San Francisco & the Bay Area
Edition of Monday, October 26, 2026 Coverage: October 26 to November 29 59 events
At a Glance
This is a long window and it has a clear shape. It opens with Halloween landing on a Saturday, which has pushed almost every good party indoors and spread the rest across both Friday and Saturday night. Then comes the real centre of the edition: November 2, when the Mission builds several hundred altars in a park and walks 24th Street by candlelight, and Oakland closes nine blocks of Fruitvale the day before. There are seven separate Day of the Dead observances here across four counties, and six of the seven are free.
After that the window turns athletic. The Warriors come home 0-3 for the longest homestand of their season, nine Chase Center dates in all. The Earthquakes play two final home matches with playoff seeding still live, and Bay FC says goodbye to a hard year on November 1.
Then the holiday machinery starts: a coffee festival, a tea festival, a chocolate salon, Dickens Fair, Lightscape, and four turkey trots in four counties on Thanksgiving morning.
One thing needs deciding this week rather than later. Dickens Fair's Early Bird pricing, which covers the opening weekends and saves ten dollars a head, is only on sale through October 31.
Weekend weather
The National Weather Service's Bay Area forecast, issued Monday morning, puts San Francisco in the upper 50s on Saturday with a chance of rain, and the lower 60s on Sunday with a slight chance. Inland bay shoreline runs a few degrees warmer. There is also a coastal flood advisory in effect through Thursday afternoon, which matters for anything near the Embarcadero or Aquatic Park at high tide. Costumes on Saturday want a coat over them.
Act now
Pick of the Month
Festival of Altars and the Ritual Procession, Monday November 2
Two events, one evening, and they are designed to be done together. From ten in the morning the community builds altars in Potrero del Sol Park, with a ceremony at sunset and a performance at eight. At seven the procession gathers at Bryant and 22nd and walks toward 24th Street with drums, Aztec dancers and several thousand people moving mostly in silence. Food vendors line the procession route rather than the park. Both are free.
Why this one
Most of what fills a five-week calendar can be caught again next year, or next month, or in another city. This cannot. The Marigold Project has run the Festival of Altars for more than three decades and it only works on November 2, only in that neighbourhood, and only because a few thousand people show up and build it themselves. It costs nothing, it asks something of you, and it is the single most San Francisco thing happening between now and December. Bring a photograph of someone you have lost.
Where everything is
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62 of 64 events are pinned. 2 had no published street address and are listed below without a pin. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Five weeks at a time
Chips are coloured by category and link to the full listing. Multi-day events run as a single band across the days they cover. Use the filters above the map to hide a category here as well.
Week of October 26 to November 1
Week of November 2 to November 8
Week of November 9 to November 15
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| In Their Name (SOMArts) | ||||||
| Warriors vs Pelicans | Russian Circles | SF Symphony: Prokofiev | ||||
| Diwali Night Market | Renegade Craft Fair | |||||
| SF Tea Festival | ||||||
| Bonobo live | ||||||
| Laguna Honda trail work | ||||||
| SF VegFest | ||||||
Week of November 16 to November 22
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| In Their Name (SOMArts) | Dickens Fair opens | |||||
| Lightscape opens | Nutty Cross | |||||
| Alice Coltrane tribute | ||||||
| Chocolate Salon | ||||||
| Warriors vs Celtics | ||||||
| After Dark: Glow | ||||||
Week of November 23 to November 29
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| Warriors vs Kings | SV Turkey Trot | Quarry Turkey | Iturbide closes (SFMOMA) | |||
| Marin Turkey Trot | Warriors vs Clippers | |||||
| Napa Turkey Chase | ||||||
| Nitro Turkey |
Pillar one
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and the forecast says upper 50s with a chance of rain. Indoor options are doing well.
A five-act night of Bay and Texas darkwave: Cold Cave in solo configuration, SRSQ, Houses of Heaven, False Figure and a.cold.era. The early door is the thing to notice here, with the show starting at 6:30pm rather than the usual nine, so the whole bill is done in time to go elsewhere. The Great American's balcony is the move if you want to actually see the stage.
The museum's after-dark series goes full costume for Halloween Eve, with DJs in Wilsey Court and gallery access included. It is the rare SF party where you can see Treasures of the Pharaohs and then dance in front of it. VIP adds early entry and a separate bar, which matters because the main bar lines get long by ten.
