The 86th annual Stern Grove Festival kicks off this Sunday with a performance by Grammy-winning jazz and funk ensembles Snarky Puppy and guitar prodigy Isiah Sharkey.
Tickets to the weekly outdoor music series are still free, but last year tickets for some shows in the series sold out in minutes, so securing a reservation may be harder than ever.
But don’t toss the picnic blanket just yet. If you’ve missed your first chance, here’s a quick guide to booking your ticket.
Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis on the Stern Grove website at 2:00 pm one month prior to each performance date. This means that every week new tickets go on sale for concert dates in the following month.
After the first round of tickets sells out, Stern Grove will sporadically release additional pre-orders via Eventbrite until the day of the concert. At this festival, reservations are limited to four of hers per person, and infants under the age of two are welcome to picnic without reservations.
The 2023 season will also feature concerts featuring the likes of Patti Smith, the Indigo Girls and The Flaming Lips, with the summer series coming to an end on August 20.
Produced by a non-profit organization called the Stern Grove Festival Association, this outdoor music series first debuted in 1938 at a concert by the Bay Area Symphony Orchestra of the Federal Music Project, a New Deal program born out of the Great Depression. It takes place at the Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove in Park Merced, a park named after a civic leader in the early 1900s.
🗓️ June 18 – August 20
📍 Sigmund Stern Recreational Grove
🎟️ Free (reservation required)
