Close to 50,000 people packed San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Saturday to rock out to a lineup of some of the loudest and most popular bands in music
The concert, promoted by Another Planet Entertainment, featured System of a Down, Deftones, and others.
Another Planet Entertainment just hosted the Outside Lands Music Festival in the same park the weekend prior. Organizers say that all 50,000 tickets for this weekend's heavy metal show sold out within minutes of going on sale.
Deftones, which hails from Sacramento, and System of a Down, both have been loved by fans for decades and many fans said they were excited to see the bands they'd grown up listening to.
"It's once in a lifetime, they haven’t toured in so long," said Amanda Metzger, who traveled in from Fort Lauderdale to attend this show.
Organizers say 90% of attendees are from outside of San Francisco. Many attendees who spoke with NBC Bay Area said they traveled in from out of state just to see the performances.
“Since we’ve been almost teenagers, it's been that long since we’ve been following these bands, so for us it’s a chance to get out of town, have some fun, and enjoy San Francisco and what it has to offer," said Ryan Haynes, who traveled in from Kansas City, Missouri.
San Francisco is expecting an economic boost from this show and the chance to change visitors' perceptions of the city.
This particular concert is the inaugural show for the Golden Gate Park Concert Series. It is part of the city's larger effort to make San Francisco a music destination. In July, the city hosted a free concert at the Embarcadero, and in June, Another Planet Entertainment put on a show at Civic Center featuring Fred Again and Skrillex.
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San Francisco resident Kevin Leffew, who attended the concert Saturday, thinks the city's strategy is working.
“I think music is kind of a big part of the cultural ecosystem in San Francisco, and the more the city can invest in music as a cultural driver, I think the more success we’ll see as a city," Leffew said.
As for neighbors in the outer Richmond neighborhood near this concert, they said that parking was in short supply on Saturday.
Neighbor C.J. Bauman thinks having the concert nearby is "cool" but he noted, "I don’t like how much traffic there is as far as parking, I just had to park all the way up the street."
Bauman said the noise from the concert doesn't bother him, and several other neighbors said the same thing to NBC Bay Area.
