Outside Lands 2026: Shadowing Sound with WAM and Pink Pantheress at Sutro
Photography by Jeremiah Efird
Alive Co/Outside Lands
This past weekend, I had the privilege of shadowing the audio engineers at Outside Lands with Women's Audio Mission, in collaboration with Ultra Sound Audio with my fellow cohort member Cassidy. I was able to learn about the many components of live sound that go into a large-scale production like Outside Lands.
It was also great stopping by the Meyer Sound booth backstage and seeing their new Tigra line array up close, and giving an interview about our experience working Outside Lands and interning with WAM. We were so happy for the goodies they gifted us for stopping by!
Unbeknownst to me, it seemed like everyone who worked on sound there was familiar with the WAM program. I planned to have more spare time to explore all that the festival had to offer, but anytime someone found out we were with WAM, they’d get real excited, and pull us into a territory we hadn't planned on seeing. It was like being a fresh brisket in the lion's den, but in the best way.
Our shift was due to end loosely around 4:00 PM, though the engineers were kind enough to let us stay and watch the headliners from the Lands End sound tent. The credentials for working that day came with perks too: full VIP access to all three main stages. I decided to stay long enough to see the first 20 minutes of Ethel Cain's set, both from the monitoring engineer's perspective backstage and from front of house. From there, I knew I had to make my way over to Sutro stage to get a good spot for Pink Pantheress's performance that evening, since she'd be the final act of the night there.
I speed-walked through a flock of local hippies dressed like they'd come straight from whatever gnome-y universe they'd spawned from, aka San Francisco's Haight demographic, and obvious out-of-towners who'd underestimated the Bay's notorious fog, Karl. By 5:45 PM, as I made my descent down the hill into a grassy bowl where Sutro stage was built on, I walked into the middle of Snow Strippers' set and made it just in time to catch some of my favorites, like "Just Your Doll" and "Under Your Spell."
I took a moment to thank the powers that be that I wasn't in the general admission pit, a clearly overcapacitated area full of mostly teenagers, some jumping up and down to the beat while others held their arms tightly to their chests trying to lose control of the little amount of space they had. Seriously though, I don't understand how companies are able to oversell tickets to such a dangerous level. I can't imagine paying the hundreds of dollars that standard festival tickets cost just to be packed in like sardines and unable to leave that spot for the rest of the day.
With 30–45 minute transitions between sets, It's Murph came on next and primed the audience with an energetic mix of house music before Pink Pantheress was due onstage at 8:45 PM.
Finally, 8:45 came, and Pink Pantheress took the stage with her crew: dancers Ava McAuley, Nerita McFarlane, Ed Munro, and Ben Hukin, known together as The Pinkettes, along with DJ Joe on transitions and mixes. Her most recent hit, "Stateside," was the perfect opener, and the crowd wasted no time shouting along to the lyrics. She started with the instrumentals from the original version of the song before working in elements of the remix with Zara Larsson. Every time she came back to the chorus, her soft London accent would sing, "You can be my American…" as the audience would yell back, "HA HA BOYYY." Her absorption of the Bay Area's energy was undeniable, reflected in her constant exclamations between lyrics, a real-time demonstration of getting back what you put out, tenfold.
There were a few complaints about the acoustic sound quality at Sutro that day, but nobody had anything negative to say about the performance itself. Her naturally bright vocals and infectious energy in response to the crowd were strong enough to not make it a big enough deal. It was a strange thing to sit with, though, after spending the afternoon talking to the sound engineers about exactly this kind of problem.
The introductory song had come to an end, cueing the night to begin. "Oh, you guys are a dream, thank you so much, wow, what a beautiful crowd we have," she said in appreciation.
The set continued with songs like "Capable of Love," with its lead guitar line pulling inspiration from some of her influences, such as Paramore. The majority of her musical foundation draws inspiration from artist Imogen Heap, though it's easy to hear the UK garage and house influence running underneath everything as well. Still, none of that fully accounts for the unique sound she's become known for, one that has helped shape the sonic imprint of this generation. Her music has gone viral on TikTok for years, since her musical inception up until the present day, but she was already a talented producer before any of the virality.
There used to be a time in pop stardom when artist development unfolded slowly and privately before major debuts. Like those that came before her, Pink Pantheress also had to pay her dues to improve as a performer, but unlike them, her journey was almost entirely public. She became affectionately recognized for singing on stage while clutching her shoulder bag, and in a recent interview with Slayyyter, she mentioned that she'd realized her fans were paying for the experience of seeing her live, and that meant she had to deliver more than just the songs.
