Orville Peck and Jaime Wyatt at Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco

Now in its 88th year, the Stern Grove Festival is in full swing with its summer concert series — 11 days of free music in San Francisco that draws capacity crowds for a chill afternoon of music in the park. This past weekend, those lucky enough to get tickets through the new lottery system were rewarded with the first Bay Area performance since September of 2024 by masked country crooner, Orville Peck.

The anticipation was unsurprisingly high and the fans lined up early to stake out their spot in the amphitheater and up the hill amongst the redwood and eucalyptus trees where they proceeded to crack open bottles of wine and spreads of charcuterie as a DJ warmed things up.

Nashville’s Jaime Wyatt kicked the live music off with an hour-long set that provided the perfect backdrop for the ensuing picnicking, and the buzz amongst the attendees only heightened as BYOB-ers shifted their attention to the hosted bars in anticipation of Peck’s set. With the fans taking their feet as “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” blasted over the PA, Orville took the stage with a wave and a nonchalant, “Hello, I’m Orville Peck,” before tearing right into “Big Sky” off of his debut LP, Pony with the band locked in right.

Having been busy as a cast member of Broadway’s Cabaret, Orville hasn’t had much time for touring which made this afternoon’s performance so special and the all the more impressive as the “happier than he’s ever been” Peck clearly enjoyed his time back in front of the crowd as he and his band delivered a flawless performance. Clearly relaxed, Pecked riffed between songs, even joking about taking his straight band members to some gay bars … “you can keep your outfits on.”

The 90 minute set covered the bases from Pony to his duets album Stampede including a dedication to Maverick the trucker during “Drive Me, Crazy” for which Peck took up the bench behind the piano keys. The big surprise, however, was a new song nestled late in the set, offering the hope of new material and more tour dates on the not-so-far horizon. Of course there was one song missing … a brief break had Orville return to the stage for an encore, breaking out a mask with the iconic chin fringe for “Bronco.”

Thanks to the folks behind Stern Grove for putting in an epic Sunday in the park!

Setlist