Events
Arts & Culture in San Francisco
Upcoming arts and culture events in San Francisco: museum exhibitions and free days, gallery openings, dance and theater, film screenings, author talks and cultural festivals. Each listing links to the organizer's own page and shows the date we last checked it, and only upcoming dates are shown. Exhibition hours and ticket rules belong to each venue, so check their page before you go.
Several major museums have standing free admission. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which run the de Young and the Legion of Honor, offer free general admission every Saturday to residents of the nine Bay Area counties and to everyone on the first Tuesday of every month, for the permanent collection galleries. Visitors 17 and under always get in free. SFMOMA admits guests 18 and younger free and also schedules Free Community Days. Outdoors, the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival offers free performing arts from May through October, and each October Lit Crawl, a one-night literary pub crawl, takes over the Mission District.
Sources: Fine Arts Museums of SF, SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Lit Crawl SF.
Filipino American International Book Festival
Bay Area Science Festival 2026
ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee: Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Andrew Sean Greer
Family Studio: Spiders at SFMOMA
Sunday Streets Excelsior
Truong Tran: How to Exi(s)t Launch Party
Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle
In Their Name: Día de Los Muertos Opening at SOMArts
Randall Museum Family Halloween Day
Sandcastle Classic
Fort Mason Historic District Walking Tour
Lit Crawl SF 2026
SuperNatural Halloween at Cal Academy
SFMOMA Free Family Day
World of Dumplings
SF Music Day 2026 at the War Memorial
Mission Rock Friday Night Movies: Coco at China Basin Park
North Beach Library Halloween Open House
Chinatown Halloween Festival
Halloween Hoopla
Asian Art Museum Free First Sunday
Castro Art Mart Mini Block Party
de Young Free First Tuesday
Legion of Honor Free First Tuesday
Museum of Craft and Design Free First Thursday
La Nuit Au Musée: A Sip of the Roaring ’20s
POETS! Reading and Open Mic at Bird & Beckett
Tiny Dances: Swan Lake
Día de los Muertos and Diwali Festival at Presidio Tunnel Tops
San Francisco Veterans Day Parade
San Francisco Diwali Festival
Bhangra & Beats Diwali Night Market
Renegade Craft Fair: Winter
MoAD Free Second Saturday
Feathered Friends: Birdwatching & Nature Art for Families at SF Botanical Garden
Rae Armantrout with Elizabeth Robinson: Safe Rooms
West Coast Craft: Winter
Tasha Colby: Artist Talk & Pop-Up at RedBrick Ceramic Studio
Let’s Glow SF: Free Downtown Holiday Projection Festival (Dec 4–13, 2026)
San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker
Popovich Comedy Pet Theater
Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet
Sunset Night Market: Dong Zhi
Japanese New Year Bell-Ringing Ceremony
Recently Ended
Past events in this category. Each page says when the next date is announced.
- ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee: Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Andrew Sean Greer Oct 17, 2026
- SF Fiction Society Oct 16, 2026
- Books & Big Ideas SF Oct 14, 2026
- Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration Oct 12, 2026
- Fleet Week Ship Tours Oct 12, 2026
- Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering for Indigenous Peoples’ Day Oct 12, 2026
- YBG Dance Day Oct 11, 2026
- Italian Heritage Parade Oct 11, 2026
- San Francisco Fashion Week: ÉLITE – Le Mode Luxe Oct 10, 2026
- SOMA Pilipinas Pride: MAKIBEKI Oct 10, 2026
- Bollywood Garba at Union Square Oct 10, 2026
- Chinatown Night Market Oct 9, 2026