Mixing flamenco with an exuberant array of Caribbean styles via deliriously joyful rhythms, LoCura sprang directly out of San Francisco’s fertile music scene. Embodying the best of globalization, where people, ideas and cultures collide and recombine, the band reflects lead vocalist Kata Miletich’s experience growing up in Italy, the US, and Spain, where the expression […]
This children's program repeats at 12:15–12:45pm. Combining exceptional athletic skills, traditional Chinese music, dazzling costumes, and a fast-paced show sure to amaze viewers of all ages, the Red Panda Acrobats bring the ancient art of Chinese acrobatics into the 21st century with jaw-dropping displays of strength, balance, and dexterity. While founded in Shanghai in 1990, […]
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the most celebrated gamelan ensemble outside of Indonesia, returns to Yerba Buena Gardens Festival with a breathtaking mix of traditional and contemporary music and dance works. Under the direction of internationally renowned gamelan composer and performer Ida Bagus Made Widnyana and legendary dance master I Made Keranca, the 40-member Bay Area company […]
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival presents In the Spirit of Flying Eagle: Dr. Loco's 75th Birthday Tribute to Jim Pepper. Native American tenor saxophonist Jim Pepper was a jazz giant whose spirit continues to reverberate across the scene. A stellar roster of Bay Area musicians celebrate the jazz fusion pioneer of Kaw and Creek descent who […]
Under the leadership of Dr. John Calloway, a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who has worked at the creative edge of the Bay Area’s Latin music scene since the 1970s, the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble is an invaluable proving ground for stellar young musicians. Living up to vaunted expectations, these high school players collaborate with legends […]
This children's program repeats at 12:15–12:45pm. Over the past decade the Alphabet Rockers have honed a supremely engaging hip-hop act designed for children and families. With singer/songwriter Kaitlin McGaw and beatboxer/b-boy/rapper Tommy Shepherd, this powerhouse group makes the world comes alive through beats, rhymes, songs, and dances. https://youtu.be/jepxZWR3EH0?list=PL_C6KeCoAO6PjlrIJHD20m3iADoIM6E9f
Chalk Outlines An emotionally charged production interweaving street dance, poetry, live song, and documentary theater, Embodiment Project’s bracing Chalk Outlines confronts lives unjustly lost by people of color due to state violence. Featuring all original music by Valerie Troutt performed live by her vocal ensemble MoonCandy, Chalk Outlines flows from Embodiment Project’s mission to promote […]
Celebrating San Francisco's spirit of creativity and innovation, the Creativity Festival invites all the diverse populations of San Francisco and the Bay Area to a day of free activities in the Yerba Buena Gardens Children’s Garden Forecourt. Interactive performances from the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, bubble tables, slime, paper circuits, music shakers and free carousel […]
Lines and lyrics from Litquake Nation! Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors. Mộng-Lan is a poet, writer, painter-photographer, dancer-choreographer, and musician-composer. She won the Juniper Prize, the Pushcart Prize and other awards. Author of One Thousand Minds […]
6/15/16: This program is canceled due to weather concerns. From China to Italy, and all over the U.S., Dirty Cello brings the world a high energy and unique spin on blues and bluegrass. Led by vivacious crossover cellist, Rebecca Roudman, Dirty Cello is cello like you’ve never heard before. From down home blues with a […]
This children’s program repeats at 12:15–12:45pm. Silliness is very serious business for the Pi Clowns. A company dedicated to knock-about physical comedy, these performers don’t tell jokes. They embody them with robust and timeless antics. Blending mime, theater, acrobatics, juggling, and improvisation, the Pi Clowns deliver delightful and original clown vignettes. Pi members have worked […]
The latest epic project from the fecund musical imagination of Jazz Mafia godfather Adam Theis, The Brass Convergence fulfills a long-time dream of the Bay Area’s essential bandleader, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Looking to enhance the sense of community amongst the region’s various brass aggregations, he’s engineered The Brass Convergence, a one-day festival featuring numerous surprise […]
L Frank Kanyon Sayers-Roods A beloved Father’s Day tradition celebrating the creativity of North America’s indigenous peoples, the 19th Annual Native Contemporary Arts Festival showcases a diverse program of Native music, dance, spoken word performances and crafts. The family-friendly festival opens and closes with sacred invocations by songstress L Frank (Tongva Ahacmem) and features musician Ras […]
A beloved and long-running Yerba Buena Gardens Festival tradition, the annual Jenny Lind Concert showcases the most extraordinary young sopranos from Sweden. This year’s program features mezzosoprano Karin Osbeck, the 2016 Jenny Lind Scholarship recipient awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. A student at the University College of Opera in Stockholm, she’ll be […]
Led by Miguel Govea, Los Compas is one of the Bay Area’s most popular and respected Latin dance bands. Embracing an array of styles, including salsa, cumbia and merengue, the group delivers hi-octane Afro-Caribbean soul with a flourish of brass and percussion. Los Compas earned a devoted following during a five-year Friday night residency at […]
This program repeats twice on Saturday, June 25: at Noon and again at 2:15pm Circus Bella, San Francisco’s favorite one-ring circus, returns with Out of Line!, an entirely new production conceived and directed by Bella-founders Abigail Munn and David Hunt (and commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival). Set to original music by the ingenious […]
This program repeats at 2:15pm and is a repeat of the Noon, Friday, June 24 show. Circus Bella, San Francisco’s favorite one-ring circus, returns with Out of Line!, an entirely new production conceived and directed by Bella-founders Abigail Munn and David Hunt (and commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival). Set to original music by […]
Soul group Elephantine is the Bay Area sound of Afro-futurism. Devoted to exploring new sonic territory, Elephantine features mesmerizing rhythms and captivating singers. Launched in Oakland in 2013, Elephantine features the electrifying vocal triumvirate of Zakiya Harris, Tossie Long and Solas B. Lalgee. https://youtu.be/pzq-9pafS5M?list=PL_C6KeCoAO6PjlrIJHD20m3iADoIM6E9f
This children's program repeats at 12:15–12:45pm. Joe Leon’s Caterpillar Puppets don’t just entertain kids and parents. His eccentric menagerie draws audiences of all ages into seemingly familiar stories that take unexpected turns. Like his version of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Bla-bla-blas, or the shy artist mouse Amadeus who needs encouragement from […]
Mexico’s jazz scene bristles with genre-bending bands, and one of the most illustrious and innovative is Troker. Founded in Guadalajara in 2004, the group has honed a potent fusion of jazz, funk, DJ scratching, and mariachi horns. Stocked with world-class improvisers from different regions of Mexico, Troker creates music that sounds like a soundtrack for […]