SF’s Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest

Submitted by the Event Organizer

SF’s Yerba Buena Gardens Festival 2024 (May 4 – Nov. 2)

The 2024 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival hosts a full lineup of free outdoor music, theater, circus, dance, poetry, and children’s programs. The Festival opens on Saturday, May 4 at 1:00pm with Cuban soul from Pedrito Martinez.

Now in its 24th year, the Festival will run each and every week and weekend until November 2 and is located between Mission and Howard Streets and Third and Fourth Streets in downtown San Francisco.  

YBG Festival presents classical, world, and jazz music, contemporary and traditional dance, theater, children’s and family programs, and cultural events reflecting the rich cultures and creativity of the region. Artistic excellence, inclusion, diversity and innovation are at the heart of our mission. As the only curated arts park fully dedicated to the long-term presentation of free arts and cultural programs, Yerba Buena Gardens has a unique place in the cultural landscape of San Francisco.

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival 2024

May 4 – November 2, 2024
Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission btwn Third and Fourth, SoMa, SF
FREE

Directions & Parking | Admission-Free Seating | Performance Times | See the Full Calendar

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Programs & Series 2024

Salsa at Jessie: Open-Air Salsa Dance Party

The outdoor, monthly salsa event takes place at Jessie Square, near the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the historic St. Patrick’s Church. From May to October, folks are invited to dance into dusk to amazing live salsa bands. Many musical acts hail from the Bay Area and some from out of town, all bringing electrifying salsa sounds to Jessie Square.

Starting just before sunset, Salsa at Jessie is a casual, outdoor event to get your body moving under San Francisco skies. Fun for first-time and seasoned salseras/salseros, or music lovers enjoying rhythms of the syncopated top-notch performers. Salsa at Jessie is a unique dance experience, just one of many cultural activities the Yerba Buena neighborhood has to offer. And it’s FREE! Friends, families and conga-lines welcome.

Salsa at Jessie performances begin promptly at 6pm (unless noted otherwise), so plan ahead and arrive early! Performances are approximately 90 minutes long at Jessie Square is located on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

Children’s Garden Series
June through August is a great time for parents, caregivers, and camp counselors to bring kids to the Children’s Garden for sunshine and a show. The Children’s Garden Series features professional artists with expertise in engaging children under 10 and their adults. Each show features excellent performers skilled in puppetry, music, dance, acrobatics, body percussion, clowning and more! Outstanding featured groups like Ka-Hon and Duniya Dance & Drum demonstrate diverse musical and dance traditions from all over the world. With such rich cultural and artistic experiences, the Children’s Garden is the place to be in the summertime.

Children’s Garden shows are on Fridays, June–August, and feature two repeat performances: 11:00am & noon (unless noted otherwise), so plan ahead and arrive early! Each performance is approximately 30 minutes long and held near the Children’s Creativity Museum and LeRoy King Carousel at Howard/Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

Thursday Lunchtime Concert Series

From May to October, the Thursday Lunchtime series features artists carving out their own niches in the world of music and dance. While international and touring artists perform in the Lunchtime Series, many homegrown Bay Area artists view Yerba Buena Gardens as the perfect venue for new works. These fantastic performers are exploring new depths in jazz, blues, soul, classical, world, swing, salsa, modern dance and more!

Always free, fresh and outdoors, Thursday Lunchtime programs are a great way to reinvigorate the day. Downtown office workers, neighborhood groups, students and even out-of-towners needing a break from the city’s hustle and bustle come down to the Gardens with lunch in hand. Then, stroll through Yerba Buena Gardens for a jolt of fresh air, art and inspiration.

Thursday Lunchtime Concerts performances begin promptly at 12:30pm (unless noted otherwise), so plan ahead and arrive early! Performances are approximately 60 minutes long, at Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

Poetic Tuesdays
A fabulously curated line-up of poets and musicians grace Yerba Buena Gardens to share poems and songs that delight, provoke, stir and inspire. Held monthly from May-October, Poetic Tuesdays make for a lovely lunch. Downtown office workers, neighborhood groups, students and even out-of-towners needing downtime from the city’s hustle and bustle come down to the Gardens. Poetic Tuesdays are the perfect midday breather over line breaks. Poetic Tuesdays readings begin promptly at 12:30pm (unless noted otherwise), so plan ahead and arrive early!

 Performances are approximately 60 minutes long, at Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

Outdoor Classes

San Francisco locals and visiting out-of-towners can look to these outdoor classes to refresh their body and spirit through dance, music, movement, public art and more. On any given day of the week, you can always find something Free, Outdoors and Fresh at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Outdoor Classes are each approximately 60 minutes long at at different spaces in Yerba Buena Gardens, on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

Weekend Sessions

The Weekend Sessions is the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival’s premier program series, highlighting touring and regional artists performing to delighted audiences. Each weekend program features a diversity of world-class artists giving thrilling performances not to be missed. Crowds of arts-lovers, Bay Area locals and out-of-towners flock to Yerba Buena Gardens for outstanding entertainment in music, dance, poetry, circus, theater or large-scale cultural festivals.

Weekend Session performances begin at 1pm (unless noted otherwise), so plan ahead and arrive early! Performances are approximately 90 minutes long, located at Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, San Francisco.

2024 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Programming Highlights

All events are free and take place outdoors in Yerba Buena Gardens, off Mission Street between 3rd and 4th Streets, and the Yerba Buena Children’s Garden located at Howard & Fourth Street.

