Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Festivals/Archive

This page displays all the articles which appear in the "selected event" section of the San Francisco Bay Area portal. Instructions on how to add new articles to this list are here.

1
SF Sketchfest, or The San Francisco Comedy Festival, is a comedy festival founded in 2002 by San Francisco Bay Area actor-comedians David Owen, Janet Varney and Cole Stratton (pictured). It takes place every January and February and features sketches, improv, stand-up and other events.

2
The San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade is an annual event held in San Francisco. Held approximately two weeks after the first day of the Chinese New Year, it combines elements of the Chinese Lantern Festival with a typical American parade. First held in 1858, it is the oldest and largest event of its kind outside of Asia, and the largest Asian cultural event in North America. The parade route begins on Market Street and terminates in Chinatown.

3
The San Francisco International Film Festival is among the longest running film festivals in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, it is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries annually.

4
Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace in San Francisco on the third Sunday of May. The name reflects the fact that the race starts at the The Embarcadero adjacent to San Francisco Bay and finishes at the Great Highway adjacent to Ocean Beach and its "breaking waves". It is well known for many participants wearing costumes, and a few engaging in public nudity. The event was officially the world's largest footrace from 1986 (with 110,000 participants) until it was surpassed in 2010 by City2Surf in Sydney, Australia.

5
Carnaval San Francisco is an annual street parade and festival in San Francisco on the last weekend in May, held after the major carnivals and Mardi Gras such as Rio Carnival have been held. Various local Hispanic/Latino organizations, including Samba groups, many based in the The Mission District, participate in the event.

6
The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held at the end of June each year in San Francisco to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. The 40th anniversary parade in 2011 included over 200 parade contingents, and was the largest ever gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation. (Dykes on Bikes pictured)

7
The Berkeley Jazz Festival is held once a year at the outdoor Hearst Greek Theatre on the University of California, Berkeley campus. The festival was first held in 1967, and featured Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Bill Evans Trio, and the John Handy Concert Ensemble. The festival was planned and sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of California with support from San Francisco Chronicle music writer Ralph J. Gleason. (Bobby Hutcherson pictured)

8
The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was first held in 2008, and included over 60 musical acts from around the world, as well as several art installations, and brought in 40,000 to 60,000 attendees a day. (Muse pictured)

9
Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The event started in 1984 and is the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture. The event is organized as a non-profit, with gate entry fees and money from fundraising events going to charity groups. (Bondage knot demonstration pictured)

10
The Castro Street Fair is a San Francisco lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender LGBT street festival and fair usually held on the first Sunday in October in the Castro neighborhood, the main LGBT neighborhood in the city. The fair was founded by Harvey Milk, and the group he led, the Castro Valley Association, in 1974. (San Francisco Police Officer on duty pictured)

11
BayCon is the San Francisco Bay Area's main science fiction and fantasy convention. It is held over Memorial Day weekend in Santa Clara. It began in 1982 as "The San Francisco Bay Area Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention". (Trekkies pictured)

12
The San Jose Holiday Parade is held annually in December in San Jose, and has been described as one of the "Top 25 Parades in America". Celebrities and famous locals appear as Grand Marshals and numerous bands from across America are invited to participate in the parade. It began in 1981. (19th century parade in San Jose pictured)

13
The Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton hosts the summer Alameda County Fair, held since 1912. (horse racing at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds Racetrack pictured)

14
The Luther Burbank Rose Parade and Festival is an annual festival held in Santa Rosa celebrating the work of Luther Burbank, and centered on the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens (pictured). It began in 1894, and today has a budget of $100,000, with up to 250,000 attending.

15
The San Jose Flea Market, open on weekends, is the largest open-air market in the U.S. and has over four million visitors each year. In addition to merchandise vendors, it features a produce market, prepared foods, and two bandstands, one traditionally reserved for a mariachi band (pictured).

16
FanimeCon is an annual anime convention. It is the largest anime convention in Northern California and the 5th largest North American anime convention as of 2013. It has been held at the San Jose Convention Center since 2004. (Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough cosplayers pictured)

17
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (pictured) is held annually, the first week of October, in Golden Gate Park, and originally featured only Bluegrass Music, but now includes related genres. It began in 2001. In 2011, the free festival drew an estimated 750,000 people over the course of the three-day event.

18
Litquake is a literary festival in San Francisco, first held in 1999. It has been described as "Literature as Carnival". In 2012, Litquake featured a total of 860 authors over the course of the 9 day festival. The festival closes with a “Lit Crawl,” a literary pub crawl that includes bars, cafes, bookstores, theaters, galleries, clothing boutiques, furniture showrooms, parking lots, a laundromat and even a bee-keeping store. (local author and attendee Zarina Zabrisky pictured)

19
The Mill Valley Film Festival in Mill Valley is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute (pictured). Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the 11-day festival was founded in August 1978 by Mark Fishkin.

20
Debuting in 1983, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual fall three-week event, with over 30 concerts. It is produced by SFJAZZ (pictured), a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education.

21
Treasure Island Music Festival is an annual two day music festival that takes place on Treasure Island. The first day of the festival consists of electronica and hip hop/rap influenced performers while the second day consists of rock and indie rock influenced performers. (Dr. Dog pictured)

22
The Alternative Press Expo (guest speaker Daniel Clowes pictured) or APE, as it is more commonly known, is a comics convention, founded in 1994 by Dan Vado as an event for self-publishers, independent publishers and alternative cartoonists to showcase their books. APE is currently held in San Francisco.