Though she now knows exactly when to cue the pop star persona for the stage, she also takes multiple moments to speak directly to the audience as herself, even comparing San Francisco's weather to the UK's at one point, and playfully yelling out, " San Francisco! San Francisco! And it’s Outside Lands!"
Halfway through the set came a DJ intermission. DJ Joe, perched at the top of a deck on the left side of the stage, mixed a higher-tempo, upbeat version of Kelis' "Milkshake" as he overlooked the stage and commanded the audience to dance from his tower.
The intermission continued with DJ Joe joining Pink Pantheress at the center of the stage to perform her remix of Troye Sivan's "Rush" live for the first time.
After a wholesome dance break with DJ Joe, the whole stage went dark, and all that was visible was the silhouette of her and the Pinkettes in a deep red light. Then, suddenly, the lights began to flicker to the intro of "Girl Like Me," and she and her dancers moved into a synchronized, multi-brachial formation. The choreography was noticeably different from the version she performed on her An Evening With Pink Pantheress tour, and arguably became the preferred version after its refinement.
The energy didn't let up as the setlist moved on to "Stars" and "Tonight," before the mood shifted with a much slower rendition of "Passion." This transposition made the lyrics cut slightly deeper, and you could really feel the sorrow in her words this time. The song came to an abrupt end after singing the line, "I called my dad, he told me there's no room for me down at the–".
I wondered what prompted this sulky, dramatic end to “Passion”, possibly communicating that the end of the life that she had known with her family had felt just as abrupt and jarring for her.
This theme seems to come up a lot in her music–the contrast of her high-pitched, autotuned vocals to a moody, even painful story being told in the lyrics. This quality in Pink Pantheress’ music is one of the many that makes her one of the most original artists of her generation.
Nearing the end of the show, she performed "Romeo" as a camera panned across faces in the audience in search of her Romeo. As I watched the sea of smiling fans on the large screens on the sides of the stage, a blinding light and a camerawoman suddenly appeared in front of me. Too caught up in the music, I didn't realize this was the main camera for the show until afterward, when some mutuals who'd also been there told me they'd seen me "on the big screen." Maybe it was for the best that I didn’t realize what was happening in the moment.
Dancers Ben Hukin and Ed Munro came to the front of the stage at the end of the song and pulled out a ring for Pink before she says, "Wait, you're not my Romeo, you're a liar," and cut straight into "Boy's a Liar Pt. 2", now a staple in her discography.
The final song of the night closed with another one of her recent hits off the album Fancy That, "Illegal," starting with the original version before capping it off with the Nia Archives remix. In the choreography leading into it, each of the Pinkettes passed a cellphone to one another before it finally landed in Pink's hands.
"Hello, uh, no, I can't talk right now babe, I'm performing on stage, dah, I'm in San Franciscoooo, I told you!! No, I told you I was in San Francisco! OK, whatever, babes,"
Then she goes straight into the song.
"My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you–HEY, you're recommended to me by some people."
At the end of the song, she made one final remark to the audience before her exit: "Outside Lands, ughhh," she said as the audience cheered. "Thank you so much for having me, thank you so much, I love everybody in the crowd, thank you, it feels illegal!"
As soon as Pink Pantheress had left the stage, I booked it up the hill to beat the crowd of thousands of festivalgoers heading toward the same shuttle stop as me. As I walked further from Sutro, the outro of the Nia Archives remix of "Illegal" grew fainter, and I found myself backstage at Lands End looking for an exit. I managed to catch the last bit of The Strokes' headlining set at that moment, where I heard Julian Casablancas tell the crowd, "They keep booking me at the same time as Pink Pantheress, what's up with that?"
Earlier this year, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, The Strokes had another scheduling conflict with Pink Pantheress, and Casablancas also expressed then, "I wanted to see Pink Pantheress, playing the same time as us, what the f*** man, they f****d us!"
I honestly can't blame them for their disappointment. To witness Pink Pantheress perform during such a pivotal time in her artistic journey, where she has shown immense growth as a performer, with a string of hit songs, but still incorporating the deeper cuts such as “Take Me Home” that formed the early foundations of her career, is quite fascinating to watch.
Unfortunately, her set was not livestreamed, but you can watch the full show of her most recent tour, An Evening with Pink Pantheress, here: