North Beach Festival

61^st one. Fantastic. Fun. Large. Plenty of places to eat. Lots of fabulous artwork and showcases. A few spammed as usual but nonetheless a good time. Old school band playing oldies but goodies. A free event here people. Free. You just go enjoy yourself. Grab a beer or wine and just relax in the series city on earth.

North beach festival isn’t for the faint at heart.
On the surface, it seems like a good idea. You hear «street festival» and «north beach» and its bound to be a good time, right?!
RIGHT?!
I’m conflicted.
Now I don’t fault the festival sponsors or vendors, but I do fault the participants.
The festival itself: just like the others. A variety of useless nick-​knacks, artery clogging fried foods, decent beer gardens and the opportunity to spill your beer on a wandering adolescent. In perspective, all decent things… And this may be true, until youre there for an hour. That’s when things get weird and unnecessary.
The people: north beach, in general, is a great neighborhood. I work here, I consume here and I indulge here. I am not only a spokesperson and advocate for its walking, parks and food scene, I am also intertwined into the business sides of things. So I tip my hat (fedora?).
Come dusk, the families hunker down and the bros come-​a-​stompin’; the north beach festival is its nighttime rival amplified.
The bars on grant are nuts to butts and some charge cover, drunk bros in the street yelling out their fratty mating calls while cargo shorts and flip flops come pouring out of the bars. Maybe im a square, maybe im old or maybe im just not THAT guy… either way, its annoying and avoidable.
All in all, a solid street festival to kill and hour (MAYBE 2) only to remind you why budlight and abercrombie is still in business.
Pro tips: go Sunday, not Saturday. Every year, the haight street festival is the same Sunday so its less crowded. Also, go a block up off of the beaten path to powell and green (see: the boardroom and northstar). Both offer wiggle room, no cover and great beer/​food.
Keep on keepin’ on, SF!

It’s a typical festival with lots of vendors. Most of the food vendors were typical fair food with corn dogs, turkey legs, etc. There was art work, beef jerky, clothing, kitchen things, etc etc. Something for everyone was available. It’s a free festival with live music and beer and wine for purchase. It was fun.

Things do vary from year to year at this fair. Long lines at the Peets sampling booth — looked like a tiny cup of coffee frappucino and a cereal sampling truck which was also at the Union Street fair last week. Vendors are a bit better than at the Union Street fair this year and we scored some $ 5 t-​shirts and saw some nice photography. They have more music this year but the free booth on Columbus Ave was not so great (singer off key) but there was a pay venue on Green Street which had better music in a parking lot.
Huge crowds this Saturday, the weather was great, lots of young folks out to party, drink and see and be seen. Plenty of food booths and areas roped off for the drinker.
Liguria Bakery was closed and sold out of their foccacia bread for the day likely long before we strolled by at 2 PM. Brings back memories when I lived in the neighborhood years before.

I think I’ve made it to this one for two years now, it’s not an essential festival in the grand scheme of thing but it is well worth the trip! They have multiple beer gardens and the best food, only second to the SF Street Food Fest. Also the outline/​location of the festival makes it quite intriguing, the streets used all meet at the top like a triangle, it’s pretty cool actually. It’s relatively close to bart if you don’t mind a giant hike up a large hill!
Do’s:
1. comfortable shoes
2. water
3. water
4. byob
5. try the beer at the beer garden, usually local favorites
6. be prepared to try some fantastic dishes!
7. bring layers!
Don’ts:
1. no crazy outfits at this one, so far.
2. using the portable bathrooms near the end of the festival… gross
3. do not forget a jacket!
4. try driving around here, nightmare!

