Complete list of 92 Fourth Of July 2009 Fireworks & Events in SF Bay Area
FREE* at All over San Francisco
| Saturday, July 4, 2009 |
I’ve always found it maddening trying to find out what’s happening in the bay area for 4th of july… where the fireworks are…what free and cheap ways there are to have fun… so i compiled a list and thought i’d post it. We’ve got 60 92 4th of July 2009 events listed including the major fireworks shows in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Jose, plus tons of smaller hometown festivals, fairs and fireworks shows throughout the bay area, (17 in SF, 29 in East Bay, 27 in North Bay, 15 in South Bay, and 4 in the Peninsula)… and more events coming! - list updated 7/1/09
- new events added 6/30/09 - Lafayette, Saratoga, Vacaville, Richmond, Livermore, Oakland (2), San Francisco (8), El Cerrito, Redwood City, Campbell, Vallejo, Piedmont, Martinez
- new events added 7/1/09 - San Francisco (2), St. Helena (2), Fremont (2), Santa Rosa, Cupertino, Cloverdale, Russian River (2) (more…)
(15 votes, average: 4.6 out of 5)
Loading ...
The city of Aptos (Just east of Santa Cruz along the Pacific) will once again celebrate the 4th of July in grand ole style. The World’s Shortest Parade will begin at 10 am at the corner of Soquel and State Park Drives and continue to the Bay View Hotel. After the parade, bring the family to “The Party in the Park” in the Aptos Village Park where there will be festivities for all to enjoy. The Party in the Park will have plenty of food, games and fun for the whole family and live music from Extra Large. The park festivities will be from 11-4 p.m. Donations of $5 for adults are appreciated, children, as always, are free. 
The 2009 Fillmore Jazz Festival expects over 90,000 visitors to the two-day annual festival held over fourth of july weekend. The festival runs along Fillmore from Jackson to Eddy. The best jazz talent the Bay has to offer is showcased on the stages, from up-and-coming jazz fusion and latin-flavored acts to seasoned crooners belting out jazz standards. Highlights include Lavay Smith (Sat 2p), Marcus Shelby Orchestra (Sat 4p), hip-hop latin jazz of Bayonics (Sun 2p) and Sila & The Afrofunk Experience (Sun 4p) 
San Francisco City Guides offer free guided walking tours of many different neighborhoods in the city and will be offering a full slate of tours on July 4, 2009. Tour starting times range from 10a to 2p and there are 18 different tours for you to choose from including Russian Hill Stairways (10a), Mission Murals (11a), Ferry Building (Noon), 1906: Phoenix Rising (1p), Japantown, Urban Renewal and Fillmore Jazz (2p) and a whole bunch more. 
“Bicycle Santa Rosa” Festival Celebrates All Things Bike on July 4th 2009 at Julliard Park with City Council Ride, Live Music and Theater, games, contests (like the flat tire fix contest and slow bike race), food and more. Santa Rosa-based theater company The Imaginists will offer a 30-minute taste of their upcoming “The Art is Medicine Show,” a bicycle-powered bilingual (Spanish-English) traveling show featuring toy theaters and puppets.
This IS your grandmother’s picnic. This historic Pardee Home Museum in downtown Oakland hosts a costumed patriotic picnic and stereopticon Ice Cream social. Admission includes live entertainment, including ragtime music and popular songs of the time will be rendered with brilliant panache by stellar society pianist Frederick Hodges, & Mrs. Pardee’s Mellifluous Musicale in this “Bouquet of Vocal Delights”: the lady of the house promises to favor picnic-goers with her moving rendition of “A Bird in a Gilded Cage”, and will introduce some of the finest voices in all the East Bay to regale us with many another turn-of-the-century favorite. Also included with your admission price is free bountiful picnic food (featuring Taylor’s Sausages), cold drinks and ice cream. Free game activities on the lawn: croquet, lawn tennis, ‘eggball,’ and the Nutshell Navy. At the shady Stereograph Nook guests can view the latest 3D pictures. Period dress very strongly encouraged. Ladies, wear your biggest picture hat. 
Celebrate the 4th of July 2009 with family quality time on the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate’s 50 acres of lush, landscaped grounds. A family outing with picnicking on our expansive lawns, live music, and games for the kids. The children’s games for the day include potato sack racing, three-legged racing, miniature golf, and a series of old fashioned games like hop scotch, Jacob’s Ladder, ring toss, wood propeller, pick up sticks, tic-tac-toe, jacks, tops, and croquet. Bring a blanket for your afternoon enjoyment of our sprawling lawns and duck ponds, and a teddy bear or two for your child’s jaunt along the teddy bear parade (there will be prizes). 
Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 celebrates 2009 Independence Day with an afternoon filled with fun and excitement. Come and enjoy Take 2 from 1-4pm and Tainted Love from 6-9:30pm. Following the onstage entertainment, visitors can stay to watch the spectacular fireworks simulcast on KISS FM 98.1. Other good viewing locations are all along the waterfront, Coit Tower, Aquatic Park, the Cannery, Ghirardelli Square. Fireworks launch from the foot of Municipal Pier and barges to the north of Pier 39.
Any Bank of America card (one card = one admission) grants you free general admission to any of the listed museums nationwide during the first weekend of each month. Participating museums include Legion of Honor, de Young Musuem, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Jose Museum of Art and more. 
Frankenart Mart, a quirky Inner Richmond art gallery known for fun interactive exhibits hosts “Elementary School Track and Field Day” for fun-loving adults. At 1pm on Saturday, July 4th 2009 gather at the mart to head over to Golden Gate Park where we will hold our Track and Field events including frisbee toss, water balloon toss, three-legged races and the Hot Dog Relay. Everyone’s invited to participate in any or all events. Ribbons will be awarded. That’s right – ribbons. Afterward, we will go back to the mart for free hot dogs – beef and veggie. Be sure and wear your finest shorts, headbands, and tube socks. 
The Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe celebrates its 50th Anniversary season with a song and dance satire of monumental proportions, Too Big to Fail in this odyssey through the twists and turns of banking bureaucracy and international finance. Told in the tradition of the West African Griots, this modern day epic follows Filije, a man in love with his family, his village, and most of all, his goat, Bamusa. Founded in 1959, the San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater; their work is political satire and anything but silent. 
El Rio presents the 4th Annual Big Time Freedom Fest with eight bands for eight bucks and free grilled meets. The live music lineup is excellent with indiepop superstars Birdmonster, the folkly smart asses from Sacramento Two Sheds, the lush electronic prog rock of Birds & Batteries and tons more. El Rio has an indoor concert stage and a big outdoor patio perfect for a sunny day and we’re being told FREE food from 
The Great Vallejo Ducky Derby is a rubber duck race on the 4th of July at Vallejo’s Waterfront. Approximately, 10,000 rubber ducks will be released in the Mare Island Strait near the Vallejo Ferry Terminal Building in a frantic race to the finish line. Free to watch, $5 to “adopt” a duck and a chance to win a prize like free car washes for a year, $2,500 cash or a new scion. 
Jack London Square will celebrate our country’s Independence Day on July 4th, 2009 with a fireworks display, live music and entertainment for the entire family. This free event will feature live musical performances on two stages beginning at 7:00p. The big band sounds of The Ben Oni Orchestra will be heard on Jack London Square ’s West Lawn and the Pavilion stage at the foot of Broadway will play host to local favorite, The BluesBurners. Then, at 9:15p, Oakland ’s waterfront will be lit up with 20 minutes of non-stop lights, sound, and entertainment with a complete fireworks display. A full-scale pyrotechnics display will be launched from a barge floating in the Oakland Estuary. 
If you don’t mind missing out on fireworks, head out west as far as you can go on the L-Taraval to the Riptide for the 5th Anniversary party with a free BBQ ( burgers, dogs, chicken, corn and maybe veggie dogs) and live music from 
There are still several 4th of July 2009 fireworks shows convenient to the South Bay even though the official City of San Jose fireworks show & “America Festival” , which normally takes place in Discovery Meadow, has been canceled for 2009. The San Jose Giants have also come to the rescue with a post-game fireworks show that should begin around 9:15p. Although 
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian art. But we are more than just an art museum—we are your ticket to Asia. Here, travel through 6,000 years of history, trek across seven major regions, and sample the cultures of numerous countries. Free admission to all on the first Sunday of every month and the 
Stern Grove Festival presents an annual favorite, the celebrated San Francisco Symphony, with conductor James Gaffigan. The afternoon kicks off at 2:00 p.m. with an opening performance by “Inouye Jazz” featuring SFS principal trumpet player Mark Inouye, SFS principal bassist Scott Pingel, SFS percussionist Raymond Froehlich, and guitarist Jeff Massanari.
Not only is today “Hot Dog Day” at this quirky interactive art gallery in the Inner Richmond, but you’ll also be treated to a one-night-only live performance by the winner of the Pegacorn Heavey Metal Anthem Winner - who wrote the theme song for a strange Pegasus/Unicorn themed snack. Come get your free hot dogs, listen to some odd music and spin the wheel of fortune that could give you 20% off (or, disappointingly 20% added on to the price) of your interesting one of a kind art work.
Precious Life Wellness Village in Berkeley is hosting a free community event which features demonstrations and performances of Silvestre (Afro Brazilian) dance , a guided group meditation with Sat Siri Kaur, a yoga demonstration with Lorien and will feature a very special martial arts performance by Shaolin Shifu (Master) Yan Lei. He will give a rare exhibition of Steel Jacket Qigong which allows the practitioner to feel no pain when he is hit with iron bars or bricks. The evening will be catered with a vegan buffet, teas, elixirs and refreshments. DJ Saurus from Giving Tree will spin Soul, Funk and Afro Beat grooves throughout the night. 
