“Y’all better party like you were stuck in hell for the past 15 months… this is the new roaring twenties,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed shouted into the microphone at the 2021 Stern Grove Festival — which kicked off on the first day of summer, Sunday, June 20th. “San Francisco is back, Stern Grove is back!”
The crowd didn’t need much coaxing to get moving into this familiar normalcy, either.
Folks stood up, howled, mingled, laughed, and danced — masks off — for the entirety of the three-hour event. In many ways, it was the perfect inauguration of our post-pandemic Bay Area world — outdoors, beneath a fogged sky, among Eucalyptus trees, with a diverse and lively crowd.
Although I grew up in the Bay Area, I’ve never been to the legendary Stern Grove. The music festival — which hosted its first public music event in the summer of 1932, when the San Francisco Symphony took the stage — has long been a free venue for the public to enjoy. For over 80 years, it has been a place of comfort, joy, celebration, and of course, listening to the sounds of the city and beyond. Unfortunately, it was derailed in 2020 — as most things were — when quarantine took hold. But now, it’s back, and more vibrant than ever — available for the first time in person and through live stream.
In what has come to define the San Francisco Bay Area, families from every walk of life gathered in this majestic outside venue to watch three locally-based music acts perform live music. I italicized live, because, well, when’s the last time you felt alive in a crowd of thousands while listening to a performer sing and dance their heart out for you?
You can pitch a blanket on the grass, sit on the spacious stone bleacher steps, or reserve a picnic table for your group (beware, they cost $1,500 and must be registered far in advance).
This year, the festival popped off with San Francisco’s very own, La Doña — a homegrown Latinx singer who sounds like a mix of Selena, Mac Dre, and Spanish rancheras — as the opener. I don’t think there could have been a more fitting way to usher in a renewed sense of Bay Area community and hope, as she sang in Spanish, commemorated Juneteenth, and referenced her hyphy roots, while setting the tone for an energetic, hella Bay performance.
She was followed by Berkeley’s electrosoulfunk group, The Seshen. Full disclosure: I attended the event because one of my homies, Kumar Butler, is a band member, and he tipped me off to the tickets. Since the event is free and open to the public, you have to register for a lottery before each individual concert, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a spot. Because of COVID, the tickets are even more limited — and therefore, in demand. So, when Kumar let me and a few friends know, we all registered, and thankfully, one of us was able to get tix. The tickets “sold out” (a misnomer, since they’re free) within 60 seconds of going live, so be warned.
While The Seshen played their set, an older gentleman nearby danced his limbs off while interacting with anyone who crossed his path — from children to millennials to boomers. His unbridled happiness felt like he was dancing for all of us. You could feel his connection with everyone around him, and his humor mixed with dance skills provided us all with some much-needed public showmanship — something that has felt foreign these days, even for us locals.
He told me how he’d seen WAR perform here decades ago, revealing the sense of deep roots that the city and her people have. The only thing that could’ve topped his moment was the concert’s closing act: Ledisi.
Born in New Orleans but having lived in East Oakland, the proud Black singer summoned the spirit of Nina Simone — literally, she did a cover halfway through her performance — and ended the show with a song about police violence towards Black men and women. Watching the crowd sway in unity to her words and groove was a reminder of how special the Bay Area is, and why people from all over the world move here, to experience these sorts of moments — and for free, no less.
Undoubtedly, this won’t be the last time memories are created and bonds are made in San Francisco’s beautiful greenery. The festival is offering nine more public concerts for the coming weeks. Performers include everything from the San Francisco Symphony, to Thievery Corporation and Daly City’s own DJ Shortkut, and closes out with Oakland’s Tower of Power and Too $hort. For a list of dates and full lineups, check out the official 84th Stern Grove Festival page.
And bring your dancing shoes.
