Sunday at Outside Lands this year was all about one act, Chappell Roan, who was moved to a 4 pm slot on the mainstage to accommodate an extra-large crowd. A lot of people seemed to stick around for Post Malone and Kaytranada, too, however. And Crystal Waters slayed on the Dolores' stage.
While it wasn't exactly pandemonium, and the foggy weather kept the afternoon energy from getting too wild, an eager crowd of at least 80,000 if not more was on the Polo Field to see Chappell Roan on the Lands End Stage. The 26-year-old singer has seen a very rapid rise to superstardom, on the back of just one full album, in the last eight months, and thousands of fans donned pink cowboy hats to show their love.
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-chappell-roan-crowd1.jpg)
The performance began with a small golf cart parade captured on video around the perimeter of the Polo Field, including a marching band, SF drag queen Lady Camden dressed as Chappell Roan and the festival mascots, Ranger Dave and Ranger Ruth, dressed in pink as well. This was in celebration of the one-year anniversary of the release of Roan's video for "Hot to Go," and she wore the same drum majorette outfit on stage as well.
When Chappell sang "Hot to Go," and instructed the audience how to do the YMCA-style dance to go with it, she commented from the stage, "It’s so weird that VIP thinks they’re way too cool to do this dance!"
But, from SFist's perspective, most of the VIP section we could see was enthusiastically doing the dance, and she was probably referring to the very front section, the corral reserved for the ultra-VIP Golden Gate Club — who paid thousands of dollars for their extra-close access to the mainstage, but who tended not to be the most enthusiastic audience when they got there. (That corral was also, shamefully!, empty during Grace Jones's fantastic set the previous day.)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-chappell-roan-1.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-chappell-roan-2.jpg)
Chappell Roan has proven herself to be a very talented, very confident performer, with the singing chops to match, and Sunday's performance did not disappoint. While she appeared winded by the end of a couple numbers, she was able to soldier on without much of a pause through her allotted 50 minutes, with justa couple of water breaks. She also threw a new song into the set, titled "Subway," which was as melodic and catchy as all of her hits.
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-chappell-roan-crowd-2.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-chappell-roan-3.jpg)
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Earlier acts in the day included Grammy-winning Cuban musician Cimafunk, singer Ogi, indie rocker Lael Neale, and country singer-songwriter Paul Cauthen — who unwittingly became the opener for Chappell Roan when they rearranged the schedule, and who performed to a sea of a pink cowboy hats.
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/IMG_9360.jpg)
The Dolores’ Stage saw a day of performers curated by Hard French, and dance legend Crystal Waters was the final act to close the stage down. But she brought the house down too, letting a few lucky ravers on the stage with her for a 30-minute set that packed the tent to capacity, and had fans going delirious for her much-remixed 1995 hit “100% Pure Love.”
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-dolores-stage-sun.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/OUTSIDELANDS2024_0811_184631-3893_ALIVECOVERAGE.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-post-malone.jpg)
We weren’t sure what to expect from this “special country set” from the face-tattooed Post Malone. Well, it was basically a bunch of country music covers by Malone, who came out with an Eagles t-shirt and a beard shaggier than ever. He appeared to consume a fair amount of beer during the hour-long performance, with highlights including covers of Tyler Childers’s “Feathered Indians” and Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive.”
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-victoria-monet.jpg)
This year's Grammy winner for Best New Artist, Victoria Monet, wowed the crowd on the Twin Peaks Stage just ahead of Kaytranada's closing set there, which drew a massive crowd.
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/DSC04116.jpg)
Sturgill Simpson has played the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass twice in this same park, but never had an Outside Lands set until Sunday night. And it was more of a Phish-Grateful Dead jam-band set than a country set, a throwback to the old days when the Sunday night Outside Lands main stage finale was more of a Bob Weir-adjacent classic rock show. Simpson’s band looked the part, with mullets, handle-bar mustaches, and flannel shirts, as they played their minds out and sent the crowd home danced-out and happy.
But like we said, the opposite side of the festival grounds was bouncing and dancing to the electronic set by Kaytranada, and the crowd over there appeared significantly larger than the one on the Polo Field.
Below, some more photos from the day.
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-sturgill-simpson.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-sturgill-simpson-crowd.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-kaytranada-crowd.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-kaytranada-crowd-2.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-killer-mike.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-ben-howard.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-seth-troxler.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-tv-girl-crowd.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-tv-girl.jpg)
![](https://img.sfist.com/2024/08/osl-2024-tv-girl-crowd2.jpg)
Joe Kukura also contributed to this report.