Festivals & events in San Francisco

San Fran loves its film, music and sheer silliness, and it loves to party too

One of many inventive creations at the Burning Man festival - © www.burningman.com/John Curley

By Tony Hayes

Events in a city as extrovert and dramatic as San Francisco are bound to be colourful, and sometimes a little fruity. Spring and summer are punctuated by weekly neighbourhood fairs and parades, the only drawback being the accompanying street closures and driving detours. When autumn and winter roll around, most events move indoors, but the activity barely lets up. There's always something going on here, whether it's a family fun run through the city or a transvestite beauty contest.

The dates listed below are as accurate as possible, but check before you make plans: festivals do occasionally shift dates. For up-to-date information, consult the San Francisco Visitor Information Center or local papers, including the free alternative press.

Critic's choice

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebrations

Where: Mission Dolores Park, Dolores & 18th Streets, Mission
When: Easter weekend
Website: www.thesisters.org
It was at this time of year in 1979 that a group of 'gay male nuns' (their words) took the habit – from a local production of The Sound of Music, that is – to begin their mission of 'spreading joy, absolving guilt and serving the community' through street theatre, charity events and political activism. Each Easter they head for Dolores Park to bestow sainthood on worthy persons and preside over Easter Bonnet and Hunky Jesus contests.

Carnaval

Where: Harrison Street, between 16th & 23rd Streets, Mission
When: Memorial Day weekend
Tel & website: 920 0125/www.carnavalsf.com
Organisers call it 'California's largest annual multi-cultural festival'. Locals call it the best place to eye-ball a dazzling parade of skimpily costumed samba dancers gyrating foxily to fizzing Latin music.

San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

Where: Parade Market Street, between Embarcadero & 8th Street, Downtown
When: last Sun in June
Tel & website: 864 3733/www.sfpride.org
A San Francisco institution – but a bit of a mouthful to say – the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade is every bit as campy as you'd expect. Local politicians cruising for the rainbow vote share the route with drag queens, leather daddies and dykes on bikes. It's the wildest, friendliest parade you'll ever witness. Arrive at least an hour early for a kerbside seat. The parade is the culmination of a weekend of Pride, with a celebration at Civic Center from noon until 6pm on Saturday. The Pride weekend includes the spirit-buoying Trans March on Friday www.transmarch.org) and the boisterous Saturday night women-only Dyke March (241 8882, www.dykemarch.org), both with onlookers of any gender cheering from the sidelines.

Halloween San Francisco

Where: Market Street, from 15th to Castro Streets; Castro Street, from Market to 19th Streets, Castro
When: 31 Oct
City Hall's doomed attempts to divert joyful Halloween revellers from the traditional fray in the Castro to the staid Civic Center have proved as unpopular as last year's pumpkin pie. So pop on your fright wig, head for the Castro, duck through the SFPD cordon and discover a land where dressed-up drag queens and half-naked pagans cavort. Leave the booze behind, though.

Spring

St Patrick's Day Parade

Where: from 2nd & Market Streets to Civic Center
When: Sun before 17 Mar
The city has a sizeable Irish-American population, but everyone gets smiling Irish eyes in time for St Patrick's Day.

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: mid Mar
Tel & website: 863 0814/www.festival.asianamericanmedia.org
One of the longest-running Asian-American filmmaking showcases in the US provides a meeting ground for ethnic communities of all types from around the globe.

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebrations

Where: Mission Dolores Park, Dolores & 18th Streets, Mission
When: Easter weekend
Website: www.thesisters.org
It was at this time of year in 1979 that a group of 'gay male nuns' (their words) took the habit – from a local production of The Sound of Music, that is – to begin their mission of 'spreading joy, absolving guilt and serving the community' through street theatre, charity events and political activism. Each Easter they head for Dolores Park to bestow sainthood on worthy persons and preside over Easter Bonnet and Hunky Jesus contests.

St Stupid's Day Parade

Where: Transamerica Pyramid, 600 Montgomery Street, between Washington & Clay Streets, Financial District
When: 1 Apr
Website: www.saintstupid.com
The riotous costumed procession winds its way through the Financial District every 1 April, stopping off at various 'Stations of the Stupid' (aka noted financial institutions) to pay tribute to the gods of commerce.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Where: Japan Center, Geary Boulevard, between Fillmore & Laguna Streets, Japantown
When: Apr
Tel & website: 563 2313/www.nccbf.org
A joyous whirlwind engulfs the usually sleepy Japantown for two weekends in April. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a splendid celebration of Japanese cuisine, traditional arts and crafts, dance and martial arts. The Grand Parade starts at Civic Center and goes up Polk to Post ending in Japantown.

