North America / USA / San Francisco
2017 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival (YBG Festival) proudly announces the lineup for its:
17th Season, which continues its tradition of bringing entertainment to downtown in San Francisco. May 7 – Oct 29, 2017, 760 Howard St. San Francisco, CA 94103
To kick off the new season, the Grammy-winning Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra + VNote Ensemble will open the Festival on Sunday, May 7, the first of this year’s 100 admission-free events. The very popular series Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie also will be present with the best artists. YGB Festival offers you free music, theater, circus, dance, poetry, and children’s programs with artists from the Bay Area and around the world.
Named one of the Best Urban Green Spaces in North America by USA Today, Yerba Buena Gardens is a world-renowned cultural destination for Bay Area residents, families, workers, and tourists alike. Yerba Buena Gardens is located between Mission Street and Howard Street and 3rd and 4th Streets in downtown San Francisco. Visit www.ybgfestival.org or call (415) 543-1718 for more information and complete 17th Season schedule.
Yerba Buena Festival’s exciting 17th Season promises an exceptional array of talent to please all audiences.
YBG Festival Executive/Artistic Director Linda Lucero says, “Everyone needs the spiritual sustenance, inspiration, and communal experience that only live performance offers. This summer, you’ll find your joy at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival!”
The Grammy-award winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO), led by pianist, composer, and director Arturo O’Farrill, kicks off the Festival on Sunday, May 7 at 1:00pm. The ALJO brings together the drama of big band jazz, the culture of Latin music, and the virtuosity of eighteen of the world’s most accomplished solo musicians. Twelve years of critically acclaimed performances internationally have firmly established the ALJO as the standard-bearer for creative interpretation of Latin jazz greats such as Tito Puente, Frank “Machito” Grillo, and Chico O’Farrill, as well as the driving force behind new commissions from Latin music’s most talented composers and arrangers.
Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra + VNote Ensemble
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival includes the very popular Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie dance series, the family-friendly Children’s Series, Poetic Tuesdays with Litquake, and Thursday Lunchtime Concerts. Each and every week and weekend, the Festival has curated a lineup of musicians, dancers, poets, and actors from around the world including the Bay Area’s Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble on May 13, Brass Convergence II: Protest Brass on May 20, Richard Howell & Sudden Changes on May 27, NEA Heritage Fellows Michael Doucet and Tom Rigney with Flambeau on June 3, Festival-commissioned YBG ChoreoFest, a three-day site-
specific dance festival featuring 9 contemporary dance companies on June 9–11, NYC’s own M.A.K.U. Soundsystem on June 17, Circus Bella on June 23–24, AXIS Dance Company’s The Garden Project on July 1–2, Festival-commissioned Theatre Rhinoceros’ Lear! on July 7–9, Ensemble Mik Nawooj‘s premiere of Death Become Love on July 15, San Francisco Mime Troupe on July 23, SF Uke Jam Summer Uke-splosion! with Ukulenny and Cynthia Lin on July 29, Daymé Arocena + Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble on August 19, Paula West on August 26, Kugelplex with special guest Linda Tillery on September 2, Alsarah & the Nubatones on September 9, and Brooklyn Raga Massive with Classical Revolution performing Terry Riley’s In C on September 16.
The Festival closes with the 17th Annual Halloween Hoopla Sunday, October 29.
The popular series Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie, the open-air salsa dance party in Jessie Square (near the Contemporary Jewish Museum), takes place on the third Thursday of each month from May to September from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm. Performers are Changuí Majadero on May 18, La Mixta Criolla on June 15, Somos el Son on July 20, Bobi Céspedes on August 17, and the Festival return of Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca on September 21.
The Festival offers the delightful Children’s Series, interactive performances specially designed for kids and families every Friday from June to August in Yerba Buena Gardens. The series presents performances by kid favorites: Caterpillar Puppets, Ka-Hon, Red Panda Acrobats, Pi Clowns, Venezuelan Music Project, Crosspulse, Unique Derique, and Non Stop Bhangra. The series ends with the wildly popular 17th Annual Halloween Hoopla on Sunday, October 29.
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Commissions and Special Projects have commissioned the following projects to celebrate in June: Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest, a brand new 3-day dance festival, June 9-11. Playwright/director/actor John Fisher writes and directs Lear!, a site-specific satirical musical based on Shakespeare’s King Lear for Theatre Rhinoceros, the nation’s, and likely the world’s, first queer theater on July 7-9 and Circus Bella on June 23 and 24. Conceived and directed by Abigail Munn and Joel Baker for Circus Bella, the show will feature high level, local and guest circus artists and includes static trapeze, rope walking, juggling, contortion, unicycle, original clowning, acrobatics, and more.
The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival also co-presents a series of admission-free outdoor programs with Union Square Live to be announced in April.
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