Event Listing - Music, City Events
Sun Jun 15 - Sun Aug 17

71st Season

Stern Grove Festival

Admission-Free Concerts


Website

Location
Date and Time
Sigmund Stern Grove
Sloat Blvd.
San Francisco, CA - map
cross street: 19th Ave.
district: Stonestown/SFSU

Sun Jun 15 (2pm) - Booker T. Jones & Bettye Lavette
Sun Jun 22 (2pm) - Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 & Sila and the Afrofunk Experience
Sun Jun 29 (2pm) - San Francisco Symphony with James Gaffigan, Conductor
Sun Jul 6 (2pm) - Allen Toussaint with Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue
Sun Jul 13 (2pm) - Rachid Taha & MC Rai

Description
In 2008, Stern Grove Festival presents its 71st Season of admission-free concerts in San Francisco's treasured Sigmund Stern Grove.

Stern Grove was purchased by Rosalie M. Stern and given as a gift to the City of San Francisco in 1931, in memory of her husband Sigmund, a prominent civic leader. George Greene originally homesteaded the Grove - a tract of sand dunes and marshes - in the 1840's. The Greene family planted the first eucalyptus trees in the Grove and built the Trocadero Inn, a popular recreation spot until its closure in 1916.

Marveling at the Grove's natural acoustics, Mrs. Stern determined that the site would be preserved as a park in which the public could enjoy admission-free music, dance, and theater performances. On June 4, 1932, Stern Grove was dedicated. Two weeks later, the San Francisco Symphony played the first concert in the Grove. Mrs. Stern, then President of the San Francisco Recreation Commission, formed the non-profit Stern Grove Festival Association in 1938, stipulating that all concerts were to be free to the public and designed for everyone's enjoyment. The organization's mission guides the Festival to this day:

* Provide high quality performances, free of charge, for all Bay Area residents and visitors
* Provide paid performance opportunities for professional artists and performers
* Serve diverse audiences by presenting a season of varied genres and artists
* Enhance San Francisco's renown as a cultural center