Wednesday night’s Glide Annual Holiday Jam featured a surprise appearance by folk legend Joan Baez at the fundraiser for Glide’s holiday meals and service programs, and she stunned with a three-song set that featured John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
For many in the Bay Area, the holiday season really begins with the Glide Annual Holiday Jam, generally held a week or two before Thanksgiving, and often raising more than $2 million in a single evening for Glide’s charitable efforts. And sometimes news is made at the event, like last year when we learned that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was stepping in for the famed lunch with Warren Buffett auction that benefits Glide, after Buffett’s retirement from the annual fundraiser.
This may not be as newsy, but it certainly riveted the crowd that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joan Baez made a surprise, unscheduled appearance onstage at The Masonic for Wednesday night's 2024 Glide Holiday Jam, and started her cameo mini-set with John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Baez played three numbers, also performing “Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round” and “Wade in the Water.” This was followed by the announced headliners Lenny Williams (Tower of Power) and Sacramento’s The Philharmonik.
It maybe should not have been a complete shock that Joan Baez showed up for the Glide charity gala Wednesday, as she is a member of Glide’s Honorary Committee, along with Willie Brown, Michael Franti, Roberta Flack, Goapele, and others. She also performed at the Reverend Cecil Williams Celebration of Life this past May after Williams passed away at age 94, in the number seen below.
And on an unrelated note, check out these tiny Glide church buildings that were the centerpieces of all the tables at Wednesday’s Glide Holiday Jam.
Glide is of course gearing up for the holiday season, with their famed Thanksgiving at Glide that serves nearly 2,500 Thanksgiving meals to the needy (November 28, and you can donate frozen turkeys to the Glide Turkey Drive on November 26-27), the Glide Toy Drive (Thursday, December 19), and the Glide Christmas Eve Luncheon Celebration that serves House of Prime Rib to those in need (Friday, December 24). You can volunteer for or contribute to if you wish to support.
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
