The live music industry is slowly coming back in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Symphony is resuming in-person concerts at Davies Symphony Hall this week, and last week Outside Lands sold out its single-day tickets within two hours of making them available for purchase. Even though some people are reporting anxiety about returning to pre-pandemic activities, others clearly can’t wait to get back out there and experience some culture.
Amid this time of flux, singer and electronic musician Porter Robinson announced the return of his Second Sky Festival. Second Sky first debuted in the Bay Area in 2019 at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in West Oakland. (Originally called Multiverse Festival, Robinson changed its name after organizers of Bay Area punk and experimental music fest The Multivrs is Illuminated wrote an open letter.)
After taking a year off in 2020, Second Sky will take place in Cesar E. Chavez Park in Berkeley Sept. 18 and 19, 2021. (If forced to cancel for COVID safety reasons, the festival has alternate dates lined up for May 14 and 15, 2022.)
In addition to Robinson himself, the lineup so far includes Jacob Collier, an English singer, producer and arranger whose virtuosic harmonic abilities earned him a 2020 Grammy and growing respect in the pop and classical music worlds alike.
The Bay Area’s own Toro Y Moi joins Collier on the lineup. Head of Company Record Label and Art Studio, Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear has made waves in the mainstream with his charmingly introverted take on electronic funk and pop, and has been a major supporter and catalyst of Oakland’s diverse creative communities.
