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Arts & Entertainment

Arts & Entertainment

San Francisco has always been known as a place for the odd, the abnormal, and the innovative. A city truly reborn through the arts of the World's Fair after the 1906 Earthquake, S.F. is a city where counter-culture arts bleed into business events, and where new entertainers are born.

Arts & Entertainment

SF Native Plays Joan Baez In the New Bob Dylan Biopic, Called Joan Baez to Run It Past Her

San Francisco-born and Mill Valley-raised, actor Monica Barbaro not only plays Joan Baez in the new movie ‘A Complete Unknown,’ she sings the vocals and plays the guitar herself. That made for a very anxiety-inducing phone conversation with Joan Baez.

Arts & Entertainment

The Vacant Fisherman’s Wharf Madame Tussauds Is Getting a New Tenant — 'Smurfs: The Adventure'

The vacancy blues are ending for the Fisherman’s Wharf building that had housed the now-shuttered Madame Tussauds, as a Smurfalicious new pop-up called Smurfs: The Adventure will bring a permanent new tenant to that Jefferson Street property in May 2025.

Arts & Entertainment

Pictures: Meet the Winners of the 2024 San Francisco Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest

Yule want to see these photos of the SF fire station that won the 2024 SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, plus pictures and video of the other runner-up stations that decked the halls hard to bring joy to the world.

Arts & Entertainment

Michael Tilson Thomas to Conduct the SF Symphony Again, But For One Night Only for His 80th Birthday Party

Beloved and celebrated conductor Michael Tilson Thomas will once again conduct the San Francisco Symphony, but it’s for one night only in April in celebration of his 80th birthday, and he’ll only be conducting two numbers.

Arts & Entertainment

The EndUp is Throwing Another Massive Free Outdoor Dance Party in Union Square Saturday

Four renowned DJs and The EndUp will heat up Union Square’s Winter Walk on Saturday, with an all-ages house music dance party rager that’s absolutely free to attend.

Arts & Entertainment

Burning Man Admits to $14 Million Deficit, Says Ticket Price Hikes May Be in the Works

The Burning Man Project sent out their latest urgent fundraising email detailing a budget shortfall as high as $14 million, and longtime attendees are fuming that the organization keeps burning through so much money.

Arts & Entertainment

Here’s Some of the Artwork That May Be Coming to the Car-Free Great Highway Park

Once cars are banished from the Great Highway in 2025 and a two-mile stretch of the highway becomes a public park, here are a few art installations that Rec and Parks is proposing for the new open space.

Day Around the Bay: Pixar Series Sees Trans Storyline Axed

The SFPD has made arrests in two recent homicides; Disney is cutting a trans storyline out of a Pixar series that was made for Disney+; and Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a bird flu emergency.

SF Hires NY Consultant Firm to Jazz Up Union Square With 200 Events Next Year

One of Mayor London Breed’s final downtown rejuvenation efforts is bringing in some New York-based consultant firm who’s agreed to create 200 events in Union Square in 2025, hoping to generate more foot traffic and fewer retailers abandoning their storefronts.

Arts & Entertainment

Anti-Radiation Group Sues to Halt the Reinstallation of the Bay Bridge’s Bay Lights

With the wildly popular Bay Bridge light display 'The Bay Lights' set to return in a couple of months, a group that files radiation lawsuits on the regular is suing to prevent the display’s reinstallation, calling it a “neurologic hazard.”

Arts & Entertainment

Gaggle of SantaCon Santas Manages to Conquer BART’s Evasion-Proof Gates With Mass Fare Evasion

A battalion of Santas successfully cheated BART’s new evasion-proof fare gates during this weekend’s SantaCon festivities, and a TikTok video capturing their gate-hopping exploits is going viral.

Arts & Entertainment

Brace Yourself: SantaCon Has Expanded to Three Consecutive Days This Weekend

You better watch out, as Saturday’s SantaCon has fattened up with additional new Friday and Sunday events, making SantaCon a three-day, weekend-long affair as SF’s new holiday pop-up bars are hosting expanded SantaCon events.

