Outside Lands promoter Another Planet Entertainment has announced the final two installments of its free 2025 concert series, part of a continuing initiative to bring life and foot traffic back to downtown San Francisco.
The centerpiece is Empire 15, set for Sept. 13 at Civic Center Plaza, headlined by genre-blurring country-rap artist Shaboozey, Nigerian Afrobeats star Fireboy DML and rising local act Red Leather.
The event, produced in partnership with the San Francisco independent label Empire, highlights some of the fastest-rising names in global pop.
Shaboozey’s breakout single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” recently made chart history as a crossover country and hip-hop hit. Fireboy DML, best known for his global smash “Peru,” has surpassed a billion streams and collaborated with artists such as Ed Sheeran and Madonna.
The concert series begins a week earlier on Sept. 7 with the debut of Poolside’s Daytime Disco in Union Square. The event marks the first live iteration of the widely streamed playlist brand created by Jeffrey Paradise, a former San Francisco resident who co-founded Poolside in Los Angeles in 2011.
“These shows aren’t just about great performances—they’re about making San Francisco’s center a destination,” said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of SF Recreation and Parks, in a statement.
The upcoming concerts follow a string of free shows held earlier this season, including Dirtybird at Embarcadero Plaza and Portugal. The Man at Civic Center.
City officials and organizers see the program as part of a broader strategy to use cultural programming to spark economic and social revitalization in a struggling downtown core.
“When we bring energy back downtown, people from across the region come shop at our businesses, eat at our restaurants and drive our economic recovery,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement.