Treasure Island Music Festival makes its 10th birthday a good (and wet) one.
Treasure Island Music Festival’s 10th Year Anniversary faced a change in festival location, high winds, stormy weather, artists' flights getting delayed, artists cancelling sets and the festival getting pushed back both nights. California fans who are normally used to temperate weather for festivals slogged it out in ponchos and rain boots. Due to condo developments about to be built on the Island, it was also the last year for what has now become an essential festival location for San Francisco.
Even with all of the hiccups, fans danced like damp blobs to some of the best musical artists currently touring. Check out the highlights below.
(All photos by Stefan Aronsen)
Purity Ring
The light setup for Purity Ring’s set turned TIMF into a twinkling fairy tale. The Canadian duo played their signature gothic dreaminess coupled with ethereal synth and catapulted the audience into an otherworld of light and darkness.
Christine and the Queens
Christine is a tiny French discotech gender fluid goddess. Her devotion to ‘80s synth angularity and dance moves as good as Michael Jackson were mesmerizing. She took the stage during a rare moment of sunshine on Sunday and got the whole crowd moving hard.
SOFI TUKKER
Brooklyn duo SOFI TUKKER played early in the day on Saturday and were one of the more anticipated early sets of the weekend. Sophie Hawley-Weld wielded a charango — an Andean string instrument — while Tucker Halpern played percussion on a strange circular structure. Their choreographed dancing was a mixture of adorkable and extreme fun.
Silent Disco
Put on by HUSHconcerts, this year’s Silent Disco stretched out onto the pier and gave a terrific view of the Bay and sailboats racing. DJs who spun included Matt Hubert (pictured), Body Party and NVO.
Ferris Wheel
The massive Ferris wheel that sat out on the pier is a recurring fixture for TIMF. Tickets seemed cheap at $5 (compared to the price of the food, at least), and provided sweeping, beautiful views. Riding the ferris wheel also felt like a high-wire activity considering it was intermittently shut down throughout the weekend due to high winds.
Hinds
Barcelona garage pop band Hinds ran onto the stage in great spirits. At one point lead singer Carlotta Cosias joked that even though it was the first show of their tour, their sneakers were already covered in mud from Saturday’s set. Two girls in ponchos even attempted to start a mosh pit before they slipped one too many times.
Kamaiyah
Kamaiyah absolutely saved Saturday by playing two sets to make up for Young Thug’s flight delay. What a Queen. The 24-year-old Oakland rapper released her debut mixtape, A Good Night in the Ghetto, this year and was also featured with Drake on the YG single “Why You Always Hatin?” We loved seeing her inclusion at the festival.
Day Wave
One of the few local acts of the festival, Day Wave hails from Oakland and plays sweet mid-tempo indie rock about the aches and pains of growing up. The band apologized for any weather related sound mishaps, but it sounded perfect from where we were standing.
Car Seat Headrest
Car Seat Headrest’s onstage performance is less bedroom pop than their studio album suggests. Along with intelligent, insightful lyrics, the driving guitars sound like ‘90s alternative circa Third Eye Blind when they were still good.
Sigur Rós
Sigus Rós, predictably, was an explosive Icelandic wall of sound that felt more like a sonic wave crashing over an audience than individual melodies. There’s something strange and beautiful about an overwhelmingly atmospheric band, who partially sing in a gibberish language, headlining a major music festival.
