10 Things to Do in the Bay Area This Weekend

<p>From opening weekend at the Renaissance Faire in the hills above Hollister to a 75-year-old Greek festival, the final notes of Flower Piano and a weekend when San Francisco brings century-old streetcars back onto the tracks, here are my picks for September 17–20.</p> <p>By Mike MacPherson SF Bay Weekend</p> <p>Some weekends hand you an easy choice.</p> <p>This one doesn’t.</p> <p>Thursday night, Bleachers takes over the Greek Theatre. By Friday, you’ve got Jack Harlow at the Fox, Oktoberfest opening in Redwood City and a night market overlooking the Bay at Fort Mason.</p> <p>Then Saturday and Sunday, a whole other world opens up in the hills above Hollister for the Renaissance Faire’s first weekend of the season.</p> <p>And in Golden Gate Park, something special is quietly running out the clock. By Sunday night, the pianos are gone for another year.</p> <p>Here are my SF Bay Weekend Top 10, plus this week’s Hidden Gem and Family Pick.</p> <p>1. San Francisco Greek Food Festival — 75th Annual</p> <p>Annunciation Cathedral, San Francisco | Friday–Sunday</p> <p>Seventy-five years.</p> <p>That alone tells you something about this festival.</p> <p>For three days, Annunciation Cathedral turns into a celebration of Greek food, music and dancing, with free admission. Friday and Saturday run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday wraps at 7 p.m.</p> <p>This isn’t one you rush through.</p> <p>Show up hungry, wander around, listen to the music and make an afternoon of it.</p> <p>Best for: A festival that has been part of San Francisco long enough to become a tradition.</p> <p>2. Flower Piano — Final Weekend</p> <p>San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park | Through Sunday</p> <p>This is your last chance.</p> <p>For 11 days, pianos have been scattered throughout the Botanical Garden, with scheduled performances mixed with moments when regular visitors can sit down and play.</p> <p>Then Sunday comes, and they disappear for another year.</p> <p>That’s what I love about Flower Piano.</p> <p>You’re walking through one of the most beautiful places in San Francisco, turn a corner and suddenly someone is playing a piano in the middle of a garden.</p> <p>Flower Piano is included with Botanical Garden admission, with free admission available for San Francisco residents.</p> <p>Why go: Because next weekend, it’s gone.</p> <p>3. Bleachers, with The Linda Lindas</p> <p>Greek Theatre, Berkeley | Thursday</p> <p>Why wait until Friday?</p> <p>Bleachers and The Linda Lindas give you an excuse to start the weekend a day early.</p> <p>Doors open at 5 p.m., music starts at 6:30, and then there’s the Greek itself.</p> <p>There are concert venues, and then there are places where the setting becomes part of the show.</p> <p>Sitting against the Berkeley hills as the daylight fades puts the Greek firmly in that second category.</p> <p>Why Thursday matters: Your weekend can start whenever you decide it does.</p> <p>4. Northern California Renaissance Faire — Opening Weekend</p> <p>Casa de Fruta, Hollister | Saturday & Sunday</p> <p>This is the drive-out-of-town pick, and it’s my favorite kind.</p> <p>The moment you walk through the gates, you’re somewhere else.</p> <p>Jousting. Costumes. Music. Turkey legs. People completely committed to the bit.</p> <p>And this is opening weekend, when everything feels new again.</p> <p>There’s also a pretty compelling reason for families to consider it this year: kids 12 and under are admitted free every weekend during the 2026 season.</p> <p>It runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.</p> <p>Why it made the list: Because there’s nothing subtle about it, and some weekends that’s exactly what you want.</p> <p>5. Jack Harlow: Monica Tour</p> <p>Fox Theater, Oakland | Friday</p> <p>Friday night just got more interesting.</p> <p>Jack Harlow’s rescheduled Oakland date lands right in our weekend, with doors at 7 p.m. and the show at 8.</p> <p>And the Fox is part of the reason this makes the list.</p> <p>The restored theater, the lights, the marquee and Uptown Oakland outside the doors give a big show a sense of occasion before the music even starts.</p> <p>Best for: The Friday-night headliner on this list.</p> <p>6. Redwood City Oktoberfest</p> <p>Courthouse Square, Redwood City | Friday–Sunday</p> <p>Oktoberfest season has arrived.</p> <p>Redwood City turns Courthouse Square into its own version of a German beer hall, with communal tables, steins, food and live entertainment.</p> <p>And this weekend is just the beginning — the celebration continues through September 27, with no event on Monday, September 21.</p> <p>Friday starts with an evening session from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday has afternoon and evening sessions, and Sunday does the same.</p> <p>Why go: Because “Oktoberfest opening weekend” is a pretty good reason on its own.</p> <p>7. Bay Area Theatre Week — Final Days</p> <p>Venues across the Bay Area | Through Sunday</p> <p>Here’s another one with a clock running on it.</p> <p>Bay Area Theatre Week wraps Sunday, which means this is the final weekend to take advantage of discounted and free tickets at participating theaters around the region.</p> <p>And I like this one because it isn’t really about telling you which show to see.</p> <p>It’s about giving you a reason to finally try the theater or production you’ve been curious about.</p> <p>Why it made the list: Because sometimes the best weekend plan is the thing you’ve been saying you’ll do “someday.”</p> <p>Someday is this weekend.</p> <p>8. Fort Mason Night Market</p> <p>Fort Mason Center, San Francisco | Friday, 5–10 p.m.</p> <p>This is the easy Friday night.</p> <p>Food. Drinks. Vendors. Music. The Bay right outside.</p> <p>No elaborate itinerary required.