The endlessly charming and delightful outdoor piano recitals of Flower Piano will return for the event’s ten-year anniversary in September, and the ten-day schedule keys in with highlight performers Jill Tracy, Lavay Smith, and the Glide Ensemble.

Now that we are in that summer-and-autumn phase where there are street fairs and festivals every weekend, SFist’s guide to the street fairs and festivals every weekend that we published in early May of this year caught that the beloved outdoor music festival Flower Piano was returning from Friday, September 12 - Sunday, September 21. Though at that point, only the dates were nailed down, and there was no mention yet of any scheduled performers.  

Today, we got our scheduled performers. The Gardens of Golden Gate Park group that organizes Flower Piano just announced the 2025 lineup and ticket information Friday morning. Of course, San Francisco residents get in free, though you’ll still require an advance ticket for that particluar date. And weekend dates do come with paid ticketed events in the VIP-style Flower Lounge, which comes with a bar, lounge furniture, and exclusive bathrooms.  

Some highlight performances on the full schedule include new Flower Piano acts like the Glide Ensemble (Saturday, September 13) and Angela LaFlamme’s “A Love Letter to Tom Waits”  (Friday, September 19). Plus there are the returning crowd-pleasers, like Mr Lucky (Saturday, September 13), Allison Lovejoy (Sunday, September 14), Jill Tracy (Friday, September 19), and Kitten on the Keys (Saturday, September 20).

We don’t see the usual every-year act Tom Jonesing on the schedule (their pianist Dean Mermell is the Flower Piano co-founder), so hopefully there are more acts to be announced. And we also do not see any mention of the animatronic singing muppet Vanessa (seen above), who has been at Flower Piano the last few years, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that she’ll will be in the works.

But paid show highlights include the opening night Montuno Swing Salsa Band show on Friday, September 12, and Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers on Saturday, September 20.

There will be about a dozen pianos spread about Golden Gate Park throughout the whole ten days, and you can play some of them too. “The pianos are open during Flower Piano 10am-6pm daily and when not hosting a programmed performance are available for Open Play,” the Gardens of Golden Gate Park organization says. “Everybody is welcomed to play the pianos on a first-come, first-served basis. We ask guests to limit their playing to 15 minutes if others are waiting.”

Flower Piano 2025 is September 12-21, 2024 at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, 10 am-6 pm daily. Tickets here

Related: Flower Piano Announces 2024 Dates and Lineup, Now Twice as Many Days Long as Last Year [SFist]

Image: Gardens of Golden Gate Park