San Francisco International Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: mid Apr-early May
Tel & website: 561 5000/www.sfiff.org
This is North America's longest-running film festival (it turned 50 in 2007), and one of its best. More than 200 films are screened; the 80,000 tickets sell like hot starlets.

Cinco de Mayo

Where: around the city & Mission Dolores Park, Dolores & 18th Streets, Mission
When: wkend before 5 May
Tel & website: www.thesisters.org / www.sfcincodemayo.com
San Francisco's Latino residents and their friends celebrate General Ignacio Zaragoza's defeat of the French army at Puebla in 1862 with this raucous weekend of parades, fireworks and music. Think St Patrick's Day with tequila. There is also a free all-day festival in Dolores Park celebrating Mexican culture on the closest Saturday.

AIDS Candlelight Memorial March & Vigil

Where: Castro & Market Streets, Castro
When: 3rd Sun in May
Tel & website: 331 1500/www.sfaf.org
This annual candlelit vigil begins at 8pm with a solemn procession from the Castro along Market Street, ending on the steps of the Main Library. There, crowds gather for speeches, an awards ceremony, celebrations and remembrances.

Bay to Breakers Foot Race

Where: from Howard & Spear Streets, SoMa, to Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park
When: 3rd Sun in May
Tel & website: 359 2800/www.baytobreakers.com
In an effort to raise spirits during the arduous and lengthy rebuilding process that followed the 1906 earthquake and fire, Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner started this grandaddy of all San Francisco events in 1912. At the height of its popularity, the race attracted more than 110,000 participants. These days, weekend warriors dressed as salmon, jog-walkers pushing kegs of beer in shopping carts, and footloose nude zanies run, walk or stumble from the foot of Howard Street (bay), a distance of about 7.5 miles to Ocean Beach (breakers).

Carnaval

Summer

Stern Grove Festival

When: Sundays from Jun to Aug
Website: www.sterngrove.org
Everything from rock to opera, performances take place in an idyllic amphitheatre set in a grove of eucalyptus trees; admission is free.

Union Street Festival

Where: Union Street, between Gough & Steiner Streets, Cow Hollow
When: early June
Tel & website: 1-800 310 6563/www.unionstreetfestival.com
This weekend-long street fair draws a six-figure crowd each June, with its artists' stands, food stalls, bands and assorted other entertainments.

Haight Ashbury Street Fair

Where: Haight Street, between Masonic Avenue & Stanyan Street, Haight-Ashbury
When: early June
Website: www.haightashburystreetfair.org
It's the Summer of Love all over again, with more than 200 booths of greasy food, hippie craftwork and enough roach-clips, skins, bongs and hash pipes to fill out a Cheech and Chong script. Live music comes courtesy of local acts.

North Beach Festival

Where: Grant Avenue, Green Street, Stockton Street & Washington Square, North Beach
When: June
Tel & website: 989 2220/www.sfnorthbeach.org
Whip out the beret and bang out a rhythm on the bongos, daddio – it's San Francisco's oldest street party, held in the birthplace of the beatniks. The North Beach Festival is heavy on art and crafts, but there's also live music, wine and, inevitably, plenty of top-notch Italian food.

Summer Solstice

Where: around the city
When: 21 June
San Francisco's pagans, and the men and women who love them, meet on the year's longest day to drum, dance and celebrate. At sunset, pound along with a drum circle in Justin Herman Plaza at the Embarcadero or join the Baker Beach bonfires.

San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: late June
Tel & website: 703 8650/www.frameline.org
A crucial part of the month-long Gay Pride festivities: both a potent political statement and an unbridled celebration, with features, shorts, docs and experimental works.

San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

Mission Creek Music & Arts

When: July
Website: www.mcmf.org
A spreadeagled festival that concentrates on alternative rock, albeit with a more local focus and a more experimental edge.

Fourth of July Waterfront Festival

Where: between Aquatic Park & Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf
When: 4 July
Tel: San Francisco Visitor Information Center 981 1280
You'll find plenty of live entertainment and food stalls here on the waterfront during the day, but be sure to stay for the spectacular fireworks display that gets under way around 9pm.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Where: Castro Theatre, Castro
When: early-mid July
Tel & website: 777 4908/www.silentfilm.org
Screenings at this three-day event have musical accompaniment by a pianist, a Wurlitzer organist, or anything from Indian duos to avant-garde chamber groups.

Jewish Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: late July-early Aug
Tel & website: 621 0556/www.sfjff.org
The world's largest Jewish film festival, the SFJFF spends two weeks presenting contemporary (and some archival) films on Jewish culture.

