The team behind the Great Dickens Christmas Fair is launching a Gold Rush-era immersive experience at Pier 35 called San Francisco Historium Spotlight later this month, which they aim to make an annual event.
On August 22–23, the waterfront will be transformed into a Gold Rush-era San Francisco with more than 100 performers, 46 custom-built structures, period entertainment, and a historic sailing vessel, as the Chronicle reports. The San Francisco Historium Spotlight is designed as a living-history experience where visitors can pan for gold, explore saloons and shops, watch performances, and interact with characters from the city's early years.
Red Barn Productions, which produces the Dickens Fair, has reportedly been working on the project in warehouses at the Cow Palace for two months. Workers have been constructing the town's makeshift buildings, including a general store, saloons, vendor booths, games, and the Alta California newspaper office, which will then be broken down and transported to Pier 35 a few days before the event.
The recreated streets will meet the docked sailing ship Matthew Turner, which visitors can board as part of the experience. The event will also include historical figures like Mark Twain, Emperor Norton, and Mary Ellen Pleasant.
According to Broadway World, the Historium will feature entertainment and activities throughout the site, including saloon shows, street performers, sea shanties, dancing, gold panning, boat rigging, and period shops. Food offerings will include fish and chips, oysters, cioppino, hangtown fry, and sourdough bread.
Red Barn general manager and Historium producer Drew Patterson told the Chronicle he hopes to eventually expand the event to include neighborhoods such as Chinatown and the Mission District with the goal of extending the timeline through the 1906 earthquake.
Patterson's family has been producing participatory historical theater for generations. His grandparents, Phyllis and Ron Patterson, were pioneers of the Renaissance Faire movement and co-founded the Dickens Fair, which debuted in San Francisco in 1970. Patterson's grandparents also staged an Old San Francisco Waterfront Fair & Nautical Exposition in 1973, an earlier attempt to bring the city's history to life through immersive entertainment.
The production is being billed as an inclusive interpretation of San Francisco history. Per Broadway World, Red Barn consulted with the Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco Latino Historical Society, and the Museum of the African Diaspora on the production, and the company says it wants people of all backgrounds to see themselves reflected in the city's history, describing its casting as inclusive.
The emphasis on inclusion comes after a contentious chapter at the Dickens Fair. Back in 2021, Black performers with the Londoners of the African Diaspora, along with members of the London Solidarity Network, boycotted the fair for two years over allegations of racism, sexual harassment, discrimination, pay disparities, and inadequate systems for handling complaints. The groups also raised concerns about the former “Opium Den” or “Le Cave Chinois,” a private room criticized for its use of demeaning Asian stereotypes.
The boycott ended after the groups and Red Barn reached an agreement on revised “Minimum Requirements for a Safe Dickens Fair.” Their joint statement said the agreement followed “open and productive communications” and created a path toward a more equitable future. The requirements included changes addressing discrimination and harassment training, workplace reporting, pay disparities, and the removal of orientalist names and decorations from the former Opium Den.
Problems have also surfaced elsewhere in immersive theater in recent years. In 2024, “The Speakeasy,” a Prohibition-era production in North Beach, was accused of racial and sexual harassment and providing an unsafe work environment.
For the Historium, Patterson told the Chronicle the performers will be empowered to drop character if a visitor makes them uncomfortable, with 40 guest-services staffers available to intervene.
“We’re very particular about the fact that if someone approaches you or interacts with you or says anything that makes you uncomfortable, you drop character,” Patterson said. “You say, ‘Excuse me. That’s inappropriate. I’m a person and a performer too,’ and if necessary get guest services involved.”
The San Francisco Historium Spotlight is being produced in partnership with the San Francisco Historical Society and coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Presidio of San Francisco and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The event runs from 10 am to 6 pm August 22–23 at Pier 35. Tickets are currently $40 for adults, $20 for children ages 5–12, and free for children under 5.
Related: Protest Group Ends Boycott of Dickens Christmas Fair, Says Racism and Groping Allegations Addressed
Image: San Francisco Historium
