San Francisco is home to a breathtaking diversity of cultural events. Between our fair city’s world-class museums, restaurants, bars, art galleries, music scene, festivals, and clubs, between all that is weird and quirky and purely San Franciscan, there’s something going down, somewhere, every single day of the year. Check out our Flavorpill social discovery engine, where you can create and share events with friends, and follow our carefully curated editors’ picks. Below, you’ll find Flavorpill’s top picks for this week — just a little bit of help as you set out into this beautiful wide world of SF’s happenings.
Tuesday, June 18
MUSIC: Disappear Incompletely: The Radiohead Project
PARTY: Our Town, Our Stories Happy Hour Fundraiser
Wednesday, June 19
FESTIVAL: 101st Annual Alameda County Fair Summer is here! Prove it to yourself by enjoying all the festivities of the 101st Alameda County Fair! Boasting the nation’s oldest one-mile horse racing track (which celebrated its centennial in 1958), the fair offers Northern California’s finest summer thoroughbred, mule, and quarter-horse racing, along with a thriving, ribbon-seeking menagerie. If livestock isn’t your cup o’ lemonade, come for the Hippity Hop Contest instead. Or do some racing of your own on all kinds of Midway contraptions that’ll whip and spin you through the air in all kinds of directions, not to mention the new White Water Flume ride. Time to have a good ol’ fashioned blast. — Joshua Wyatt
Thursday, June 20
WORKSHOP/CLASS: Etsy Craft Party Etsy’s Craft Party, an annual throw-it-yourself, do-it-yourself party, harkens back to those golden elementary school days of glue sticks and glitter — but with a grown-up, global flair. On this one day, Etsy devotees from all over the world organize local craft parties to celebrate the hell out of crafting. So far, this year’s local craft parties include making Artist Trading Cards at Creativebug Studios, beading projects at General Bead, recycling and upcycling with the East Bay Arts Collective, general crafting and noshing with the Odds & Ends Shop, and learning to print on fabric in Albany. Or, if you’re a DIY die-hard, go ahead and organize your own craft party. Pipe cleaners ahoy! — Bonnie Chan
GETAWAY: Summer Solstice Celebration
Friday, June 21
PARTY: Reyka Summer Solstice Party Iceland goes big on summer solstice, probably since folks there have spent the last six months in the dark. This year, Iceland’s own Reyka Vodka is bringing the magic of the solstice to the (sometimes) sunnier climes of San Francisco. Join us in heralding the sun at Swig from 6-9pm on the longest day of the year — that’s June 21 for the non-Nordic among you — with specialty Reyka cocktails and Icelandic tunes from bands like Sigur Rós and Of Monsters and Men. It’s 100% free if you RSVP now, so hop to it. Here comes the sun! — Leah Taylor
DESIGN: San Francisco Design Week
Saturday, June 22
FESTIVAL: Bicycle Music Festival The Bicycle Music Festival is a 100% pedal-powered music festival that kicks off at noon in Golden Gate Park and then bike-parades through the streets of SF before ending up in the Mission District for an all-night party. Among the many things to look forward to at this year’s event is a featured performance by bluegrass darlings Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, who combine their musical powers with a veritable circus of bike-blended smoothies, bike-blended ice cream, food bikes, art bikes, sound bikes… We think you get the picture. Also be prepared for a marching band dance party and the kind of two-wheeled love that can only be generated en masse. — Bonnie Chan
FESTIVAL: Berkeley World Music Festival
Sunday, June 23
BOOKS: City Lights’ 60th Birthday Party Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s celebrated bookstore, founded in 1953, has deep roots in San Francisco’s Beat culture and counterculture. (The publishing arm of City Lights, founded two years later in 1955, was the first to publish Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems.) Sixty years later, City Lights Bookstore is still a North Beach landmark and a destination for anyone who appreciates the printed word. You’re invited to help celebrate City Lights’ golden 60 with a day of flash readings, a silent auction, and more. The celebration also continues throughout the summer with workshops, exhibits, and a series of literary readings on Sunday nights in Jack Kerouac Alley. — Bonnie Chan
Ongoing
FILM: Frameline37 If the adorably plump, dapper little otters on the posters of Frameline37 don’t convince you, perhaps the impressive lineup of independent queer film will. To fully appreciate the scope of this year’s offerings, you should probably attend at least one screening, if not more, of the largest LGBTQ film festival in the country. Download their fancy festival app to stay organized, or just camp out at the Castro Theater — there are a lot of films not to miss. — Emma Rae Lierley