53 Best Performing Arts Venues in San Francisco, California

A large neon sign marks the exterior of this 1,400-plus-seat art-deco movie palace whose exotic interior transports you back to 1922, when the theater first opened. High-profile festivals present films here, along with classic revivals and foreign flicks. There are a few cult-themed drag shows every month. Lines for the Castro's popular sing-along movie musicals often trail down the block.

The nation's oldest continual free summer music festival hosts Sunday-afternoon performances of symphony, opera, jazz, pop music, and dance. The amphitheater is in a beautiful eucalyptus grove, perfect for picnicking before the show. World-music favorites such as Ojos de Brujas, Seu Jorge, and Shuggie Otis get the massive crowds dancing. Shows generally start at 2 pm, but arrive hours earlier if you want to see the performances up close—and dress for cool weather, as the fog often rolls in.

With its soaring vaulted ceilings and marble foyer, this elegant 3,146-seat venue, built in 1932, rivals the old-world theaters of Europe. Part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, which also includes Davies Symphony Hall and Herbst Theatre, this is the home of the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet.

Presented by the American Indian Film Institute, this event has been based in San Francisco since 1977. Each November the festival takes over various venues, including the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.

This historic theater, which just celebrated its 88th birthday, features a combination of classic movies, second-run hits, local documentaries, and art-house favorites.

This Tony Award–winning group is the American Conservatory Theater's major rival for leadership among the region's resident professional companies. It performs an adventurous mix of classics and new plays from fall to spring in its theater complex, near BART's Downtown Berkeley Station. Parking is difficult, so arrive early if you're coming by car.

The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra rose to prominence under Kent Nagano's baton and continues to prosper with Joana Carneiro at the helm. The emphasis is on 20th-century composers. The orchestra plays a few concerts each year, in the University of California–Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and elsewhere in Berkeley. The acoustics in Zellerbach Hall are poor; sit in the front or middle orchestra for the best sound.

Held at various venues on the University of California–Berkeley campus from September through May, this popular series offers the Bay Area's most varied bill of internationally acclaimed artists in all disciplines.

A Bay Area treasure, this all-male a-cappella ensemble stages lively and technically flawless performances that show off a repertoire ranging from sacred medieval music to show tunes to contemporary avant-garde works.

This charge-by-phone service sells tickets for many performances and lectures. You can also buy tickets online, or in person on weekdays from 9:30 to 5:30.

The nation's oldest public-affairs forum hosts speakers as diverse as Jane Goodall and Bill Gates, covering topics from culture and politics to economics and foreign policy. Events are open to nonmembers, and lectures are broadcast on NPR.

Shows often sell out at this extremely popular five-screen theater, which screens the best in first-run independent, art-house, and foreign films.

About 30 of the Bay Area's ethnic dance companies and soloists perform at this event, which takes place over three weekends in June. Some performances may offer half-price tickets for children under 16 years of age.

One of the best times you can have watching a movie in San Francisco—and it's free—the Film Night in the Park is wildly popular. Put on by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, the event shows free films throughout the city from mid to late summer. Films like The Graduate, JAWS 3 in 3D, Sixteen Candles, and Citizen Kane are screened in outdoor spaces such as Union Square or Dolores Park. All shows begin at dusk. Bring a picnic, but chairs are not welcome.

Some of the most talented practitioners of folk, blues, Cajun, and bluegrass perform at the alcohol-free venue.

The Gateway Theatre hosts most 42nd Street Moon shows as well as shows by Theatre Rhinoceros.

The city's top free music event, as well as one of the greatest gatherings for bluegrass, country, and roots music in the country, takes place in late September or early October. Roughly 50,000 fans turn out to see the likes of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Del McCoury at Hellman Hollow (formerly Speedway Meadows) in Golden Gate Park.

Home to 10-plus music stages, ranging from drum and bass to techno-pop, this music festival for up-and-coming DJs is part Mardis Gras, part Burning Man, and all San Francisco.

Twentieth-century works and a number of premieres make up the programs for this always entertaining, Grammy Award–winning string ensemble, which spends much of the year traveling throughout the United States and abroad.

The performance of plays by black writers such as August Wilson and Langston Hughes is the raison d'être of this company, which performs at various venues throughout the city.

Founded in 1973, this nationally acclaimed modern dance troupe sometimes performs with popular local musicians such as the Kronos Quartet and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. Jenkins's highly gestural style sometimes suggests the influence of the late Merce Cunningham, one of her teachers in the 1960s.

Marin County's annual film festival, in early October, is a renowned community event. The films shown span the genres, from features and documentaries to video, animated, and experimental film.

The acrobatically inclined group generally performs at the Circus Center around Christmastime, with fire-breathing jugglers and high-flying trapeze artists. There are a few smaller productions in San Francisco and the Bay Area throughout the year.

This weeklong festival in February or March is widely considered to be one of the country's top showcases for what's new in indie-pop and alt-rock and is held at Slim's, the Great American Music Hall, The Independent, and other cool clubs. Founded in 1993, the low-key festival has helped local fans discover such talented acts as Modest Mouse, Kristin Hersh, and Bettie Serveert. (Phone info about the event is best obtained by calling the individual venues.)

Highly popular with kids, this 10-person dance troupe holds an annual Yuletide version of The Velveteen Rabbit (mid-November to mid-December), at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, that ranks among the city's best holiday-season performances. The group's main repertory season generally runs intermittently between January and June.

The well-respected Friday-evening and Sunday-afternoon series includes chamber music, choral works, vocal soloists, new music, and jazz.

The four theaters and their screens are small, but this is often the last place you can see an independent or foreign film before it ends its run in the city. It's great for indie-film-loving procrastinators, but if you arrive late for the show, you may have to sit in the front row of the tiny screening room.

Affiliated with the University of California, this theater screens a comprehensive mix of classics, American, and foreign films.

The spectacular art-deco Paramount screens a few vintage flicks (The Sting, Casablanca) every month and presents live events.

This ensemble has been lauded as the nation's preeminent group for performances of early music. Its season of concerts, fall through spring, celebrates composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, including Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach.