Festivals | San Francisco Travel Blog - Part 9
Castro Street Fair This Sunday!
This Sunday, the first of October, a very special event will take place in San Francisco’s famous Castro neighborhood. Known as one one of the most welcoming neighborhoods in the country for LGBTQ individuals, the Castro has long been home to some of the the City by the Bay’s most daring and convention-bucking festivals, fairs, and art happenings. The Castro Street Fair is a time for all of the district’s already notable personalities and creators to get together in one large celebration of creativity and passion.
Litquake 2017
Fans of literature rejoice! From October 6-14 the great city of San Francisco will host the annual Litquake, an event that rejoices in books, letters, writers, and everything in between.
22nd Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair
Bibliophiles know that the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall is the season for book fairs. From New York to Berlin, the shorter days and the colder nights encourage people of all sorts to stay indoors and curl up on the couch with a good piece of literature (or maybe just something to take your mind off of the woes of the world).
7th Annual Bay Area Blues Festival
Longtime residents of the Bay Area might recall two end-of-summer festivals that have long been favorites for fans of street fairs and live music. We are referring to The Downtown Martinez Italian Street Painting Festival and the Polk Street Blues Festival (the latter of which was held in San Francisco, along (surprise!) Polk Street). Operating independently of one another, these two events brought in thousands of visitors to the Bay Area, giving an audience to scores of painters as well as musicians during the weekends of their operation.
26th Annual SF Fringe Festival
Theatergoers will no doubt be familiar with the famous Fringe Festival that takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland. A watershed moment in global theatrical production, every year the Fringe Festival attracts some of the best and most cutting edge producers of theater, comedy, music, and performances of an unclassifiable sort to its roster, and every year those who attend the Fringe Festival come away knowing that they had the opportunity to see something that will soon change the art world’s landscape forever.
Oktoberfest by the Bay
Fall is coming! For many people, the most magical, restorative, and calming time of the year, Autumn is a season that distributes its unique peace over us even as its colors and temperatures are harbingers of death. Maybe it is its role as the last hurrah before the cold months of winter that gives Fall its appeal, or maybe it’s just the knowledge that the holidays are coming, but either way there is no denying that the season possess something uncanny within its limits.
2017 Garlic Festival (AKA: Summer’s Ultimate Food Fair)
Love food? Of course you do! How about garlic? As most foodies will agree, garlic is one of the most essential and delicious of all ingredients, key to the success of countless recipes, and, despite its diminutive size, a true giant in the world of edibles. To celebrate this popular vegetable, the community of Gilroy transforms their beautiful Christmas Hill Park into the location of Garlic Festival, also known by its subtitle, “Summer’s Ultimate Food Fair.”
First Fridays in Oakland
First Fridays exist throughout the country as a chance for cities to showcase unique art in a fun, relaxing, and community oriented atmosphere. Everywhere First Fridays are held, the art community of that city comes together in one brilliant evening of creativity. Oakland, a hotbed of artistic activity, is already a top destination for those trying to find the current pulse of the American creative class. It should therefore come as no surprise that Oakland’s First Fridays are some of the funkiest, most exciting, and most essential First Fridays out of them all.
San Francisco’s Free Shakespeare in the Park Returns
In 1983, San Francisco hosted its first annual Shakespeare Festival. In its inaugural year, the festival featured free performances of The Tempest in Golden Gate Park.
33rd Annual Fillmore Jazz Festival
More music floods the street of San Francisco than can possibly be fathomed; however, at this blog, we try to give you a general picture of the must-see musical happenings and festivals that will take place throughout our famous city. Especially in the summer, musicians come for the atmosphere of creativity and spirit of goodwill that has made San Francisco so legendary, and one of the most anticipated musical events of the summer, the Annual Fillmore Jazz Festival, is a showcase of this exact cocktail of feeling and energy.