Arts & Entertainment

Reinstallation of 'The Bay Lights' Has Begun on the Bay Bridge, Full Display Back This Winter

Work to reinstall a new set of even-more-weatherproof LEDs for the 'Bay Lights' art piece on the Bay Bridge — the third time that the work has been installed since its initial debut in March 2013 — is now underway.

Arts & Entertainment

ACT's 'A Whynot Christmas Carol' Deconstructs a Dickens Classic, to Evocative Ends

There is no definitive stage version of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol,' just as there is no one definitive film version. And though ACT had a faithful and well loved version of its own that it staged for over 40 years, the company decided it was time for a change.

Arts & Entertainment

Original Singer of 'Golden Girls' Theme Makes Surprise Appearance at 'Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes' In SF

'The Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes,' an annual tradition from a quartet of SF drag queens going back 17 years, returns this holiday season in much fancier digs than where it began. And Friday's opening included a surprise guest.

Arts & Entertainment

The Snow Will Go On: ‘Nutcracker’ Saved as SF Ballet Dancers’ Union Reaches Last-Minute Deal to Avert Strike

The San Francisco Ballet’s 'The Nutcracker' will indeed premiere Friday night, as the ballet dancers’ union and the SF Ballet have struck an eleventh-hour labor deal to ensure the Sugar Plum Fairy will be dancing.

Arts & Entertainment

Livermore House to Do Battle on ‘The Great Christmas Light Fight’ Thursday Night

Livermore will get lit in the national TV spotlight tonight, as ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” has a home from the Alameda County locale whose display features more than 900,000 lights.

Arts & Entertainment

Another Planet Announces This Year’s ‘Week After Outside Lands’ Concert, With Zach Bryan and Kings of Leon

There will once again be a one-day, multi-act concert the weekend following the Outside Lands festival in 2025, and organizers Another Planet Entertainment said they’ve got country star Zach Bryan and indie rockers Kings of Leon as the headliners.

British Indie Band Arrives for US Tour, Promptly Gets Van Robbed at Gunpoint In Vallejo

UK alt-rock stars Sports Team arrived in NorCal Monday night to begin their US tour. Their van was robbed at gunpoint first thing Tuesday morning in Vallejo, but they’re still performing Saturday night at The Chapel.

Arts & Entertainment

Alamo Drafthouse Opening Two New Movie Theaters In the South Bay

Santa Clara and Mountain View will both be getting new Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters this summer, as the hip theater chain is taking over two abandoned shopping mall movie theaters with plans to revitalize them.

Arts & Entertainment

Lights Out: LED Forest ‘Entwined’ Sadly Not Returning to Golden Gate Park for the Holidays This Year

An LED letdown for fans of dazzling holiday lights, as the popular LED forest installation “Entwined” will not be returning to Golden Gate Park for the holiday season in 2024, though there’s still a big Holiday Tree Lighting in the park Thursday night.

Arts & Entertainment

Annual Alcatraz ‘Unthanksgiving’ Sunrise Ceremony Is On for Thursday Morning, Will be Streaming Online

SF’s most untraditional Thanksgiving tradition continues early Thursday morning, as the Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island returns, and will be streamed online.

Arts & Entertainment

Ha! AI Image-Generators Love to Stick the Golden Gate Bridge Just Any Old Place

The Chronicle has a funny look today at the variously, hilariously wrong images of San Francisco that are being spit out of AI image generators like OpenAI's DALL-E and xAI's Grok.

Arts & Entertainment

Expect Magic, Music, and Puppetry In ACT's World Premiere 'A Whynot Christmas Carol'

In setting out to do a new spin on the Dickens classic, American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon enlisted playwright and friend Craig Lucas to write a new metaplay about a small-town putting on a production of 'A Christmas Carol.'

Arts & Entertainment

No ‘Nutcracker’ This Year? SF Ballet Labor Dispute Threatens Beloved Annual Show

San Francisco Ballet dancers say they're paid at levels below SF's low-income threshold, and they’re threatening to go on strike on the opening day of their popular annual production ‘The Nutcracker.’