San Francisco’s Top 100 Events 2018

1. Outside Lands Music Festival

#1 Music Event
The biggest of the Northern California music festivals, more than 200,000 fans congregate in Golden Gate Park to rock out with A-list headliners at this end-of-summer jam session. In 2018, the festival welcomed The Weeknd, Florence & the Machine, Janet Jackson, and more than 100 other acts, as well as dozens of food and drink vendors and the festival’s first curated cannabis experience. Next: August 9-11, 2019

Photo: Andrew Jorgensen

2. BottleRock Napa Valley

#2 Music Event (up from #4)
The five-year-old festival draws 120,000 concert-goers from across the Bay Area with headliners like No Doubt, Stevie Wonder, Foo Fighters, and Muse. In addition to the concert stages, one of the stand-out experiences at BottleRock is the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage, where star chefs are paired with musicians and other celebrities for cooking demonstrations. Next: May 24-26, 2019

Photo: Quinn Tucker

3. Stern Grove Music Festival

#3 Music Event
The Stern Grove Festival started in 1938 with two goals: to provide free entertainment for Bay Area locals, and to pay performers to provide that entertainment. For the last 80 years, the festival association has done just that, offering a free, 10-week summer arts series featuring locals arts groups like the San Francisco Symphony and Ballet, as well as internationally known performers like Ziggy Marley and Anoushka Shankar. Concerts are held in Stern Grove, a natural amphitheater surrounded by giant eucalyptus, redwood, and fir trees—which the board is quick to note is not located in the city’s other popular outdoor concert venue, Golden Gate Park. Next: June-August, 2019

Photo: Scott Wall

4. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

#4 Music Event
For three days each fall, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass takes over Golden Gate Park with two stages of free, live music thanks to a grant from a generous local billionaire. More than 750,000 people—many with dogs and picnics in tow—show up over the course of the festival to see bluegrass, jazz, funk, and country performances. Organizers wait until the festival nears to release the lineup, but Emmylou Harris, T-Bone Burnett, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and Conor Oberst have taken the stage in the past. Next: October 5-7, 2018

Photo: Phoca2004, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

5. Fillmore Street Jazz Festival

#5 Music Event (up from #6)
More than 100,000 visitors turn out each year for the Fillmore Jazz Festival, the largest free jazz festival on the West Coast. Beyond live music, the event doubles as a neighborhood street festival with dozens of vendors selling food, drinks, and crafts over a 12-block radius. In 2018, Kim Nalley and Lavay Smith headlined the stages. Next: June 29-30, 2019

Photo: Rich Yee

6. Alt 105.3 BFD

#6 Music Event
The name and ownership of the concert have changed, but BFD continues. The radio station-sponsored concert brings more than 24,000 music fans together each summer. While 2018 saw the show depart the Shoreline Amphitheatre for the East Bay’s Concord Pavillion, Alt 105.3 assures fans the event will return to Mountain View in 2019. Past headliners include Blink182 and Cold War Kids. Next: June 2019

Photo: Steve Jennings

7. Noise Pop

#7 Music Event
Over the last 26 years, Noise Pop has grown from a one-night, five-artist affair into a six-day indie music fest with 22,000 guests attending more than 150 shows. Organizers get major bragging rights for booking a handful of artists before they became household names—including the White Stripes, the Shins, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie—but established groups like Sleater-Kinney have also headlined. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Ty Dolla Sign were among the acts that participated in 2018. Concertgoers can pay-per-performance or purchase an all-access pass. Next: February 2019

Photo: Paige K. Parsons

8. San Francisco Jazz Fest

#8 Music Event
San Francisco Jazz’s summer festival brings more than 40 concerts to the Hayes Valley neighborhood over a two-week period in June. The festival has been reeling in the crowds for 36 years with artists like Ahmad Jamal, Irma Thomas, and Marcus Miller, growing into what Jazz Times describes as “a globally renowned event.” Next: June 2019

Photo: Tim Griffith

9. Treasure Island Music Festival

#9 Music Event (new to the list)
Standard operating procedure at multi-stage music festivals is to force ticketholders to choose between concurrently scheduled performers. Treasure Island Music Festival doesn’t play that game. There are no overlapping sets at the 11-year-old two-stage festival. Now back after a two-year hiatus, the event has a new waterfront location at the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park and an impressive lineup that includes Tame Impala, A$AP Rocky, and Santigold. Next: October 15-16, 2018

Photo: Joshua Withers

10. San Francisco Symphony Lunar New Year Concert

#10 Music Event
The Chinese New Year Concert is more than just a performance; it’s a full day of programming drawing on both ancient and contemporary traditions. Guests arrive at Davies Symphony Hall two hours before the show for a festival reception with Chinese instruments, lion dancing, “lucky” red envelopes, tea, and sweets. The concert itself is a blend of Eastern and Western music. After the performance, dinner-ticket holders continue the celebration at the Imperial Dinner. Next: February 16, 2019

Photo: Drew Altizer

11. Flower Piano

#11 Music Event (new to the list)
Twelve pianos. Twelve days. Fifty-five acres of foliage. This is the setting for Flower Piano, the summer event that transforms San Francisco’s lush Botanical Gardens into an al fresco concert hall. Event founders Mauro Ffortisimo and Dean Mermell describe it as the “world’s first interactive music festival.” During the week, visitors are encouraged to find a piano and play what they like; on weekends, professional musicians are scheduled to perform. Guests who want to enjoy music by moonlight can purchase tickets to one of three after-hours sessions, billed as Night Garden Piano. Next: July 2019

Photo: Courtesy of Flower Piano