Shpongle live is a different animal from the records: a full band, a horn section and a light rig built to be looked at. Friday brings Mindex in support, Saturday brings Supersillyus, and the Halloween-night crowd dresses for it in a way few other shows in the Bay can match. The Fox is a 2,800-capacity former movie palace with a standing floor, so arrive early if you want the rail.
Emo Nite is a DJ night, not a band, and the Rickshaw Stop is the right size room for it: small enough that the whole floor sings along. Halloween turns the usual costume tendency up to eleven. Note there is a competing Emo Night Tour the same evening at The Independent on Divisadero, so check which ticket you bought.
The Paramount is a restored 1931 movie palace, which means the room is the same age as the film. A live organist accompanies the screening on the house Wurlitzer, and at $10 this is the cheapest great thing happening on Halloween anywhere in the Bay. Everyone needs a ticket, including children, and under-twos are not admitted.
Wake the Dead has been doing this for twenty-plus years: Dead tunes rebuilt as Irish reels and jigs, with fiddle and accordion where the guitar solo should be. It sounds like a gimmick and is not. The Freight is all seated and all ages, so this is the Halloween show you can bring your parents to.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers play fast, heavy, motorik psych that works far better live than recorded. Carrion Kids and Starzdust open. If you survived Saturday, this is the Sunday-night show that rewards showing up tired.
Two things sold out while this edition was being written. They are listed anyway so you stop hunting.
Moby tours sparingly now, and the Bill Graham Civic is the biggest indoor general-admission room in the city. Expect the Play-era material and a band rather than a DJ set. The Civic is a cavern, so the sound rewards standing toward the middle of the floor rather than the back.
Lalo Guerrero wrote the songbook that Chicano music in California grew out of, and his son Mark Guerrero anchors both evenings. Friday pairs him with the Rockin' Jalapeno Band and guest Jerry Salas; Saturday pairs him with San Francisco's own La Dona. The Saturday daytime events at 11:00am are free with registration, which makes this one of the best value cultural weekends in the window.
The venue page shows this one gone, and so does Jessie Reyez at the same room the night before. The Burn the Setlist premise is that no two nights share a running order, which is why the room sold through so fast. Resale only from here, and prices on the secondary market for this tour have been punishing.
Thao Nguyen built her career out of the Bay Area and plays here less often than she used to. The Independent is the right scale for her: close enough that the quieter songs land. Sunday shows at this venue tend to start and end on time.
Russian Circles build long instrumental pieces that go from near-silence to crushing, and the Great American's wooden interior suits that dynamic range. Primitive Man opening is a genuinely heavy pairing rather than a courtesy slot. Bring earplugs and mean it.
Prokofiev's ballet score gets played in excerpt far more often than in full, and hearing the whole arc in one sitting is a different experience. Davies seats 2,700 and the balcony side seats are the value play. Friday and Saturday are evening performances, Sunday is a matinee.
The distinction matters: Bonobo's live configuration is a band with horns and vocalists, and the room is built for it. The Fox's standing floor fills from the front, so the balcony is the better bet if you want to see the visuals whole. This is the marquee electronic show of the window.
Alice Coltrane's catalogue sits somewhere between jazz, Hindu devotional music and drone, and it almost never gets performed live. A Sunday-night tribute in a 600-capacity hall is about as close as you will get to hearing it in the room it deserves. If you only go to one thing in the back half of this window, consider this one.
Two closing dates inside the window. One of them is a major retrospective.
This is the indoor counterpart to the Mission's street procession: a juried show of large-scale ofrendas filling the SOMArts main gallery, many of them political and most of them built by Bay Area artists. It is quieter and more legible than the crowds on November 2, and it runs for weeks rather than one night. Check the gallery hours before you go, since it is closed some weekdays.
500 Capp Street is the preserved Mission home of the conceptual artist David Ireland, and it is one of the strangest and best rooms in San Francisco. This show puts artist-made lamps through the house, which is already a study in worn plaster and amber light. Self-guided visits are free on Fridays and Saturdays; the Saturday 4:00pm guided tour costs $20 and is worth it for the house itself.