How do you kick off the summer in the City? Street fairs! Cue music (
)! After the previous week’s kickoff on Union St., this weekend event took place in typical SF sunny weather, cool with a soft breeze. It’s probably been close to twenty years since my last walk through this fair, which used to only be on Grant Avenue. My, how things have changed!
Walking from Chinatown Sunday morning, I immediately saw the stage on Broadway and Columbus (another one on the other end of Grant Avenue, near Filbert). In past fairs, the vendors were mostly crafts or food sellers. Now, there was a corporate presence with 7 – 11 offering slurpee samples (tried the Sprite flavor), Dietz and Wason’s deli offerings, Think bar, and Food Should Taste Good (sweet potato chips). This event offers a good mix of arts and crafts goods, local food vendors, and some neighborhood locals. I stopped by the Brass Knuckle stand wanting to try the chili cheese fries, but they had problems with their propane stove. We returned after circling the fair and eventually tried it.
Coming early, it was easy to maneuver and the food lines weren’t long. The musicians started playing as we left around 11 am. With the World Cup on, would imagine it was crazy by afternoon here. Hope to be back next year.

This festival was certainly bigger than expected. Every time I though I was reaching the end, it kept going lol
Great place to hang out. There were some neat food and merchandise stands (some even gave out free stuff), although I did find some a bit pricey. There was also some amazing chalk sidewalk art.
Wasn’t too busy when I was there, luckily, so the lines weren’t too long and the crowds weren’t too thick :)

Every year my bf and I think «oh yay, North Beach Festival!» and when we get here we’re like… that’s it? I’m not sure why we’re hopeful year after year because it’s basically like any other summer festival, except in North Beach. The blessing of the animals is fun, the chalk artists this year were interesting, and there’s always good musicians (last year or the year before there were opera singers) but the food sucks (teriyaki chicken, garlic fries, hot dogs…) and the rest of the booths might as well be snake oil salesmen (tie dye, back pain relief, garlic graters… seriously?). We bought a few sweet potato pies from Patrick’s, picked up some samples from Larabar and Food Should Taste Good, grabbed a slice from Tony’s and left. We’ll probably be back next year! :)

Went to the North Beach Festival just to kill time Father’s Day 6÷15÷14. Took Bart to Embarcadero, used the bathroom at the Hyatt, then walked up Kearny to Columbus/​Grant.
Saw some sidewalk chalk art. Only took a few pics.
Got free sample of Slurpee
Free sample of Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Tortilla Chips — 2 bags
Lara Bars — 3 different flavors, and a free pair of sunglasses
Dietz & Watson have some cut up samples sausage & quinoa, & pretzel w/​mustard or cranberry something.
Eureka bread had some samples & coupons
Got FREE Sparkling Ice Orange Mango after trying some & taking a pic
KCBS — got a red bag & some books I might read.
Indos & Cocos had a $ 5 coconut — wanted it, but not at $ 5. Where to buy a machete to practice opening up a coconut. He did say you can just drill a hole in one to get the juice.
Some live bands performed. I didn’t stay long since I had other things to do.
Energy Up Grade Calif — filled out something got a Free t-​shirt.
Ate at Golden Boy Pizza — Clam garlic slice is now $ 4 still Cash Only.
That was it, then left before it got crazy crowded.

Food, freebies, shops and ample of bars around!
It was a hot, sunny day! So be prepared!
It was a decent festival and a good outing, but nothing more spectacular and nothing less!

Love the music, but food is definitely lacking – very few choices to choose from! It seemed like the restaurants nearby actually profited quite a bit, so I’m guessing others were also frustrated by the lack of food options. There were a few free food booths, but they weren’t that great. Oh well, free so can’t complain. Everything else seemed similar to the art and other booths on the Embarcadero every weekend (or is it every day?) anyway.
Also, the venue was pretty small, and it was hard to find at first. The website didn’t mention any exact intersections or streets, so I assumed it would be all over North Beach. Nope. It was on the edge of North Beach and Chinatown, around Stockton and Green.

