San Francisco features many fascinating activities for tourists as well as locals. The musical culture is just as varied as the city districts and San Francisco is proud to showcase its talents with several music festivals throughout the year. Distinctive walking tours, Shakespeare and strange museums are all part of a diverting city experience you won't soon forget.
Walking Tours
Thespians have made San Francisco itself a stage with walking tours that will show you another side of the city. Playwright and actress Kitty Burns leads the San Francisco Vampire Tour, in which she takes on the role of Mina, a vampire with over a century of history to share with visitors as they stroll Nob Hill. The tour is held Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. and meets on the corner of California and Taylor streets. The "Foot!" walking tour combines history with comedy for a lighthearted trip through the city's neighborhoods.
Music and Festivals
In addition to the several jazz music festivals that are held throughout the year, the San Francisco Blues Festival takes place in September. In that same month, "to be, or not to be" at Free Shakespeare in the Park is the question. The professional performances put on by the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival take place on the Main Post Parade Ground Lawn of the Presidio. Sigmund Stern Grove, a park located at the corner of 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, plays host to a free musical concert series from late June through late August, with shows every Sunday at 2 p.m. The Stern Grove Festival, which features opera, ballet and musical performances, is a long-standing San Francisco summer tradition. Founded in 1938 by Mrs. Rosalie M. Stern, the festival exists in part to "present the highest quality performances, free of admission charge, for all Bay Area residents and visitors," according to the mission statement on the festival's website.
Quirky and Odd
The Musée Mechanique on Pier 45 is a mechanical museum displaying arcade games from a bygone era, along with the largest privately owned collection of mechanical musical instruments. In the arcade games, which range from the quirky to the macabre, you can see the entertainment precursor to video games and television. Most still work for the low price of a quarter. The How Weird Street Faire, a fundraiser for World Peace Through Technology held in early May, is a colorful and eccentric San Francisco tradition. Costumes--the gaudier, the better--are encouraged and music, from electronica to the sub-genre dub-step, abounds. An attempt to break the world record for the largest synchronized Bollywood-style dance was part of the 2010 fair.
Holiday Season
During the holidays, take part in the Great Dickens Christmas Fair at Cow Palace Exhibition Hall. Visitors are encouraged to wear appropriate 19th century garb while they enjoy holiday delicacies, drink and musical performances. You can find incredible handmade gifts at the Celebration of Craftswomen show held at the end of November. The Festival of Lights takes place along Fisherman's Wharf, beginning the day after Thanksgiving and carrying on through New Year's Eve. The festivities include music, puppet shows, stilt-walkers and a tree-lighting ceremony in Ghirardelli Square.
Haight-Ashbury
The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, birthplace of the peace and love movement of the 1960s, has some fantastic thrift shops where you can find gently used designer clothes for a fraction of the cost. Haight Street is definitely a sight to see and a piece of San Francisco's living history. Graffiti and tea houses, tobacco shops and record stores go hand in hand in this neighborhood that is symbol of the social revolution that helped shape San Francisco during that turbulent time.
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