The sun shined at last on Golden Gate Park and Outside Lands [ tickets ], and on a laid-back crowd that tossed frisbees, caught some rays, and generally just soaked up the festival's final (and by far mellowest) day with a sort of gratitude.

It was an older crowd that showed up Sunday (8/24), for the most part a decidedly less hip crowd, and one probably more interested in sitting down than locating a mosh pit: there were so many folding chairs present at Jackie Greene [ tickets ]'s 1 p.m. main stage opener that festival staff had to enforce a "chair line" beginning at the back of the sound booth. In front of that line, no seats would tread today.

Greene's genre-bending set--he fully incorporates elements of jazz, blues, rock, soul and country into his music--paid homage to his adopted San Francisco, featuring a long Dead cover and several shots from the live video man of the stuffed Jerry Garcia doll perched on the performer's keyboards.

With sun threatening to sweep in across the previously frozen tundra of the Polo Field, beer lines swelled precariously as the afternoon wore on and fans got scorched---yes, I said scorched--while listening to the likes of Drive-By Truckers [ tickets ], Andrew Bird [ tickets ] and Sharon Jones [ tickets ] & The Dap-Kings.

Heineken is the main beer supplier here, and they make you present them with ID so you can earn the privilege of walking around with a wristband that says "Heineken" all around it, so you can go to the beer stand and purchase a Heineken in a plastic cup that says "Heineken" on it. I believe this is called "saturation advertising."

In addition to beer (most of it brewed by Heineken), there are plenty of food choices here, almost all of it local (although I think claiming Santa Barbara--300 miles to the south--as local is kind stretching it) and almost all of it delicious. At Woodstock they ate bean soup and, maybe, bugs. Things are probably better now.

Now that we've eaten and tipped a couple of beers, it's time for Canadian indie-pop collective Broken Social Scene [ tickets ], who represent up on stage with 10 or 11 members of the band's 357-strong full lineup (rough count). The hosers have a great time, bouncing up and down and exhorting us to "Vote Canadian! Vote for everybody!" The crew on this day features a special appearance from ex-Pavement guitarist Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg.

Over on the other side of the park, Widespread Panic is already scheming ways to exceed their allotted performance time. Lots of hacky-sack is going down.

Old-school rap trio The Cool Kids [ tickets ] is busting rhymes on the solar-powered Panhandle stage (now running directly from solar! Screw battery arrays!) They also appear to be proficient at putting a cap in the ass of some sucka MCs who dare play them. Did I say that right? Word. Up.

Quick question: pushing around little babies in strollers at a big rock-and-roll festival? I'm thinking no, but apparently San Francisco disagrees with me, because I'm seeing more tots today than you could shake a stick at, even if that stick were the size of a redwood tree. There are so many little ones around I grow increasingly paranoid about accidentally squashing a little tyke every time I make a bathroom run. Which, by the way, is a hugely difficult process on this crowded finale day; nobody's leaving because of the cold, so lines for everything--but especially the porta-johns--grow in some sort of exponential manner that would require math skills to understand.

Speaking of math skills, back to Speedway Meadow, where Wilco [ tickets ], heroes of White People everywhere, are making their OL appearance, second-billed today to Jack Johnson [ tickets ], but try telling that to the crazy giant crowd here that swoons to every motion or shudder or wink from singer Jeff Tweedy or uber-guitarist Nels Cline.

I come not to damn the Wilco with faint praise, but halfway through the performance I understand something important, I think. These guys picked up the rope that the Grateful Dead dropped and ran with it. They almost transcend music at this point, having created a tangible connection point for millions of people all over this country, a nexus point for fans of wildly different backgrounds, with different sets of experience, and only one real thing in common: they all love Wilco, with all their hearts, and the band loves them back. Without reserve.

Only Dave Matthews and, in a very different kind of way, Insane Clown Posse, in this nation, anyway, currently share this sort of connection with their respective fans, I believe. While I don't fully understand the appeal in any of these cases, I respect the hell out of a musician who can forge this kind of bond.

Which is why I have to go full tip o' the lid to America's Least Offensive Rock Star, Jack Johnson, who brought Outside Lands to a close as the sky blazed red from the sunset and the lights slowly flickered to life across the most beautiful urban park in the world, maybe.

I have underestimated Johnson's appeal in the past. I will not make that mistake again. Hundreds--thousands--of fans ran across the long stretches of the Polo Field, some flinging themselves at top speed to make certain they didn't miss a second of Johnson's deceptively simple repertoire. Jack Johnson hit himself on the head and became the single mellowest person in the world. There is no one more sanguine than Jack Johnson. Try to make him upset; you'll sooner boil concrete.

His music reflects this utterly. On the cover of The Cars' "Just What I Needed," Johnson steadfastly refused to raise the song's tempo beyond his normal lope. Anything quicker than "chill" on the menu would be dishonest. The Cars sang it all fast and herky-jerky; Jack Johnson scans it like he's reading the back of a box of cereal at breakfast time.

And this is what people like in Johnson. They want someone who won't bend, won't change his habits for the sake of fashion, or popularity. In fact, he becomes more popular in spite of the rest of us. He eats our criticism and swallows it whole.

Thirty or forty thousand people running at top speed just to be close to him would be proof.

Outside Lands is done. Now go home. There are MUNI buses lined in a row all down Fulton and up Lincoln, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

(Or you could just drive home, like me, but don't tell the organizers.)

Additional Outside Lands coverage:
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Black Mountain, Carney
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Radiohead, Beck
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Devendra Banhart plays! Natalie Portman seen!
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Tom Petty, M. Ward, Steve Winwood

Outside Lands coverage from L.A. rockers Carney:
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 1)
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 2)
Blogging Outside Lands: Exit Carney