Not into Outside Lands crowds or prices? Try Antilands instead

Not all of us have a million dollars to drop just so we can vibe Sierra Grondim

“I’ve been to Outside Lands before, but I’m not in a place right now where I want to be spending $400 on sets where, half of the time, I’m searching for my friends,” Antilands attendee Daphne Gray said.

First-time attendee Sierra Grondim also stated free admission was one of the event’s main draws.

“Not all of us have a million dollars to drop just so we can vibe with our community,” Grondim said.

Keeping a free festival going

DJ Megan Anderson, who handles communications for Antilands, said keeping the event free places the emphasis on music and community. It also means the organizers cover the costs themselves. Anderson said the group spent concerning $1,400 this year on a venue permit, power generator, and a security guard.

“Our goal is to keep things feeling small and intimate while still being cool,” Anderson said. “It’s too expensive to have it not be small, and we don’t want to charge for it because it’s our passion project.”

Megan Daniher, one of the group’s few members who isn’t a DJ, estimated that she’s spent $500-$700 on decorations over the past four years, excluding lighting equipment. Daniher wrapped tree trunks in reflective sheeting and HVAC tubing, hung paper jellyfish lanterns from branches, and propped up homemade spray-painted signs throughout the grove.

“We don’t want it to feel like a polished, professionally produced event,” Daniher said. “It’d be disingenuous to try and do that because part of the vibe is that we’re scrappy.”

Low stakes, high vibes

Though Antilands does not pay any of them, nine local DJs played at this year’s event. Many performers, including Anderson and Lawler, belong to the core friend group funding the event. Organizers also stated keeping the event unpaid creates a low-pressure environment where newer DJs can learn and experienced DJs can experiment.

For veteran DJ Taylor Thibodeaux. This person performs as Mama Rainbow, that means having creative freedom that most paid gigs don’t offer.

“There’s a lot less stress when a whole bunch of money isn’t on the line,” said Thibodeaux, who performed in the afternoon. “As a DJ, you might get asked to work a wedding or a birthday party, and they ask you to play a highly specific thing. It’s rare when you get to play music that you’re into.”

‘It’s just fun for us to play in that space and poke at the giant’

Moving forward, organizers hope Antilands keeps its “renegade” and underdog spirit.

“It feels very Oakland to have an anti-San Francisco something or another, but we’re not trying to antagonize them,” Lawler said. “Outside Lands is so huge that they’re never gonna notice us. So it’s just fun for us to play in that space and poke at the giant that’s never gonna see us.”

But if “the giant” across the Bay ever does turn its head, Anderson stated she welcomes the attention.

“If we ever got a cease-and-desist from them, that would be amazing,” Anderson said, laughing. “That would mean we did a really good job.”