The official city of San Jose America Festival and fireworks may be canceled for 2009 (and the SF Giants may be mediocre), but the minor league Class A San Jose Giants have come to the rescue. Not only can you watch future major leagures like Buster Posey play hard-nosed baseball in the fun atmosphere of a minor league park, but you get a post-game fireworks show on both July 4th and July 5th 2009 vs. the Modesto Nuts. Stadium is at E. Alma and Senter near Spartan Stadium. Tickets start at $11 and family four-packs are $33, but there are free viewing areas outside the ballpark as well. 
The NFL’s San Francisco 49ers play their first home game of the 2009 season at Candlestick Park (er.. uh.. we mean “Monster” Park) on Sunday September 20, 2009. Mike Singletary’s resurgent 49ers play host to their NFC West rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. Normally tickets are $59, but through Goldstar you can get 
Please note the event date is now Monday July 7, 2009 - Want to see a brand new movie before anyone else? (for free of course) and afterwards get to ask the writer/director questions in a special Q&A section? The film is “Humpday” a funny film about two straight guys who end up making a porn… together. To enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to an advance screening of Humpday, email 
Being in The View From The Bay’s studio audience is a fun and free outing and you might just be on TV. Audience members have a chance to meet and take pictures with the show’s hosts Spencer Christian (Good Morning America) and Janelle Wang (ABC 7 News) and get a behind the scenes look at a live TV broadcast. Show topics range from Parenting, food, fitness, health, entertainment, beauty, fashion, celebrity appearances and much more. 
Internationally renowned guitarist/composer/recording artist Mimi Fox has been named a winner in 6 consecutive Downbeat Magazine international critic’s polls and has been recognized by writers and colleagues alike as one of the most eloquent jazz guitarists on today’s scene. In one of many feature stories, Guitar Player Magazine hailed Mimi as “a prodigious talent who has not only mastered the traditional forms but has managed to reinvigorate them.”
Omnivore Books, a cooking & food-themed book store in Noe Valley, which was named Best Bookstore of 2009 by 7×7 Magazine, is hosting its first (and we hope first of many) Fried Chicken Taste-Off Contest - If you love to eat fried chicken and think you know a winner when you taste it, come on by and eat, drink some free wine, then decide whose is best. The more entries and eaters, the merrier - Omnivore will provide plates, napkins, and wine. Free to entrants, $5 for eaters. Winner scores the pot! 
Blending memoir with Smith’s own drawings and paintings, We Did Porn will do for alt porn what Hunter S. Thompson did for motorcycle gangs and Tom Wolfe for psychedelica.
The number one clay and glass festival on the West Coast and one of the largest clay and glass festivals of its kind in the United States, this open-air festival attracts thousands of serious collectors and shoppers each year. Over 180 professional clay and glass artists are participating and the public will have the opportunity to meet the artists and discuss their craft. A wide selection of extraordinary functional and decorative pieces for the home and garden will be available including ornately glazed bowls and plates in contemporary and international styles, hand blown functional and decorative glassware objects, dinnerware, stunning handmade jewelry, Ikebana dishes, ceramic tiles, elegant porcelain vases, garden sculpture, and original sculpture ranging from intricate miniatures to compelling figurative sculpture and grand raku vessels.
Murals–some controversial–created by 25 of California’s leading artists of the 1930s reflect scenes of the Great Depression, landscapes, farm workers, industries, a stylish soiree, and vibrant city life. This free San Francisco City Guides tour includes some murals not usually open to the public. 
Breads and Tortillas: Delicious Traditions. Come to the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park and its Multimedia History House on Saturday July 11, 2009, 2 -4pm and eat your way through history… yum! Learn to make tortillas from scratch, and they are so sabroso that way. Expert tortilleros will be on hand to guide you through the steps, and you get to cook them on a comal on an open fire. Also enjoy fry bread, hoe-cakes and mexican pastries. 
LaborFest was established in 1994 to institutionalize the history and culture of working people in an annual labor cultural, film and arts festival. It begins every July 5th, which is the anniversary of the 1934 “Bloody Thursday” event. On that day, two workers Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise were shot and killed in San Francisco. They were supporting the longshoremen and maritime workers strike. This incident brought about the San Francisco General Strike which shut down the entire city and led to hundreds of thousands of workers joining the trade union movement.
“Wachovia Wednesdays” is the third Wednesday of every month and gives you free admission (normally it’s $24.95 per adult) to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The California Academy of Sciences, which reopened in Golden Gate Park in September 2008, is home to Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, Kimball Natural History Museum, and world-class research and education programs—all under one living roof.
Fourth of July Events - 2009
Share This