SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The 12th annual Outside Lands music festival kicks off this weekend in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
There is an increased presence of police, security and first responders in the wake of recent mass-shootings in the U.S.
There are multiple check points before you get to the actual venue.
“Golden Gate Park is a very very large area. It is two times the size of Central Park in New York,” said Security Expert Max Shupe. “And in any type of large area there is going to be barricades or other types of physical security, guards on site, police on site and those people are going to be doing their best to secure the area.”
That being said, Shupe says people are still going to try to unlawfully enter the property.
“They might be trying to jump barricades in order to get in for free, trying to smuggle in contraband, things of that nature,” he said.
Increased security includes metal detectors at the entrance of this year’s Outside Lands festival.
For some festival-goers, recent mass shootings forced the thought of safety across their minds.
“150 percent of my friends and I all on the way in we talked about like how scary it feels to be in big open wide spaces,” said Sabrina Eliasoph.
Eliasoph says she was happy to see beefed up security at the festival gates and within the festival grounds.
Others say they won’t let the shootings keep them from enjoying big gatherings like concerts.
“You can’t let that keep you home you can’t let that keep you from living your life you know you still have to go out and enjoy,” Justine Kubiak said.
Eliasoph says maybe Congress can probably help ease the anxiety.
“Hopefully gun laws can change, that’s a no brainer but in the meantime we can let these things stop up from having fun,” she said.
Festival-goers will not be able to enter and exit the event no more than once per day.
Beyond that you will need permission from security.
Event planners encourage if you see something, say something.
In case of an emergency text ‘OUTSIDELANDS’ to 888777