Outside Lands 2018: Cocktail Magic loses some of its spark

As always, the Cocktail Magic lineup at Outside Lands features some of San Francisco’s best cocktail bars: True Laurel, Blackbird, Rye, Benjamin Cooper, Horsefeather and the Beehive.

But the outdoor festival’s special cocktail experience lost a little bit of its magic this year.

Not literally — magician Jon Armstrong, from Los Angeles’ famed Magic Castle, was still roaming around with tricks. But whereas previous iterations of Cocktail Magic have at least featured bartenders making cocktails in front of you, this year all of the drinks were completely premade, poured to order from a tap. (There were, however, some creative garnishes, including dried grapefruit segments and star anise.