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Culture

  San Francisco, Culture

The cultural life of San Francisco is as diverse as the different cultures that reside here. In the Mission, the art is on the walls with colourful murals covering historical moments and major personalities in Latin history. In the Civic Center, it streams melodically from purpose‐built buildings dedicated to the pursuit of music. SoMa is home to important museums and some of the most exciting visual art in the world, while Union Square is theatreland. Acid rock was born in the LSD days of the 1960s and played to the hippie generation, by bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, while, in 1967, the Summer of Love crystallised this new cultural consciousness. Guitarist Carlos Santana, recently back in vogue, settled here and continues to speak of the creativity that came out of LSD. Today, the city continues to provide a home to artists of all description, reflecting the breadth of cultural diversity. Its status as a pioneer has settled down, as many of the ideas that earlier generations fought for (such as gay rights in the 1970s) are now more accepted. But there remains a rich tradition of alternative theatre, as well as successful mainstream offerings. There is always something to stimulate the mind and the senses – from street performers, who are licensed by the Arts Commission, to the city’s symphony orchestra.

Tix Bay Area, 251 Stockton Street (tel: (415) 433 7827), provides full‐price advance tickets (by phone and in person), as well as half‐price day‐of‐performance tickets (in person only and cash only) for a range of events. There is a website that provides good theatre information ().

SF Bay Guardian, the SF Weekly and the biweekly Bay Area Reporter all provide listings and information on the city’s cultural activities. (The first two are free papers widely available in newspaper boxes throughout the city)

Music: Concerts of the Grammy‐Award winning San Francisco Symphony, led by acclaimed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, are often sold out. Performances are held at the ultra‐modern Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 6000; ), one of the city’s most exciting buildings.

The San Francisco Opera (tel: (415) 864 3330; ) is currently in its 80th season and, under the direction of Lotfi Mansouri, has become one of the world’s great opera companies. Its home is the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 3330), a gorgeous building dating from 1932. The season is September to January and June to July. Same‐day tickets, mostly for standing room only, are usually available.

Theatre: Shows range from Broadway productions on Geary Street to smaller, more alternative shows throughout the city. The Geary Theatre, 415 Geary Street (tel: (415) 749 2228; ), opened in 1996 and is home to the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), one of the nation’s largest resident companies and a Tony Award winner. Between September and July, the cast revisits classics and explores modern masterpieces. The Curran Theatre, 445 Geary Street (tel: (415) 551 2000; ), hosts touring Broadway musicals, while Teatro Zinzanni, Pier 27‐29, The Embarcadero (tel: (415) 438 2668; ), blends cabaret, spectacle, music and dinner to conjure up a night to remember.

Dance: Ballet has been part of San Franciscan life longer than in any other city in America. San Francisco Ballet (tel: (415) 865 2000; ) is not only the oldest company (it started life in 1933), but also reputedly among the best, performing an eclectic repertoire of classical and contemporary works. Performances take place at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 3330), between February and May. There are a number of innovative dance troupes dotted around town. The Ethnic Dance Festival takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Lyon Street (tel: (415) 392 4400), over three weekends in June.

Film: Over the years, San Francisco has been the setting for numerous films – directors and producers are attracted by its varied locations and laid‐back lifestyle. Its steep hills are favoured for car chases and the Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the distance, provides an unrivalled backdrop. Most famously, Steve McQueen starred in the 1960s classic Bullitt (1968). Chris Columbus filmed local resident Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (1993) and Sean Connery appeared in The Rock (1996). More recently, Ang Lee’s remake of the Hulk (2003), starring Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott, was shot in San Francisco. Jennifer Lopez filmed The Wedding Planner (2001) here, and, in 2001, Elizabeth Hurley came to the city to film Bedazzled. The quirky Being John Malkovich was filmed here in 1999.

The San Francisco International Film Festival is held in April and shows a wide range of cinema. Two of the best new film venues are the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, Third Street (tel: (415) 978 2787; ), and the adjacent Metreon Centre, 101 Fourth Street (tel: (415) 369 6000; ), a Sony IMAX theatre, with 15 screens. The landmark Castro Theatre, Castro Street and Market Street (tel: (415) 621 6120, for information or (415) 478 2277, for tickets; ), shows independent, art, and foreign film and has a Wurlitzer organ that plays before each showing.

Cultural Events: Festivals and parades of every kind seem in constant supply in a city that never stops. June sees the Gay Freedom Day Parade march, from The Embarcadero on the waterfront down to the Civic Center. This month also welcomes the Stern Grove Festival, which provides two months of varied performing arts. The last weekend in July is time for the San Francisco Jazz & Wine Festival at The Embarcadero Centre. Things really get moving in September, with the annual Blues Festival and Opera in the Park. The San Francisco Jazz Festival, one of the biggest and best around, with stars from all over the world, gets underway at the end of October, for two weeks at various venues.

Literary Notes: San Francisco has inspired literary comment almost since its inception. However, until the 1950s, it was mostly the odd epigram from wits like Mark Twain, who reckoned his coldest winter was a summer here, or Rudyard Kipling, who once called San Francisco ‘a mad city – inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people’, or John Steinbeck, who described the city as a ‘golden handcuff’ without a key. Although William Saroyan did have this to say during the Great Depression: ‘If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco. If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.’

‘Frisco’ has been at the vanguard of American consciousness ever since, peaking in the 1950s, thanks to Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and publisher, was declared innocent of obscenity for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (1956), paving the way for an open and liberal cultural life in the city. Snyder, a Pulitzer prize winner, was inspired by the cultural diversity and natural beauty of the place. But for many, it was the city’s drug culture and the political climate. Most famous of them all is Jack Kerouac, whose On The Road (1957) spoke for a generation and challenged the status quo. The only survivor of the Beat Generation is Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, holds a reputation as one of the best places for buying cutting‐edge and classical literature in the USA.

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), continued the outraging of American society, a decade later, fuelled by LSD. For Dylan Thomas, it was a city out of this world: ‘You wouldn’t think such a place as San Francisco could exist,’ he proclaimed. Gay writer Armistead Maupin’s success was founded on that of his newspaper column, which started in the San Francisco Chronicle on 24 May 1976, and his understanding of his city’s gay population. He went on to become a major modern storyteller, quirkily reflecting city life in a series of novels that began with Tales of the City (1978) and continues to enjoy popular appeal. Bay Area author Amy Tan wrote the popular Joy Luck Club (1994), which chronicles four generations of women in San Francisco. ‘Sister Spit’ success‐story Michelle Tea, won accolades for Valencia (2000), a story about young punk‐rock lesbians in the Mission District.