San Francisco

Photo by Flickr user glenbowman

Wharf Fest:

Little Embarcadero from Taylor to Powell Streets
Saturday, October 21st, 2017
11:00am – 5:00pm | Free

Wharf Fest, a free Fisherman’s Wharf festival, returns to San Francisco’s iconic neighborhood for the 5th year. The Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District is throwing the ultimate festival to celebrate San Francisco’s historic waterfront district and invite Bay Area locals to visit the district after the tourist season has ended and before San Francisco’s fabulous fall climate fades away. This year’s festival will include a chowder cook-off competition, exhibitors, and fun family activities and entertainment.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass:

Golden Gate Park
Hellman Hollow/Lindley & Marx San Francisco
Friday, October 6th – Sunday, October 8th, 2017
11:00am – 7:00pm | Free

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: A FREE gathering in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco featuring over 90 musical artists on 7 stages.

Photo by Flickr user gazeronly

Castro Street Fair:

Market & Castro St, San Francisco
Sunday, October 1st, 2017
$5-$10 donation

The Castro Street Fair is a community street celebration that was founded by Harvey Milk in 1974. Hundreds of local artists, vendors, craftspeople, and organizations line the streets and celebrate the diversity of the neighborhood. Stages with live entertainment and dance stages can be found throughout the fairgrounds.

Photo by Flickr user zemistor

Free Comedy Day:

Sharon Meadow
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Sunday, September 17th, 2017
12:00 – 5:00pm | Free

Comedy Day is the original, longest-running, free outdoor comedy concert. This year it features 40 (or more) of today’s top performers from the Bay Area and beyond. It was founded in 1981 as a way for Bay Area comics to say thank you to comedy fans for their support and to The City that has nurtured so many comedians. Since then, nearly 1,000 of the world’s funniest performers have given the gift of laughter to more than a half-million happy people at Comedy Day.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival:

Ghirardelli Square
900 North Point St, San Francisco
Saturday, September 9th, Sunday, September 10th, 2017
12:00 – 5:00pm | from $25 ($30 @ door)

100% of the profits are donated to the non-profit PROJECT OPEN HAND! Project Open Hand is a nonprofit organization that provides meals with love to seniors and the critically ill.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Earthquake Ice Cream Eating Contest: A Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival Tradition! Festival attendees compete or just witness the hilarity as six lucky people eat the famous Ghirardelli “Earthquake” Sundae as fast as they can without hands. Battling each other and their own stomachs, competitors are sure to make this experience a memorable (and delicious) one. Children also compete with a smaller version of the famous Earthquake Sundae. There are three competitions on both Saturday and Sunday.
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San Francisco Comic Con:

Moscone Center West
747 Howard St, San Francisco
Friday, September 1st – Sunday, September 3rd, 2017

San Francisco Comic Con is a comic book convention located in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Comic Con is San Francisco’s largest, true comic con. Featured are exhibitors that cater to a wide-spectrum of interests including comic books, magazines, toys, games, Star Wars, Star Trek, anime, manga, cosplay, artwork, sketches and apparel. In addition, a roster of comic industry professionals, and comicdom-related celebrities are in attendance for attendees to meet and greet. As admission is kept reasonable for adults and FREE for children, the San Francisco Comic Con is a family-friendly convention.

Asian Art Museum – Free Admission Day:

Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin St, San Francisco
Sunday, September 3rd, 2017
10:30am – 2:00pm | Free

Discover and play as a family at the Asian Art Museum. On Family Fun Days, our gallery activities, creative art projects and immersive storytelling make art appreciation into a lively, family-friendly event. Themes and projects change regularly, so visit again and again.

Learn all about flowers, their symbolism and different ways to use flowers in art with ethnobotanist and teaching artist Deepa Natarajan. On Sep. 3 Natarajan will lead an educational workshop on flower pounding and dyeing.

10:30–11 AM stART Tour for kids ages 3–6
11 AM–2 PM art making and self-guided activities
1–1:45 PM storytelling for families

San Francisco Improv Fest:

PianoFight
144 Taylor St, San Francisco
Friday, August 18th – Sunday, August 20th, 2017

The San Francisco Improv Festival celebrates and presents the best that improvisational theater has to offer in all its forms, with veteran and rising improv talent from the Bay Area and beyond. Our thirteenth festival features improvisers from the house teams of major improv schools to independent, regional troupes and duos that kick major ass. Support your faves, take some risks, and throw down with us. See you there.

Photo by Flickr user gildardo

Chinatown Music Festival:

Waverly Pl (btw Washington & Sacramento, San Francisco
Saturday, August 12th, 2017
11:00am – 5:00pm | Free

This year, the Festival will feature the world debut of a newly commissioned composition by pianist and composer Jon Jang, and the theme of “Living Alleyways” to highlight the main arteries of the community and the vibrancy in the neighborhood through the arts. Nominated for the 2017 Robert E. Gard Award, a prestigious national award granted by the Americans for the Arts to projects that have integrated arts in the community in meaningful ways, the Festival is part of the “Chinatown Alleyways Project” and also part of Mayor Ed Lee’s $3 million initiative to spur economic development in Chinatown by demonstrating the neighborhood’s vibrancy and diversity through festivals and other cultural activities.  The Chinatown Music Festival was previously located at Portsmouth Square. Continue Reading

Photo by Flickr user guillo_t

Amadou & Mariam Playing:

Stern Grove
19th Ave & Sloat Blvd, San Francisco
Sunday, August 6th, 2017
2:00pm | Free

Amadou & Mariam are a GRAMMY-nominated duo from Mali whose unique “Afro-blues” sound has landed them on the stages of countless festivals around the world. The duo consists of married couple Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia, who are both blind and have been performing together since 1983.

Ibibio Sound Machine is inspired by the golden era of West-African funk combined with modern, danceable electronic beats.