There will once again be a one-day, multi-act concert the weekend following the Outside Lands festival in 2025, and organizers Another Planet Entertainment said they’ve got country star Zach Bryan and indie rockers Kings of Leon as the headliners.
For last summer’s 16th iteration of the Golden Gate Park music festival Outside Lands, concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment got City Hall's permission to do a second mini-festival the weekend after Outside Lands with a smaller footprint, but using the same stage, concessions, toilet, and VIP infrastructure. And the heavy-metal lineup of System of a Down and Deftones plus three other metal acts clearly struck a chord, as 50,000 tickets sold out within 90 minutes.
So what does Another Planet Entertainment (APE) have in store for this year’s follow-up?
Golden Gate Park Concerts is BACK on Fri, 8/15 🌉
— Another Planet Entertainment (@apeconcerts) December 4, 2024
GRAMMY Award-winning country singer-songwriter, Zach Bryan is heading to the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park w/ special guests @KingsOfLeon + more TBA 🤠 Tickets on sale Fri, 12/6 at noon 🐎
ℹ️: Link in bio for more info! pic.twitter.com/RGfhiLHHSC
SFGate reports that Zach Bryan and Kings of Leon will be headlining this year’s week-after-Outside lands festival, whose technical name is Golden Gate Park Concerts. The show is scheduled for Friday, August 15, from 3-10 pm. The official website says “More TBA,” so presumably, at least two or three more acts will be announced for the undercard.
“We’re beyond thrilled to bring Zach Bryan along with Kings of Leon to Golden Gate Park Concerts for the very first time,” APE president of concerts and festivals Allen Scott said in a statement to the Chronicle. “It’s an incredible lineup in an exceptionally stunning and unique setting. We can’t wait for fans to come in from all over the country to experience this memorable night.”
That may be, but pairing Zach Bryan and Kings of Leon is a pretty curious and asymmetric combination. Last year’s lineup had the connective thread of being all alt-metal acts, offering a certain genre to appeal to a certain demographic. Here we have two completely different genre acts: a pop-chart-topping but otherwise traditional country act in Zach Bryan, and Kings of Leon who are more of a vintage pop group that occasionally dabbles in garage and metal. I’m not sure what demographic wants to pay a premium to see both.
Moreover, tickets go on sale Friday, with two or three acts still completely unannounced. Are people going to shell out $200-$500 for a festival whose lineup is still largely unannounced? Will people pay that kind of money not even knowing if most of the acts will be groups that they personally find to be kind of shitty? Or maybe Zach Bryan is just so hot right now that APE is betting the rest of the lineup doesn't matter.
We’ll have our answer in two days time. Tickets for the 2025 Zach Bryan-Kings of Leon Golden Gate Park Concerts show go on sale Friday, December 6 at 12:00 noon PST. They’re $169 for a general admission ticket and $429 for a VIP ticket, plus, of course, your Ticketmaster service fees.
Top image: Zach Bryan performs during the Quittin Time tour at Nissan Stadium on June 29, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Keith Griner/Getty Images)
