.Treasure Island Festival Lineup Announced!

It’s no secret that one of my favorite concert-going experiences is the Treasure Island Music Festival, a two-day soirée with an incredible lineup and a beautifully scenic setting out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. With the organizers planning the gigantic Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park this year, I expected that a second year out the island might be a sinking prospect. I needn’t have worried. This year’s lineup was announced today:
Saturday, September 20:
JUSTICE | TV ON THE RADIO | GOLDFRAPP | HOT CHIP | CSS | ANTIBALAS | AESOP ROCK | AMON TOBIN | FOALS | MIKE RELM | NORTEC: BOSTICH + FUSSIBLE
Sunday, September 21:
THE RACONTEURS | TEGAN & SARA | VAMPIRE WEEKEND | SPIRITUALIZED | OKKERVIL RIVER | TOKYO POLICE CLUB | THE KILLS | DR. DOG | JOHN VANDERSLICE | THE DODOS | FLEET FOXES
It’s $65 per day, $115 for a two-day pass. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 30, but make sure to visit the festival website for mailing list signups and presale passwords.
So what makes the festival so great? I’ll tell you.
More than anything, the setting and they way it’s utilized is a real treat. Usually I’m pretty anti-festival, but they really had the whole thing down on Treasure Island last year. First of all, the transportation system was great: no one’s allowed to park on the island, and festivalgoers were trucked from the Giants’ ballpark over the Bay Bridge to the grounds. Everyone thought this’d be total mayhem, but I never waited for more than 10 minutes in line for the shuttles. It was smooth, fun, and engendered a spirit of community excitement on the way there and back—plus the buses were those swanky “limousine shuttles” that Google uses to transport their employees to and from work. Sweet!
The grounds, limited by the island, weren’t too big, the sound was top-notch, and the added attractions—like an ’80s video arcade and a ferris wheel—were an inspired touch. Good selection of food booths, too, and not too expensive. Hopefully this year they’ll have more port-a-potties, some of which overflowed to disastrous levels last year (prompting some hilariously horrified reactions—hours could be passed just watching people recoil!). But when the sun started to set across the bay, and great band after great band graced the stage, everything seemed right.
Here’s some photos from last year’s festival. All photos by Elizabeth Seward.

The grounds at sunset.

M.I.A., rockin’ the bird bra.

. . .and her backup dancer.

Cut Chemist, behind a plexiglass wind barrier. . .

. . .and DJ Shadow, serving up the Hard Sell.



The Gotan Project, cosmopolitan as ever.

M. Ward, lover of all things compact.

These crazy guys walked around, singing Screamin’ Jay Hawkins songs.


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, straight outta the Empire State.


Built to Spill, who ruled hard as ever (“Stab,” even!).

Johnny Marr, a God.

Modest Mouse, closing things out on Sunday night.

Totally insane!