San Francisco Marathon

Where: around the city
When: late July/early Aug
Tel & website: 1-888 958 6668/www.runsfm.com
The younger and more athletic cousin of Bay to Breakers Foot Race has grown every year since its inception in 1977. The course starts at the Embarcadero and then heads round the entire city, through the Mission, the Haight, Fisherman's Wharf and the Marina.

Burning Man

Where: Nevada Desert (approximately 400 miles from San Francisco. Fly to Reno and rent a car)
When: Aug 31-Sept 7
Website: www.burningman.com

Even if they aren't 'burners', most San Franciscans know about Burning Man. The festival has become a part of Bay Area culture – hardly surprising as this is where it all began.

In 1986 Larry Harvey and 20 friends burned an eight-foot wooden man at Baker Beach. The event caught people's imagination and as the annual beach party grew, the size of the man grew too. By 1990, with the man standing at 40 feet and the party 800-strong, local police intervened and put a stop to the revels.

Determined that Burning Man shouldn't die, Harvey and 80 others trekked to an ancient lake bed or playa in Nevada's Black Rock desert, 90 miles north of Reno. A new festival was born, its location as remote as it is stunning, with seemingly endless salt plains framed by mountains. Attendance doubled annually over the first few years in Nevada.

By 2007, around 40,000 people made what became known as Black Rock City the third-largest city in the state for one week.

The early '90s pioneers were armed with little more than camping gear and high spirits, but over the years Burning Man has evolved into a highly organised event with daily newspapers, radio stations and an airport. From oyster shacks and whisky bars to steam baths and circus rings, burners set up theme camps offering everything imaginable and unimaginable. And it's all free: the only things you can officially buy are coffee and ice.

Another principle is 'leave no trace' or 'pack it in, pack it out'. The level of eco-consciousness is cheering: you won't see people littering. But, of course, the festival does leave a trace: it takes a lot of energy to power the generators for a week, and 40,000 people consume a lot when they're partying in the desert.

Those thinking of attending should remember that for all its beauty, the desert can be unforgiving. Some years have seen white-outs (dust storms) with winds that blow tents away, freezing cold nights and blistering hot days. The elements make burners earn their good time. Participants are required to bring everything they could possibly need for a week in hardcore desert conditions: food and enough water (a gallon a day); a bicycle for getting around (preferably adorned with lights and decorations); and dust masks and goggles to brave the intense storms.

Lavish costumes, ingenious interactive sculptures and 'art cars' are optional.

Autumn

Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival

Where: Ghirardelli Square, between North Point, Beach, Larkin & Polk Streets, Fisherman's Wharf
When: early Sept
Tel & website: 775 5500/www.ghirardellisq.com
Keep reminding yourself that doctors say a little chocolate is good for you, as you sample chocolate-covered strawberries, decadent brownies and chocolate cheesecake. Proceeds go to a local charity.

San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

When: mid Sept
Website: www.sfemf.org
A celebration of the experimental, plenty on offer for lovers of the avant-garde.

MadCat Women's International Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: mid Sept & early Oct
Tel & website: 436 9523/www.madcatfilmfestival.org
This radical, alternative women's film festival happens over three weeks, squeezing in pioneering films that range from earnest feminist polemics to raunchy sexploitation.

How Berkeley Can You Be?

Where: around Downtown Berkeley
When: late Sept
Website: www.howberkeleycanyoube.com
Politicians and protestors, hippies and punks, Klingons and Stormtroopers make a show of civic pride with a procession of costumed (or naked) participants and 'art cars' – vehicles adorned with anything from organic fruit to cannabis – parading from the corner of California Street and University Avenue to Civic Center Park.

San Francisco Blues Festival

Where: Great Meadow
When: wkend in late Sept
Website: www.sfblues.com
The San Francisco Blues Festival held over a weekend in late September at the Great Meadow by Fort Mason, is the oldest event of its type in the US.

Folsom Street Fair

Where: Folsom Street, between 7th & 12th Streets, SoMa
When: last Sun in Sept
Website: www.folsomstreetfair.org
The Queen Mother of all leather street fairs, the Folsom Street Fair is a veritable gawkfest for visitors. Don your studded jockstrap and be prepared for masks, whips, chains and – that old favourite – public fellatio. Needless to say, this might not be suitable for the whole family.

Mill Valley Film Festival

Where: Cine Arts Sequoia, Mill Valley; Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
When: early Oct
Tel & website: 383 5256/www.cafilm.org/mvff
One of the state's best-known and most influential film events offers dozens of new movies over ten days. There's also a six-day Videofest, star guests and kids' events.