</p> <p>Show up at Fort Mason hungry, walk around and figure out dinner when you get there.</p> <p>Best for: The night when you decide what you’re doing at 4:30.</p> <p>9. Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival</p> <p>Old Mill Park, Mill Valley | Saturday & Sunday</p> <p>Here’s my North Bay pick.</p> <p>The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival takes over Old Mill Park for its 69th year, putting art underneath the redwoods instead of inside a convention hall.</p> <p>That setting is a big part of why this makes my list.</p> <p>You get a day in Mill Valley, an outdoor art festival and one of those settings that reminds you why a simple Bay Area weekend can feel like you went somewhere much farther away.</p> <p>Why it made the list: Art underneath the redwoods is very hard for me to pass up.</p> <p>10. Millbrae Mid-Autumn Festival</p> <p>Downtown Millbrae | Saturday & Sunday</p> <p>Broadway in downtown Millbrae fills with food, vendors and live entertainment for a two-day celebration built around the Mid-Autumn Festival.</p> <p>And there’s something I like about putting Millbrae on this list.</p> <p>Not every great weekend needs to revolve around San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose.</p> <p>Sometimes the discovery is realizing there’s something worth stopping for in a place you normally drive right past.</p> <p>Why it made the list: Because Millbrae doesn’t usually make anyone’s weekend list, and maybe it should.</p> <p>Hidden Gem: Muni Heritage Weekend</p> <p>San Francisco Railway Museum, 77 Steuart Street near the Ferry Building | Saturday & Sunday, September 19–20 | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Free</p> <p>This is the kind of thing I go looking for.</p> <p>Once a year, San Francisco pulls pieces of its historic transit fleet out and puts them back on the street.</p> <p>And you can actually ride them.</p> <p>We’re talking about vehicles like a 1934 open-top “Boat Tram” from Blackpool, England; the 1896 “Dinky,” America’s oldest passenger streetcar still operated by a transit agency; San Francisco’s 1912 Municipal Railway Car No. 1; and vintage trams from Melbourne and Milan.</p> <p>The historic streetcars and buses are free to ride, departing throughout the day from the San Francisco Railway Museum area near the Ferry Building.</p> <p>And then there’s the Dinky.</p> <p>You can walk down toward the Ferry Building Saturday morning and climb aboard a streetcar that survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.</p> <p>The 1896 car spent years afterward as a work vehicle before eventually being restored to its original appearance.</p> <p>That’s not a replica.</p> <p>That’s the same car.</p> <p>There are vintage buses too, plus transit displays, kids’ activities and a sale of historic transit artifacts and books. Special historic cable cars are also expected to run, although those charge the regular fare.</p> <p>And you don’t have to be a transit fanatic to appreciate this.</p> <p>You just have to be curious.</p> <p>Why it’s my Hidden Gem: Because millions of people ride Muni without ever thinking about what San Francisco transit looked like 50, 80 or more than 100 years ago.</p> <p>For one weekend, you can actually climb aboard and find out.</p> <p>Family Pick: Children’s Book Festival at Fairyland</p> <p>Children’s Fairyland, Oakland | Saturday, September 19 | 10 a.m.–4 p.m.</p> <p>This week, I went looking for something completely different for families.</p> <p>I found it at Fairyland.</p> <p>Saturday is the Children’s Book Festival, bringing more than 30 Bay Area children’s authors and illustrators together inside one of Oakland’s most unusual family destinations.</p> <p>There are author readings, illustrators creating art, book shopping, family literacy activities and a youth writers’ workshop.</p> <p>And there’s another reason this one caught my attention.</p> <p>Mychal Threets — librarian, author and host of Reading Rainbow — is one of this year’s featured guests.</p> <p>But Fairyland already has something most family events have to manufacture:</p> <p>Imagination is built into the place.</p> <p>Storybook sets, puppet shows and generations of Bay Area history are already there before the festival even starts.</p> <p>Why it’s my Family Pick: Because it combines books, imagination and one of those Bay Area places kids may remember long after the weekend is over.</p> <p>My Weekend Playbook</p> <p>If I were building this weekend myself, I’d start Thursday at the Greek Theatre for Bleachers.</p> <p>Friday is the hard one.</p> <p>Jack Harlow at the Fox is the big-ticket choice. Fort Mason is the easy night out. Redwood City starts Oktoberfest.</p> <p>Pick a lane and don’t feel bad about it.</p> <p>Saturday or Sunday, this is the weekend I’d make one bigger move.</p> <p>Head south to Hollister for opening weekend of the Renaissance Faire.</p> <p>Go north to Mill Valley and look at art under the redwoods.</p> <p>Or stay in San Francisco and climb aboard a streetcar that was carrying passengers before the 1906 earthquake.</p> <p>That last one is hard for me to pass up.</p> <p>Families have Fairyland on Saturday, and if your kids would rather watch knights knock each other off horses, you already know where to go.</p> <p>But whatever else you do, find some time for Flower Piano.</p> <p>Walk into the Botanical Garden.</p> <p>Wander until you hear one.</p> <p>Then follow the music.</p> <p>Because Sunday night, the final weekend ends, the pianos leave the garden, and you don’t get another chance until next September.</p> <p>That’s four days.</p> <p>Choose what fits. Skip what doesn’t.</p> <p>And go find something you didn’t know was there.</p> <p>It’s out there. Let’s go find it.</p> <p>— SF Bay Weekend</p> <p><a href="sfbayweekend.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Learn more →</a></p>