Fest 411: Another Planet Hitting Another Level

To say that Another Planet Ent., the independent promoter based out of San Francisco, has a lot going on, would be an understatement. It just co-promoted another outstanding Outside Lands Aug. 9-11, its marquee festival in Golden Gate Park drawing some 200,000 with top tier acts like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, Shaboozey, Grace Jones, The Killers, Jungle, Slowdive, Crystal Waters, Killer Mike, Victoria Monét and more. The following weekend, APE debuted its first Golden Gate Concert series, which used Outside Lands’ infrastructure to host a hard rock fest headlined by System of Down and Deftones selling 50,000 tickets. In early June, the promoter held a pop-up concert at Civic Center Plaza with Skrillex and Fred again.. selling 25K tickets, which was followed by the June launch of a free concert series, which includes an upcoming Portugal. The Man concert.

APE is also upping its venue holdings with new buildings in Sacramento, Los Angeles and its hometown while booking current venues including San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and The Independent, Oakland’s Fox Theater, Berkeley’s Greek Theatre and Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena in Stateline, Nevada. It all begs the question: Is Another Planet hitting another level?

“It certainly feels that way, we’re busier and we have more properties between venues and festivals,” says Allen Scott, President of Concerts and Festivals at Another Planet. “We’re doing better than we’ve ever done. But everything we’re doing is organic growth, we’re not trying to take over the world. We’re trying to make California a better place and add to the cultural landscape.”

The evolution of this growth Scott traces back to the pandemic. “During COVID we didn’t lay anybody off, we didn’t cut salaries, we kept going,” he says. “Part of our ethos was we wanted to come out of COVID stronger than we went in. Right now, you’re seeing a lot of these things come to fruition. That means the Bellwether in Los Angeles, which opened last July (with Michael Swier of Teragram Presents); the concert series we’re doing in San Francisco: Channel 24 the 2,150-cap venue we’re building in Sacramento that will open in March; restoring the Castro Theatre, which opens next summer. This additional concert weekend in Golden Gate Park.”

Part of APE’s expansion in its hometown is buoyed by city support, which these days is encouraging live events. “The Mayor (London Breed) has really been pushing these events and underwritten a lot of free events,” Allen says. “We’re underwriting three free events we’re doing ourselves. The city is more amenable to these types of events outdoors, which used to get a lot of resistance, not only from the city but from residents. Because of this narrative, the city is being much more amenable to the process and we’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to celebrate San Francisco. When Fred again.. came to us with this idea of doing a pop-up concert somewhere in the city and we suggested Civic Centre Plaza with City Hall as the backdrop, it became a cultural moment in the city people will be talking about for years.”

APE’s ethos is all about San Francisco, which is becoming a case study on how a music promoter can help reinvigorate a city and bring positive economic, social, political and cultural change. These events have let people outside the city in on the wonders of San Francisco that so much media and haters are misinformed on.

 “As a company, we’re doubling down on San Francisco,” says Allen. “We’re doing free concerts and pop-up concerts to show this is a world-class city. We have problems in San Francisco like a lot of major cities around the country have problems. We’re doing these free concerts—in Union Square, Civic Center Plaza and Embarcadero. We just did our first, which was Dirty Bird DJs, a local collective, with Empire Records. We had 12,000 people for a four-hour show. We’re about to announce Portugal. The Man doing a free show in Civic Centre Plaza Sept. 20. We’re bringing people down into some of these under-utilized spaces.”

None of this happens without Outside Lands, APE’s anchor fest, which just held its 16th edition and is a top-tier festival due to a composite of factors, including its unique locale in the gorgeous Golden Gate Park, top-notch bookings, creative out-of-the-box initiatives, seamless operations and quality fan experience. This year’s Outside Lands, the country’s largest independently-owned festival, included an upgraded SOMA stage, which was transformed from a tent into an open-air stage for banging beats. The fest also added a makeshift City Hall for onsite weddings marking the 20th anniversary since San Francisco began allowing same-sex marriage.

Part of the fest’s success seems baked into its DNA. The city’s cultural spillover with its Burning Man ethos of wondrous rave culture is readily apparent along with its radical counter-cultural (i.e. hippie) history keeping freak flags flying high. Also at the fest’s core is the legacy of Bill Graham, the legendary promoter who formed the foundation of the modern concert business and whose descendants at Another Planet, which includes Gregg Perloff and Sherry Wasserman, co-helm this festival.

Plus, there’s the fabulous Dolores Stage for LGBTQ+ vamping and artistry (curated with local promoters FAKE & GAY, OASIS, and Hard French); the Casa Bacardi activation which featured Latin artists; as well as the delectable local cuisine curated by Tanya Kollar, your favorite pino-cab blend at Winelands, or maybe an indica-sativa blend at Grasslands. 

“This year’s festival was a great success,” says Scott. “At one point six of the top 10 songs in the world were by Outside Lands artists: Post Malone, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter (two songs) and Shaboozy,” says Scott. We expanded the type of artists we can book at Outside Lands. We’ve always had an open playbook in terms of what we book— rock, electronic, heritage artists, Latin, roots, pop music, hip-hop, jazz.  It’s a diverse audience that comes to Outside Lands and it’s reflective of the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ve never really had a big pop artist headline. the closest we’ve come would be Lizzo, but this was different.”

Chappell Roan, this summer’s (red wine) supernova who every festival she’s played, including Gov Ball and Lolla, has suddenly turned into a daytime headliner, was no different at Outside Lands. Performing on Sunday at 4 p.m., Scott estimates some 60K saw her. Adding to the anticipation were swirling rumors that Kamala Harris, the U.S. Presidential candidate, who was in town that day, was going to make a cameo during Roan’s set.

“Yes, we were in contact with (Harris’) headquarters, but it was not to be,” Scott says. “She’s very in demand right now, as you can imagine. It could have lined up really well, but she was being pulled in a lot of directions.”

Helping Another Planet co-promote Outside Lands is Superfly, co-founder of Bonnaroo, along with Coran Capshaw’s Starr Hill Presents and whose Red Light Management is one of the industry’s top management firms.

When asked who owns what percentage of the fest, Allen only says, “We’re the managing partner, and it’s been a really great partnership with those two. Both Gregg (Perloff) and I go way back with Coran, I’ve known him since I was in college, so 30-some years ago. Both Superfly and Starr Hill are great assets and we all work closely together on the festival.”

Scott also says the decision-making when iterating on the festival is very organic. “The process is we ask ourselves, ‘What can we add to the festival? What can we do new and exciting?’ Sometimes it means having to get rid of some element that’s been really popular over the years. Like when we had to get rid of the Barberry comedy tent or the Gastro Magic culinary stage. We just want to continue to evolve and do things that are interesting, current and topical.”  Scott says past initiatives also included a Boba Tea area and Chocolands, featuring the city’s famed chocolate.

There’s a distinct mission that fuels much of the promoter’s decision-making with the festival: “It all goes back to celebrating San Francisco and the Bay Area. We just want to continue to evolve and do things that are interesting, current and topical.” Scott says. “We already have people asking about getting married there next year.”