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By: Jill Loeffler • Updated: April 8, 2025 • Published: May 12, 2013
This year the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco celebrates its 88th anniversary. The 2025 season runs from June 15 to August 17. This year, top performer include The Pointer Sisters, Sleater-Kinney, and Diana Ross.
Every Sunday at 2 pm during the summer months, you will find a free concert in the park. The shows usually last two to three hours and are wildly popular.
You will once again need to make reservations for entry, even though admission is still free. They changed their ticketing for 2025, which will make it much easier to request tickets.
This year, you can also pay for seating. You can either book a table for up to 10 people or you can buy a seat at a shared table.
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Here were the events and performers planned for Stern Grove 2025.
>> Visit their site to get tickets to upcoming performances
The Stern Grove Festival ends their season with the Big Picnic. This year, it's a two day event!
It's a great way to celebrate the last performances of this annual free concert series.
The Big Picnic is on August 16 & 17.
Samian Marley and Stephen Marley will perform on August 16. Dianna Ross will perform on August 17.
This year, the Stern Grove Festival is changing their ticketing system. It will allow you to get tickets in a few different ways.
Six weeks before each concert, you will have the opportunity to enter an online lottery for a change to get tickets.
The lottery will be open for one week, so you will have plenty of time to get your name in.
They will then email you four weeks in advance to let you know if you did or did not get tickets.
You will then have one week to claim those tickets. If you don't claim them in one week, the tickets will go back into a new lottery drawing.
For the first time, they will offer first-come, first-served tickets the day before each concert. These will be at locations around San Francisco and there will be 1,000 tickets available.
These locations and other details will be available soon.
You can help out with a show or two during the season. When you help out, you will receive a ticket to an upcoming show.
You can email them at volunteer@sterngrove.org for more details.
Many of Stern Grove's community partners and sponsors will do free giveaways. Follow Stern Grove on social to learn more and find out when they will be doing giveaways.
If you have a larger group and don't mind paying for this experience, you can also book one of their VIP or Community Tables.
The VIP Tables allow you to reserve seating for up to 10 people.
The Community Tables allow you to reserve an individual seat at a shared tables.
This new system allows for more people to pay for seating without the huge expense of only buying a table. Contact them at development@sterngrove.org for more details.
Stern Grove offers food and drinks for sale before and during the event. This is their offerings:
Since these concerts are free, there are very few amenities. Here are just a few of the items you will want to bring with you.
Since the concerts are crowded, here are just a few other things you need to know before you arrive.
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival: The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival also offers free music and other cultural programs all summer long. Performances are held several days a week between May and October. Click here for more details.
Union Street Festival: The Union Street Festival is typically the kick-off to SF's famous summer festival season. This lively event features live music, gourmet food, and dozens of merchant booths with unique arts and crafts. You will also find a premium craft beer and wine tasting pavilion. Click here to learn more.
North Beach Street Festival: Another popular SF Street Fair is the North Beach Festival. This one also features live music, amazing street food, and several fun activities for the kids. Click here to learn more about this year's festival.
Stern Grove Park is on the corner of 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in the city's Outer Sunset neighborhood.
Your best bet is to take public transit, since parking is very limited in this part of the city.
Light Rail Trains: The fastest way to get here from Union Square is by taking either the M Ocean View or K Ingleside light rail trains. You can pick them up at the underground station at Powell and 5th Streets. Make sure you hop on an 'outbound' train.
F Streetcar: Take this streetcar to the Embarcadero Station at Market and Drumm Streets.
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