Even in tough economic times there are still plenty of annual free concerts occurring in San Francisco. The city is known for its amazing free concert season stretching from about May to October of each year, but there are lesser-known free gems taking place all throughout the year. In this article we’ll take a look at some of the biggest and best.
Stern Grove Festival – Perhaps the city’s most famous bout of free concerts occurs in the summer from about mid-June to mid-August on Sundays. Usually two performers are featured each day, and the concerts run from mid afternoon into the night. The performers are also usually fairly “big name” acts from a diversity of different musical styles.
The current schedule for 2009 will be posted on May 1 at www.sterngrove.org
Yerba Buena Gardens Concerts – The Yerba Buena Gardens is an urban park located between Third and Fourth streets off of Mission (next door to the Metreon). During the summer they frequently have live performances in the park on weekends.
Check www.ybgf.org for the current schedule and exact dates.
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra – The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra frequently performs classical music concerts at various locations throughout the city at no admission, all throughout the year.
Check their website at http://www.sfchamberorchestra.org/concerts.html for the current schedule.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music – The Conservatory is an independent school for musical performance that accepts only a small amount of top prospects each year. To hone their skills at performance, the students put on free indoor concerts throughout the school year. Though admission is not charged, the school frequently solicits a donation of $5 or so on the way out.
Current schedule can be viewed at http://www.sfcm.edu/calendar/calendar.aspx. Concerts run multiple times a week during the school year, but there are usually no performances during the summer.
San Francisco Symphony – The San Francisco Symphony charges admission to most of their performances, but they do have a few free concerts each year. The Symphony usually closes out Independence Day weekend with a free performance at Stern Grove. There’s also usually at least one free performance in the middle of the summer in Dolores Park.
The current schedule can be seen at http://www.sfsymphony.org/season/default.aspx?id=38304.
Opera In The Park – The San Francisco Opera puts on one free yearly concert in Golden Gate Park, usually in early September.
The performance is at Sharon Meadow in the park. More details about the upcoming performance can be found at their website: http://sfopera.com/
40th Anniversary of Woodstock – On October 25th of 2009, from 9am to 6pm there will be a series of free performances in Speedway Meadows at Golden Gate Park to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock concert. The highlight of the announced festivities so far is 3,000 guitarists playing Purple Haze simultaneously.
SFJAZZ Summerfest – SFJAZZ hosts a series of free jazz concerts in downtown San Francisco every summer. As of this writing the 2009 schedule has not been announced yet but you can keep an eye on it at http://www.sfjazz.org/concerts/2008/summer/schedule.asp.
San Francisco Aloha Festival – The Aloha Festival is a yearly two-day event with free admission. Among the events during these two days are numerous hula and Pacific Island dance groups and musicians.
More information can be found at http://www.pica-org.org/norcal/norcal.htm
San Francisco Free Folk Festival – For those who enjoy folk music, there is an annual Free Folk Festival held in mid-June with both musical performances and workshops.
More information can be found at http://www.sffolkfest.org/2009/index.html
Power To The Peaceful Festival – This annual festival is a mix of eclectic musical performances and speeches on the issues of “social justice, non violence, coexistence and environmental sustainability” according to their website.
2009’s festival will be held on September 12th at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.
Golden Gate Park Band – The Golden Gate Park Band performs free concerts every Sunday from April 26th to October 4th each year, and have been doing so for the last 127 years! The concerts in 2009 will be taking place at the Spreckles Temple of Music at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. Concerts are usually from 1:00 to about 3:00 in the afternoon. Music played is a wide variety of big band, marches, opera, show tunes, orchestral, folk music and featured soloists among others.
Their homepage can be found at http://www.mindspring.com/~nemoyten/ggpb/Home.html