Castro Street Fair

Where: Market & Castro Streets, from 16th to 19th Streets, Castro
When: early Oct
Tel & website: 841 1824/www.castrostreetfair.org
A taste of the softer side of gay life in San Francisco, this one-day fair – started in 1974 by gay city official Harvey Milk – features food, crafts and community activists' stalls, along with plenty of rainbow merchandise.

Berkeley Unicycling & Juggling Festival

Where: King Middle School, 1781 Rose Street, at Grant Street, Berkeley
When: early Oct
Website: www.berkeleyjuggling.org/festival
In addition to unicycling and juggling, you can also see staff twirling, plate spinning, devil stick flipping, yo-yoing- in all, pretty much anything that requires a keen sense of balance and superhuman dexterity – at this Berkeley festival. Workshops allow you to get in on the fun.

ArtSpan Open Studios

Where: various venues
When: Oct
Tel & website: 861 9838/www.artspan.org
Get up close to San Francisco's creative visionaries throughout the month of October. More than 900 artists' studios open up to the public, with a different neighbourhood getting to show off its work every weekend. You'll find a free map detailing participating venues and the Directory of San Francisco Artists in city bookshops.

Fleet Week

Where: Fisherman's Wharf & Piers 30-32, Embarcadero
When: Oct
Tel & website: 705 5500/www.military.com/fleetweek
Since the early 1980s, the US Navy's acrobatic Blue Angels have rattled nerves and torn up the skies over San Francisco on Columbus Day weekend. The fleet sails into San Francisco Bay on Saturday morning; a spectacular air show and free battleship tours follow. A noisy couple of days.

Arab Film Festival

Where: various theatres
When: Oct
Tel & website: 564 1100/www.aff.org
This inclusive mix of features, documentaries and shorts, which turns 12 in 2008, provides a lively and involving survey of Arab cinema of every stripe and style.

San Francisco Jazz Festival

Where: Great Meadow
When: mid Oct to early Nov
Website: www.sfjazz.org
From the big guns at the San Francisco Jazz Festival comes a terrific series of shows throughout town.

Exotic Erotic Ball

Where: Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Avenue, at Santos Street, Daly City
When: late Oct
Tel & website: 1-888 396 8426/www.exoticeroticball.com
It's obnoxious. It's exploitative. It's the bridge-and-tunnel crowd's annual excuse to pull on the latex and fishnets and party with other desperate housewives at the world's largest indoor masquerade ball.

Halloween San Francisco

Día de los Muertos

Where: 24th & Bryant Streets, Mission
When: 2 Nov
Tel & website: 826 8009/www.dayofthedeadsf.org
Marchers gather at 24th and Bryant Streets to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead. After a traditional blessing, the music starts and the procession begins: Aztec dancers, children in papier-mâché skeleton masks and women clutching bouquets of dead flowers. Things wind up in Garfield Square, where people leave candles at a huge community altar. Dress code: dark but showy. If you really want to blend in, paint your face a ghoulish white and bring a noise-maker.

Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema

Where: various theatres
When: early Nov
Tel & website: 552 8760/www.filmarts.org
The essential festival for a real snapshot of NorCal independents. Programming for the six-day fest is drawn from Bay Area filmmakers, featuring documentary, experimental and traditional narrative pieces in formats that range from Super-8 shorts to high-end DV.

Festival ¡Cine Latino!

Where: various theatres
When: Nov
Website: www.latinofilmfestival.org
The best recent works from Central and South America, from obscure pieces to major works.

Miss Trannyshack Pageant

Where: The Gift Center, 888 Brannan Street, at 8th Street, SOMA
When: Nov
Website: www.trannyshack.com
An array of gender-bending beauties face off in a showdown for the coveted Miss Trannyshack tiara. Judges include local luminaries and minor celebrities.

Holiday Lighting Festivities

Where: Union Square, between Geary, Powell, Post & Stockton Streets, Downtown
When: late Nov
The lights go on all over town as the holidays approach, including at the above locations. At Union Square, a 67ft (20m) living white-fir tree is decorated with 2,000 lights, 400 ornaments and 500 bows. A 22ft wooden menorah is also lit as part of the Jewish Hanukkah celebrations.

Run to the Far Side

Where: Golden Gate Park
When: weekend after Thanksgiving
Tel & website: 759 2690/www.farsiderun.com
As the name suggests, participants in this annual foot race, a fundraiser for the California Academy of Sciences, dress up as their favourite Gary Larson character. They then walk or run either a three- or six-mile course around beautiful Golden Gate Park.