APRIL 2024 – Pre Festival Events

• Earth Day 2024 – April 20
• Bay Area Dance Week Kickoff – April 27

MAY 2024

• 2024 Official Season Kickoff w/ Pedrito Martinez – May 4
• Balaklava Blues & Kitka: Songs for Ukraine – May 11
• CAAMFest – May 18
• Islands by the Bay Festival – May 19

JUNE 2024

• Native Contemporary Arts Festival – June 16
• RAWdance: Drawing on a Decade – June 14-15
• Circus Bella – June 21-22
• SF Uke Jam – June 29

JULY 2024

• Get Free Festival – July 6
• Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest – July 13 & July 20
• Color Your Mind Festival – July 27

AUGUST 2024

• San Francisco Mime Troupe – August 4
• Pistahan – August 10-11
• Brazil in the Gardens – August 15

SEPTEMBER 2024

• 5th Annual African Arts Festival – September 7
• YBG Dance Day – September 28

OCTOBER 2024

• San Francisco Indigenous Peoples Day – October 14

Saturday, July 20, 2024
SF’s Yerba Buena Gardens Festival 2024 (May 4 – Nov. 2)

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest 2024 occurs on two days: Saturday, July 13 and Saturday, July 20.

A two-weekend festival of site-specific work, the Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest showcases the extravagant creativity, diversity and vibrancy of the Bay Area dance scene. After a thrilling 2023 season, YBG ChoreoFest returns with PUSH Dance Company’s Artistic Director Raissa Simpson and Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle serving as co-curators with David Herrera Performance Company’s David Herrera. Designed to offer rising Bay Area artists opportunities to shine on a larger platform, YBG ChoreoFest also seeks to present artists of color from outside of the contemporary/modern dance world, particularly hip-hop and global dance traditions. Herrera, a recipient of the National Latino Arts & Culture Leadership Fellowship and many other grants, commissions and residencies, founded his company in 2007 in response to the lack of Latinx visibility and representation on the U.S. modern dance scene. A highly sought after educator, scholar, interdisciplinary artist and award-winning choreographer hailing from African-descended sharecroppers and an immigrant from the Philippines, Raissa Simpson founded PUSH to examine the body as a site for racial discourse. Together, these curators turn the seventh annual YBG ChoreoFest into a glorious profusion of performances amidst the Gardens’ lawns and architecture.

Day Two Companies:
Rogelio Lopez & Dancers choreographer Rogelio Lopez has been a choreographic presence throughout the California college dance scene over the past decade, where he has created many works chosen to be performed at the American College Dance Association annual festivals, some of which have been presented in the gala performances and at nationals. Rogelio is currently the director of the MFA in Dance at St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and teaches regularly at Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. He holds an MFA in Dance from California State University and has danced professionally for many wonderful contemporary dance artists including: Keith Johnson, Hope Mohr, Cathy Davalos, Mary Armentrout, Deborah Slater, Nina Haft and Randee Paufve.

Diamano Coura West African Dance Company is a not-for-profit community African arts organization with a cultural focus. Located at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland, the Company is dedicated to: The preservation, education, and appreciation of traditional West African music, dance, theater and culture through public benefit ventures. The mission of Diamano Coura is to provide global audiences access to the richness of indigenous African cultural tapestry through professional classes, performances and the accurate depiction and perpetuation of African folklore indigenous Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Liberia and Ivory Coast, whereby it can be understood and appreciated by all. Diamano Coura is committed to partnering with other artists and community members to use the inherent power of the arts to break barriers that stagnate to open corridors that encourage social and economic development, while fostering health and spiritual health and well-being. Diamano Coura in the Senegalese Wolof language means “those who bring the message.”

Siddhi Creative‘s Artistic Director Surabhi Bharadwaj is a seasoned artist with over a decade of expertise as a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, educator and lighting designer. Trained by revered Gurus in India and armed with dual Master’s degrees in Bharatanatyam and Dance: Design and Production, Surabhi’s artistry has garnered global acclaim including recognition from esteemed publications such as the New York Times and Broadway World. Committed to inclusivity, Surabhi seamlessly blends Bharatanatyam with contemporary relevance, emphasizing on collaboration, justice, and community building. She has created multidisciplinary productions like “Ashrutam – The Unheard Voice,” “Dream Tree” and her two ongoing projects “The Maze” and “Finding Joy”.

Surabhi Bharadwaj created Siddhi Creative as a platform committed to fostering collaboration, creative exploration and accessibility in the arts. Originally established in 2016 as Siddhi Dance Academy, the company has expanded its activities and has taken on a leadership role focused on decolonizing dance, promoting artistic development and engaging with the community. Siddhi Creative is focused on circular (non-hierarchical) collaboration and learning, providing a safe space for exploration, re-imagination and fostering artistic growth.

PUSH Dance Company, described as “emotional and kinetic” (San Francisco Bay Guardian), performs vibrant contemporary dances, providing audiences an opportunity to examine issues of identity and intersecting cultures that surround and affect us all. Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Raissa Simpson, PUSH maintains a philosophy that bold movement and intellect can coexist. The company has performed at Joyce SoHo, Aspen Fringe Festival, Dance St. Louis, Ferst Center, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival and Black Choreographers Festival, among others. Raissa has held creative residencies at Dance Initiative Carbondale, Bayview Opera House and more. Most recently, PUSH received a WAVE Award, Hometown Media Award and Isadora Duncan Award for its project EMME YA.

Know Before You Go
Each program day moves to four different locations in the Gardens, spanning approx. 1 city block or .5 miles
Event staff and volunteers will direct the audience to each location
Seating at each site is very limited and prioritized for seniors and those with disabilities
Each performance is about 15-20 minutes in length
ASL interpretation is provided on both days
For any other accessibility questions, contact info@ybgfestival.org or (415) 543-1718

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.