Treasure Island Music Festival Recap

September 23, 12:04 PMSF Art ExaminerMarisa Nakasone

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Concert Poster by none other than Shepard Fairey

So I bit the bullet and bought a two day pass to the Treasure Island Music Festival.  Though the great lineup of music remained the focal point, there were many visual diversions that provided the perfect complement to what can only be described as category-bending, international, indie-pop/folk:

1) Big Nazo: In a sea of American Apparel, plaid shirts, neon wayfarers, and keffiyehs, the rubbery dancing aliens of performance group Big Nazo starkly stood out in the crowd.  Whether dancing in the bleachers or getting into shenanigans with festival-goers, these zany creatures definitely added an other-worldly edge to the insular music festival.

2) The "Treasure Trove": And here I thought the glory of the zine faded with the Clinton administration...not so at all! Zines have been alive and kicking, and for the record, never left the San Francisco scene as the San Francisco Zine Fest hosted a library of diy, self-published and independent zines for those who seek refreshingly unfettered literary/artistic digests that you most definitely will not find on the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble or Borders booksellers. In addition, Triple Base Gallery set up a makeshift gallery/tent featuring work from their Open for Business exhibit/experiment in art and commerce. 

3) A live, collaborative mural painting featuring San Francisco-based artists Andrew Schoultz, Hillary Pecis, and Tara Foley: It was exciting to see the unique visual style of each artist take shape and interact with one another on a ginormous 64 ft. panel.  Working in a visual vocabulary that can be described as the outgrowth of the Mission School urban art movement, the mural was "site-specific" on multiple levels.

All in all, I had a great time enjoying the sights and the sounds--the utopian feel of being on an island with people who love and appreciate art and music (however influenced by the recent explosion of commodified "indie" culture thanks to Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Urban Outfitters, and American Apparel ...but hey, everyone and no one is a hipster, right?) made for a truly relaxing escape from the ordinary.