August in San Francisco brings the city’s two biggest music weekends, a run of free street festivals, a major Egyptian antiquities show at the de Young, and the close of the Stern Grove season. Here is what is happening around the city this month.
Treasures of the Pharaohs Opens August 1
The de Young Museum opens Treasures of the Pharaohs on Saturday, August 1, and keeps it up through January 31, 2027. The show brings 130 ancient Egyptian antiquities on loan from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, arranged across six thematic sections in eight galleries. It is the exhibition’s United States debut. The show requires a timed special-exhibition ticket separate from general admission.
Nihonmachi Street Fair
The 52nd Nihonmachi Street Fair fills Post Street between Webster and Laguna on Saturday and Sunday, August 1 and 2, from 11am to 6pm. The free fair centers on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and has two performance stages, an artisan marketplace, a food area, and a beer and sake garden.
Outside Lands
Outside Lands runs Friday through Sunday, August 7 to 9, at the west end of Golden Gate Park. Charli XCX, RUFUS DU SOL, and The Strokes headline, with more than 90 acts across several stages plus the Wine Lands and Beer Lands tasting areas. Gates open at 11am daily. Three-day passes sold out; single-day passes were listed as waitlist only as of late July, so check the official ticket page before making plans. The festival also programs separately ticketed Night Shows at venues around the city that week.
Pistahan
Pistahan, the Filipino and Filipino-American cultural festival, returns to Yerba Buena Gardens on Saturday and Sunday, August 8 and 9, from 11am to 5pm. Saturday opens with a parade down Market Street from the Civic Center area. The festival itself is free, with food, music, dance, and themed pavilions on the Great Lawn. This is the 33rd annual.
Stern Grove Festival Closes the Season
The free Stern Grove Festival plays its last four shows this month at Sigmund Stern Grove in the Sunset. Violent Femmes with Tune-Yards on Sunday, August 2; Patti LaBelle with Destani Wolf on Sunday, August 9; then Big Picnic Weekend, with Public Enemy on Saturday, August 15 and Al Green with Goapele and The Glide Ensemble on Sunday, August 16. Gates at noon, music at 2pm. Admission is free with a lottery or Community Box Office ticket.
Free Museum Days
Four free days fall in the first week of August. The Asian Art Museum is free on Sunday, August 2. The de Young, the Legion of Honor, and the Conservatory of Flowers are free on Tuesday, August 4. The GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro is free on Wednesday, August 5. The Museum of Craft and Design in the Dogpatch and BAMPFA in Berkeley are both free on Thursday, August 6. The de Young and Legion of Honor are also free every Saturday for residents of the nine Bay Area counties with valid ID. Our August free museum days guide has the full list.
Museum Exhibitions
Two shows close early in the month. Boom and Bust: Photographing Northern California ends at the de Young on August 2, and Drawn to Venice ends at the Legion of Honor on August 16. On August 15 the de Young opens A Gallery of Their Own: Women Artists from the Carr and Goldblum Gift, a show of photography, printmaking, and drawing by women artists working since the 1960s, including Louise Bourgeois, Judy Dater, Jay DeFeo, Lee Krasner, and Yayoi Kusama. It runs through February 28, 2027. The museum’s next show from the Svane Gift, Superficial Matters, does not open until September 5, so it is a September item rather than an August one. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opens GaHee Park: Behind the Curtain on August 7, the painter’s first solo institutional show in the United States, running through January 3, 2027. Longer runs continue: Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds at SFMOMA through November 29, O. Smith: Artivist at SFMOMA through June 20, 2027, The Etruscans at the Legion of Honor through September 20, and One Hundred Plays of the Noh Theater at the Asian Art Museum through February 2027.
Bay Day at the Exploratorium
The Exploratorium holds Bay Day on Saturday, August 1, from 11am to 4pm at Pier 15. Its NOAA carbon dioxide buoy comes out of the water for annual servicing, and visitors can look at a year of accumulated bay life on it and help clean it. Included with museum admission.
Free Events at Yerba Buena Gardens
The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival programs free performances on the Great Lawn most weeks. August includes AfroSolo presenting Fely Tchaco and Edgardo Cambon’s 40th anniversary show on August 6, Brazil in the Gardens on August 13, Helado Tropical on August 15, and Dance Outdoors at noon on Wednesdays.
Sunday Streets in the Bayview
Sunday Streets closes streets to cars for a free neighborhood block party. The August event is in the Bayview on Sunday, August 23. Routes and times are posted by Livable City, which runs the program.
Fort Mason Night Market
The free Fort Mason Night Market runs one Friday a month on the northern waterfront, with craft vendors, food trucks, and live music. The August date is Friday, August 21.
Baseball at Oracle Park
The Giants play 16 home games in August. Detroit visits August 7 to 9, Houston August 10 to 12, Colorado August 14 to 16, Cincinnati August 24 to 26, and Arizona August 27 to 29, with a doubleheader on the 29th. Oracle Park is at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, a short walk from the Embarcadero and Montgomery BART stations.
Getting Around This Month
Three transit changes land in August. MuniMobile stops selling single rides and Muni-only day passes on August 1; our Muni payment guide covers what replaces them. BART changes its systemwide schedule on August 10, with reworked train spacing and new transfers. BART also cancels Green Line service on the weekends of August 15 and 16 and August 29 and 30 for track work near Fremont, with two more Green Line weekends in September. In Chinatown, Kearny Street closes fully on the weekends of August 1 and 2 and August 8 and 9, the Portsmouth Square Garage closes with it, and the Broadway Tunnel closes on August 15 and 16 before dropping to one lane in each direction for about 14 months.
Weather and What to Pack
August is still fog season along the western half of the city. Mornings in the Sunset, the Richmond, and along the coast are often gray and cool and usually clear by midday. The Mission, Potrero Hill, and Dogpatch stay sunnier and warmer, sometimes by 15 degrees on the same afternoon. Bring a layer for the evening even when the afternoon is warm, and plan for wind at Outside Lands and Ocean Beach.
Last Month
See our guide to things to do in San Francisco in July 2026.