Winter

New Year's Eve

Where: around the city
When: 31 Dec
For many years, San Franciscans have been gathering at Union Square or Ocean Beach to ring in the New Year. The city fathers have been discouraging such impromptu revelry in recent times, however, so check local newspapers. Other traditional festivities taking place around town include a cavalcade of bands performing in tents along the Embarcadero.

Noir City

Where: Palace of Fine Arts; Balboa Theatre
When: Jan
Website: www.noircity.com
Two weeks of classic film noir – some famous, some obscure – with talks and other special events to add further spice.

Martin Luther King Jr Birthday Celebration

Where: BART
When: Mon after 15 Jan
Tel & website: 1-510 268 3777/www.norcalmlk.org
The parade celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday started off at the Caltrain station in 2008, with a specially chartered Freedom Train bringing in passengers from the surrounding area. It ended with a rally in Civic Center. Check the website for the route for other years.

Tet Festival

Where: around Civic Center & the Tenderloin
When: Jan/Feb
Tel & website: 885 2743/www.vietccsf.org
San Francisco has a large population of Vietnamese-Americans who, along with Cambodian, Latino and African-American families, transform the city centre into a multicultural carnival.

Noise Pop

Where: various venues
When: Feb-Mar
Website: www.noisepop.com
Probably San Francisco's biggest rock festival of the year, Noise Pop is a week-long, city-wide series of indie shows in February.

San Francisco Tribal, Folk & Textile Arts Show

Where: Fort Mason Center
When: early Feb
Tel & website: 1-310 455 2886/www.caskeylees.com/shows/8/tribal/sf
Part-show, part-sale: upwards of 100 folk and ethnic-art dealers sell all manner of pottery, baskets, textiles and jewellery.

Chinese New Year

Where: Market Street, at 2nd Street, and around Chinatown
When: Feb
Tel & website: 982 3071/www.chineseparade.com
The start of the Chinese New Year offers the city's best parade that doesn't involve public nudity. With colourful beauty pageants, drumming, martial arts competitions, mountains of food on every street corner, endless firework displays and a huge procession of dancing dragons, acrobats and stilt-walkers, the party turns the city jubilant and upside down. It's also the occasion of the enormously popular Annual Treasure Hunt (www.sftreasurehunts.com), which gets nearly 1,600 people scurrying round Chinatown.

Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation

Where: Victoria Theatre, Mission
When: late Feb-Apr
Tel & website: 1-858 459 8707/www.spikeandmike.com
Mainstream animators such as Nick Park have shown early works at Spike & Mike's cultish festival, but it's the 'Sick and Twisted' segment that really raises the bar.

Public holidays

New Year's Day 1 Jan
Martin Luther King Jr Day 3rd Mon in Jan
President's Day 3rd Mon in Feb
Memorial Day last Mon in May
Independence Day 4 July
Labor Day 1st Mon in Sept
Columbus Day 2nd Mon in Oct
Veterans' Day 11 Nov
Thanksgiving Day 4th Thur in Nov
Christmas Day 25 Dec

Our listings

While every effort and care has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this guide, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain. Before you go out of your way, we strongly advise you to phone ahead and check the particulars.

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Festivals & events in San Francisco

San Fran loves its film, music and sheer silliness, and it loves to party too

Book travel

NEW travel newsletter

Critic's choice

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebrations

Carnaval

San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

Halloween San Francisco

Spring

St Patrick's Day Parade

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebrations

St Stupid's Day Parade

Cherry Blossom Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival

Cinco de Mayo

AIDS Candlelight Memorial March & Vigil

Bay to Breakers Foot Race

Carnaval

Summer

Stern Grove Festival

Union Street Festival

Haight Ashbury Street Fair

North Beach Festival

Summer Solstice

San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival

San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

Mission Creek Music & Arts

Fourth of July Waterfront Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Marathon

Burning Man

Autumn

Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival

San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

MadCat Women's International Film Festival

How Berkeley Can You Be?

San Francisco Blues Festival

Folsom Street Fair

Mill Valley Film Festival

Castro Street Fair

Berkeley Unicycling & Juggling Festival

ArtSpan Open Studios

Fleet Week

Arab Film Festival

San Francisco Jazz Festival

Exotic Erotic Ball

Halloween San Francisco

Día de los Muertos

Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema

Festival ¡Cine Latino!

Miss Trannyshack Pageant

Holiday Lighting Festivities

Run to the Far Side

Winter

New Year's Eve

Noir City

Martin Luther King Jr Birthday Celebration

Tet Festival

Noise Pop

San Francisco Tribal, Folk & Textile Arts Show

Chinese New Year

Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation

Public holidays

Our listings

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