23
The American Indian Film Festival is an annual non-profit film festival in San Francisco. It is the world's oldest venue dedicated solely to Native American films. The Festival was first presented Seattle in 1975 and moved to San Francisco in 1977. (awardee Adam Beach pictured)

24
The Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival is an annual free festival held in the coastside community of Half Moon Bay, California for one weekend during pumpkin harvest season, and includes a contest for the largest pumpkin (pictured). It is one of the oldest and largest local festivals in California. Proceeds go to local civic causes and to the beautification of the downtown area.

25
The Solano Avenue Stroll is an annual street fair held every September, a week after Labor Day, on the Solano Avenue shopping district in Albany and Berkeley, California. Stretching close to 2 miles long and bringing between 250,000 and 300,000 attendees in a single day, it has been called the oldest and largest street festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, The Library of Congress's American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C. designated the festival as a "National Local Legacy". (video of 2009 Solano Stroll, with musicians and passing BART train, displayed)

26
Newark Days is an annual four day celebration that takes place in Newark every September to celebrate the incorporation of the city on September 22, 1955. Annual attendance for the celebration is more than 100,000. (Production facilities at Morton Salt, part of the history of the Newark region, pictured)

27
The Festival del Sole is an annual ten-day jazz and classical music, food, wine, and art festival held in Napa Valley. Founded in 2006 by Richard Walker and Barrett Wissman, the festival attracts over 8,000 attendees annually. Performers at the festival have included Monica Mancini, Pinchas Zukerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Arturo Sandoval (pictured, at a White House performance).

28
The Gilroy Garlic Festival is one of the largest food festivals in the United States, held annually in Gilroy, "The Garlic Capital of the World", on the last full weekend in July. The festival is famous for delicacies such as garlic ice cream (pictured). The nonprofit festival was founded in 1979.

29
Midsummer Mozart Festival is an annual music festival that exclusively features the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The festival was founded by George Cleve in 1974 and is held at various venues across the San Francisco Bay Area. (The San Francisco Boys Chorus, past performers, pictured)

30
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world. The three-week summer festival features contemporary and classic independent Jewish film from around the world. The festival was first held at the Roxie Theater (pictured) in San Francisco in 1980.

31
The Cotati Jazz Festival is an annual free music festival held in Cotati since 1980. It typically takes place on Father's Day weekend in mid-June. (the Susan Comstock Quintet pictured)

32
The Frameline Film Festival, also known as the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, is the oldest ongoing film festival devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) programming. With an annual attendance of 60,000 to 80,000, it is the largest LGBT film exhibition event in the world. (frame lines pictured)

33
The San Francisco Marathon is a series of USATF certified road running events held each June, July or August in San Francisco that include a full marathon, two half marathons, and a 5K. Except for in 1988, the marathon has been held annually since 1977. The current marathon course forms a loop that starts and finishes on the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building. The course runs past many notable landmarks in San Francisco including Fisherman's Wharf, Aquatic Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, and AT&T Park. (2009 host Dean Karnazes, at the 2008 Napa Valley Marathon, pictured)

34
The San Jose Jazz Summer Fest (originally known as the San Jose Jazz Festival) is an annual music festival organized by non-profit San Jose Jazz, and held in downtown San Jose. The festival was established in 1990 and has grown to a 3-day weekend with jazz, Latin, salsa, R&B, blues (Bettye LaVette pictured), and other music styles. The main stage is at Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

35
San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a film festival first held in 1996 and presented every July at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. It is the largest silent film festival in the United States. In 2012, The festival presented, in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and the British Film Institute, a restored version of Abel Gance's Napoléon. (Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon pictured)

36
The traditional Fleet Week celebrations in San Francisco were expanded in 1981, and held in conjunction with Columbus Day Weekend celebrations during the second week of October. The event is estimated to attract over one million people, drawn to the air show along the waterfront, including the Blue Angels (pictured), the United States Navy's flight demonstration squadron.

37
The Big Game is the American college football rivalry game played by the California Golden Bears football team of the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford Cardinal football team of Stanford University. First played in 1892, it is the ninth most played college football rivalry game in the United States. "The Play", in their 1982 game, is considered one of the most memorable plays in American sports. (Cal linebacker Shea McIntyre, celebrating Berkeley reclaiming the Stanford Axe, pictured)

38
The Jewish Music Festival is an annual festival of Jewish music held in Berkeley, hosted by the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay (pictured). It has been held for 25 years. Notable guests have included Ben Sidran in 2014, among others.

39
CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films. It annually presents approximately 130 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. The festival is organized by the Center for Asian American Media.

40
Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon is America's longest-running musical revue. The show began its run in 1974, at Club Savoy Tivoli and has since moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco. The show was created by Steve Silver (1944-1995) and continues under the direction of his widow, Jo Schuman Silver, with frequent changes and spoofs of pop and political culture. Performers wear disproportionately large hats/wigs and gaudy costumes while performing satirical renditions of popular songs. (Christopher Goodwin in character at the opening of the Tales of the City musical, pictured)