I enjoyed viewing the chalk art and the annual Blessing of the Animals, but overall the North Beach Street Fair was a snooze. It was a few blocks of the same booths I see at pretty much every other street fair, without much present to give me an idea of the flavor and character of the neighborhood.
The festival was a good excuse to walk around North Beach, but I think I’ll skip it next year and come when the neighborhood’s less crowded.

horrible festival.
I live two blocks from it so I walked there to check it out.
it’s really not worth closing down the street for .
tried two food stand, both were really bad.
teriyaki chicken skewer that’s too salty. not a hint of sweet like normal teriyaki.
jambalaya that has only few thin slices of sausage.
And of course both are over price.
I don’t have a problem with the food stand over charge for food but at least make it taste good.

Mein Lieblingsviertel in San Francisco, viele Cafes & Bars, bunt gemischtes Publikum, alles rund um den Union Square wirklich sehenswert!

Hidden behind the mainstream family oriented festival at Columbus st., is the heart of North Beach proper: The Grant St. alley. The place you want to be in if you are to enjoy this festival.
The parking lot at Grant alley behind the chapel is the site you want to be in. Because its 21 and over is not as crowded or annoying as Columbus St. Honeydust, Bakaroo Bonet, and Batista have rocked this stage in the past 3 years. This year Blues and Funk trio Marshall Law warmed up us at the back alley on a cold and foggy day. On an afternoon dedicated to Jazz and blues.
The true taste of San Francisco is is on the streets and working class neighbourhoods and block street parties, hang out with real people and not pretentious snobs claiming to be «exclusive.»
PS I’ll be uploading videos of all performances from the past tree years on my You Tube channel. Stay tuned.

I took this festival with a grain of salt and really wasn’t expecting much. I didn’t go for the food or drinking-​mainly my boyfriend and I just went to walk around North Beach a bit, see if there were any interesting artists and to just enjoy the sunny weather.
As far as the «art» goes, it really was just a mixture of crafts people, photography, and textiles and jewelry thrown in with a bunch of stands selling cheaply made «Tibetan» type jewelry.
Early in the day it was a fun, festive scene and it was fairly easy to navigate through the streets. By 3 p.m. or so it was getting down right ugly. All the folks from the beer gardens were stumbling around buying «art» that they didn’t need and I got straight up shoved quite a few times. People were also spilling out of the bars on to the streets and it was starting to be a tense feeling all around.
The only performance I saw were from a couple of opera singers-​that was in the more laid back, earlier part of the day and was enjoyable.
I would go again, but definitely focus my efforts on the earlier part of the day. Later in the afternoon, I couldn’t get out of North Beach fast enough!
The only food we purchased were Italian Ices, which were surpisingly wonderful, if not «authentic.» Mango Italian ices-​yes, indeed in San Francisco!

Yes there are a lot of food venders who were selling about the same stuff. However, I also found other food vendors that were really good! I really loved the funnel cake, garlic fries, organic beef hotdog, and I also saw New Orleans cuisine, Belgium fries, and other specialty desserts. I walked around the festival like 2 – 3 times before finding more special food vendors.
Some restaurants there in North Beach were also offering special take out food stuff because of the festival.
Best way to find good food in the festival is: If you see someone else walking around with something you are interested to try, stop them and ask them where they got their food ^_​^
I enjoy the mostly the food and the street musicians… ohh and watching people painting the street.

There were plenty of vendors. but it was all the same useless crap… they should have at least looked into what kind of vendors were out there…
the food was over priced and i guess i was drunk or something but it seemed like the same food vendors all over the place… chicken skewers for $ 8…COMMON REALLY?!? and LEMONADE… thats all i saw…
we got yelled at by the tie dye lady… we were crowding her space and apparently she paid a lot of money to be there… WELL #1 We were BEHIND your booth where nobody can see your crap…#2 dont get mad at us for your lack of business skill #3 you should be thanking us cause we made your place look semi busy…
we actually walked to chinatown to find cheaper and better tasting food.
I have been to better festivals… more variety, better vendors, better/​cheaper food.

