Free in San Francisco

Upcoming free events in San Francisco, including concerts, festivals, museum free days, library programs, readings and outdoor activities. Each listing links to the organizer's own page and shows the date we last checked it, and only upcoming dates are shown. Some free events still ask for an RSVP or a timed ticket, so check the organizer's page first.

Plenty of the city's best events cost nothing. The Stern Grove Festival presents free summer concerts at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass holds a free weekend of music in Golden Gate Park in early October, with no tickets needed. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco offer free general admission to the de Young and the Legion of Honor permanent collections every Saturday for residents of the nine Bay Area counties, and to everyone on the first Tuesday of the month. San Francisco Public Library says all of its programs and events are free and open to the public. In October, Lit Crawl in the Mission District bills itself as the world's largest free pop-up literary event.

Sources: Stern Grove Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Fine Arts Museums of SF, SF Public Library, Lit Crawl SF.