the old Barbary Stage, but these were mostly podcasters with little name recognition.
But Grass Lands will bump to beats like it never has before this year. They’ve scheduled longtime cult-hit favorite Dub Mission’s founder DJ Sep for Saturday, and on Sunday, the “six-piece Exotica-Rock band” APE, who claim they are “the only band in the world that features a live tiki carver as part of the band.”
"I'm really excited to make my debut and present reggae and dancehall music in all its glorious variety on the Grass Lands Stage,” DJ Sep tells SFist.
It’s an all-day set Saturday, or rather a series of 30-minute sets, with DJ Sep spinning at set times 12:40-1:10 p.m. 1:50-2:20 p..m. 3:05-3:35 p.m., 4:50-5:20 p.m. 6:10-6:40 p.m.
According to the tiki band APE, their Sunday set times are 1:30-2 p.m., 2:50-3:20 p.m., 4:10-4:40 p.m., and 5:30-6 p.m.
On Friday night, the Grass Lands stage will host Bay Area DJ Funklor, though set times are not clear.
In terms of the cannabis brands out there selling weed, this year’s Grass Lands lineup seems less local than ever. The only “local” brand listed as a Grass Lands partner is Stiiizy, which has three SF locations, but is otherwise a statewide chain with 12 California locations. You will recognize the name High Times, who are making a somewhat beleaguered transition from magazine to a dispensary chain, and the rolling paper brand Zig-Zag will also apparently have a booth too.
Related: GrassLands at Outside Lands Stays Cleaner, Chiller Than The Rest Of Festival [SFist]
Image: Outside Lands