My second year coming here. No music playing in the streets yesterday and I wanted Italian pastry but didn’t feel like buying canole that looked as if it had been sitting out in the sun all day. I love the dogs. I hear that they have a doggie blessing at this festival — that’s cool! Seemed like the same vendors as before — mostly jewelry and food. The traffic is horrid but if you go early, you can find a parking.

This is probably the biggest street festival I have been to and the most fun compared to the Chinatown street festival and the mission one that happens in May.
There is more hip crowd here and it was very funny watching these people in beer pens. Felt like they were in a pig pen. Haha.
There is a lot of food and the weather was nice but other than that it wasn’t anything too special. Freaken crowded!

I have a MAJOR complaint about this festival. 2 days before the Festival and all the live music says TBD! Very unprofessional… I don’t know if they’re trying to get bands to play for free or of the guy who’s booking it just forgot to hire bands but c’mon people! This is ridiculous.
I know Steve Restivo created a lot of controversy when he took over the Fillmore Jazz Festival and was accused of many questionable business practices — Last year there was a HUGE public outcry for him to step down form booking, even an article in the paper about it — Apparently North Beach Festival doesn’t seem to care about any of that.

Jackson Square ist das Sprungbrett ins Viertel North Beach, wo die Yuppies des Financial District sich um die sündhaft teuren Wohnungen rangeln!
Die Columbus Avenue, war bis in die 1970er der Sündenpfahl der Stadt. Bereits 1964 wurde im Condor Club der Siegeszug der Oben-​ohne-​Lokale eingeläutet! Striplokale gibt es hier zwar immer noch, aber ansonsten ist diese Meile heute eher harmlos. Die Columbus Avenue führt zum Washingten Square, wo Chinesen frühmorgens ihre Tai-​Chi-​Übungen vollführen. Wenn Yin und Yang wieder im Einklang sind, ist man gerüstet für das großartige Panorama, das sich von der Spitze des Coit Tower bietet. Eine exzentrische Einwohnerin stiftete diese Betonsäule auf dem Telegraph Hill.
Wenn ihr einmal dorthin kommen solltet, ich nicht mehr, solltet ihr euch die antikapitalistischen Wandmalereien von 1934 in der Lobby anschauen! Anschließend spaziert man über die hözernen Filbert Steps hinunter, vorbei an einem Apartmenthaus im Art-​deco-​Stil, ein Schauspielplatz des Fims, The Dark Passage (1947)!
Problemlos sein Geld loswerden kann man ein paar hundert Meter südlich rund um die Union Square. Hier in diesen Konsumtempeln und vornehmen Boutiquen dieses Viertels. Erschöpfte können sich im Compass Rose Tearoom des historischen Hotelpalastes Westin St Francis erholen, bekannt dafür, Wechselgeld nur im blitzsauber gewaschenen Zustand auszuhändigen. Gläserne Fahrstüle flitzen die Fassade des Hotelturms empor. Das Panorama gibt es gratis.
Vielfotografierter südlicher Wendepunkt der Cable Cars ist das San Francisco Shopping Centre. Von dort kann man mit der aus den 1930er stammenden Straßenbahn die Market Street entlang fahren, wo sich die San Franciscans gern zu Demos versammeln, um den Bürgermeister die Meinung zu geigen.
In der Zeitung der Obdachlosen der Stadt «Street Sheet» erfährt man für einen Dollar so manches, das in den kostenlosen Touristenbroschüren der Stadt keinen Platz findet. Schade eigentlich!

North Beach est le quartier italien de SF. Facilement reconnaissable car les poteaux sont ornés des couleurs italiennes. On y trouve de nombreux cafés et restaurants sympas et un peu branchés mais pas trop cher. Le mieux est de commencer la visite à la sortie de Chinatown et de remonter Columbus. La promenade est agréable à l’ombré des arbres