Spring has sprung, and so has a host of events in the next several days. Here are my picks from cultural celebrations, neighborhood festivities, outdoor music and dance, and more, including our iconic Bay to Breakers.
Thursday, May 14
Valencia Live! is an all-ages monthly street neighborhood celebration every second Thursday, featuring live music, art, family activities, specials, shopping, and lotsa fun inside from local eateries and bars and out in the street. 5 to 10 p.m. between 16th and 19th streets through June 11; two additional blocks through October. Free. RSVP here.
Friday, May 15
Join Wreckless Strangers for Friday Happy Hour today in the park. The band calls its music a blend of “Ameri-Cali Soul,” with the blues styling of Bonnie Raitt and Boz Scaggs, the songwriting style of Sons of Champlin and Fleetwood Mac, funk of Sly Stone and Tower of Power, with some Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to honor the “free-spirited musical fun and adventure that defines the Bay Area.” 4:30 p.m. at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell. Free admission.
Don’t miss the site-specific aerial dance performance of Air Between Us: A Vertical Dance Experience by Megan Lowe Dances where aerial performers will scale walls, “soar across open spaces, and cascade down” building façades. 7 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum. Three additional performances through Sunday. Tickets from $30.
Saturday, May 16
We used to have a calendar category in the Marina Times, “Worth Crossing a Bridge For,” and this week, the Marin Irish Festival is the winner. Inspired by Beltane, the Celtic festival that celebrates summer’s arrival with maypoles, music, and revelry, there will be live entertainment on six stages, dance performances, a dance competition, storytelling, a children’s game area, over 40 craft food vendors offering traditional Irish fare, and much more, like “Falcon’s Court,” a birds-of-prey-environment where you can meet falcons, owls, and hawks up close. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday at the Lagoon Park at the Marin County Fairgrounds. Tickets from $15; weekend passes available.
Celebrate the Southeast Asian New Year at the Songkran Festival, featuring a parade, a water blessing ceremony, live music and cultural performances, Southeastern food and vendors, and more. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Fulton Plaza. Free admission
It’s party time in Cow Hollow for the Bus Stop’s 126th Anniversary Block Party. The all-ages celebration will feature a petting zoo, games, live music; food from Perry’s, The Final Final, Italian Homemade; drinks from the Bus Stop and others, and more. Noon to 8 p.m. 1901 Union Street from Laguna to Buchanan streets. Free admission.
Sunday, May 17
The Bay to Breakers, the city’s best-known spectacle returns with world-class runners leading a pack of jogging centipedes, salmon spawning upstream against the crowd (my favorite), jiggling Elvises (and other exposed body parts) over the treacherous Hayes Street hill to the finish at Ocean Beach and celebration festival. Or crash a house party along the way. This is one big happy, fun day, and we need it. Free viewing, race tickets from $116.
Civic Strings: Adoration will feature a program of Florence Price, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Joseph Haydn. 3 p.m. at the First Baptist Church on Waller Street. Free admission, but they’d really appreciate a $10 to $20 donation. RSVP here.
Notable next week
Monday, May 18
Here’s my Museum Monday pick: Head to the California Academy of Sciences to visit Methuselah, the academy’s beloved Australian lungfish, who’s somewhere around 100 years old. Isn’t she cute? She’s said to have a charming personality and loves belly rubs, which is even cuter. I nominate her to succeed Claude as the museum’s mascot. And while you’re there, don’t miss those adorable African penguins; their feeding times are 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. Tickets from $39.
Tuesday, May 19
There’s a triple-header of films up tonight: The Stranger (L’Etranger) (my pick), François Ozon’s new take on Albert Camus’s classic novel of existential ennui; Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi’s century-spanning triptych about lives that unfold around an ancient ginkgo tree; and Tim Burton’s comic masterpiece, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (staff pick). 6:10 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9:05 p.m., respectively, at the Roxie. Tickets from $11.
Wednesday, May 20
Tonight is the opening night champagne gala for Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really. Based on Bram Stoker’s novel, it explores the nature of predators while reinventing the story “as a smart, disquieting, darkly comic drama” that drives “a stake through the heart of toxic masculinity.” 7 p.m. at the San Francisco Playhouse. Tickets from $84.
Be kind and be safe enjoying whatever you do in the next several days. See you next Thursday.