Graciela Iturbide is one of the defining photographers of twentieth-century Mexico, and this is the largest showing of her work the Bay Area has had. The final Sunday of a major show is always busy, so a weekday visit earlier in the window is the smarter plan. SFMOMA is closed on Wednesdays, which catches people out.
Added Thursday, October 29: the monthly gallery nights and museum late nights across the Bay.
On the first Thursday of every month, the galleries and artist-run spaces of the Tenderloin and Lower Nob Hill stay open late and the whole neighbourhood becomes one long, free gallery crawl. More than twenty venues take part, from small galleries on Larkin and Geary such as Moth Belly and Rosebud to skate shops, bars and pizza places hanging local work. It has been run by the galleries themselves for more than a decade, so it feels like a block party rather than a tour. Pick up the night's route map on the organiser's site and wander.
Every Thursday the Exploratorium turns into an 18-plus evening with a bar, live demonstrations and the whole museum to yourself. This week's theme is digestion, which the museum describes as running from the first taste to the final flush. It is one of the easiest good weeknight plans in the city, and it pairs well with the First Thursday art walk if you start here at six. The admission price was not published on the calendar page checked.
Oakland's monthly street festival closes Telegraph Avenue in the KONO district and fills it with galleries, artist collectives, street artists, local food vendors, DJs, musicians and poets. It is the East Bay's answer to First Thursday, louder and more of a party. Listings give slightly different street ranges, so check the organiser's site for this month's map before you go.
San Jose's long-running monthly art walk spreads across the SoFA district on and around South First Street, with nearly twenty galleries, shops and bars taking part. It is the South Bay's version of the same idea and an easy pairing with dinner downtown. Gallery hours vary, so check the organiser's page for this month's list.
Glow is the Exploratorium's annual winter season of light-based art and science, and this is its opening night at After Dark: luminous artworks, optical illusions and the museum open late for adults only. Of the Thursday themes this autumn, it is the one that looks best in photos. The admission price was not published on the calendar page checked.
Pillar two
Seven separate observances across four counties, almost all of them free. The Mission is the centre of it but Oakland does the better food.
La Pena has been the Bay Area's Latin American cultural center since 1975, and its Day of the Dead night is small, warm and entirely unhurried. The ceremony is around 5:30pm, with son jarocho music after. Admission is free with donations encouraged; food and drink are sold inside, and the kitchen is the real draw.
A morning market rather than an evening event, and all the better for it: pan de muerto, tamales, coffee and an altar you can actually get close to without a crowd five deep. It runs five hours and the good pastry is gone by noon. The Sunset's fog usually burns off right around the end of it.
If it rains. Outdoor market. Vendors trade through drizzle but a real downpour cuts the stall count.
Oakland's version is a full daytime street festival rather than an evening vigil, and it is the bigger food event of the two. International Boulevard closes for nine blocks and the taco, elote and aguas frescas vendors are the reason to show up hungry. Fruitvale BART drops you at the edge of it, which is the only sane way to arrive.
If it rains. Street festival, goes ahead in light rain with fewer vendors.
A neighborhood block party rather than a destination festival, which is exactly its appeal: Tenderloin food vendors, local performers and a genuinely mixed crowd. Six hours is a long run, and the back half after five is the better one. RSVP on Eventbrite is requested but not enforced at the barricade.
If it rains. Outdoors on a closed street. Light rain thins the crowd rather than cancelling it.
The Marigold Project has run this for more than three decades: the community builds altars for its dead through the day, a ceremony happens at sunset, and the park turns into a field of candles and marigolds after dark. It is not a street fair and it is not a parade. Come quietly, bring a photograph of someone if you want to add to an altar, and eat from the vendors along the procession route rather than in the park itself.
If it rains. Outdoors and goes ahead in light rain. Candles struggle in wind, so the ceremony can shift inside the park's sheltered corners.
The procession is the moving half of November 2 in the Mission: Aztec dancers, drums, painted faces and several thousand people walking in silence or close to it. Food vendors line 24th Street rather than the park, so this is where you eat. It ends at the Festival of Altars, so do both in one evening.
If it rains. Goes ahead wet. Wear shoes you do not mind ruining; 24th Street puddles badly.
Courthouse Square is a genuinely good civic space and this festival uses all of it: community altars around the edges, a stage in the middle, food vendors on Broadway. It runs into the evening, so the altars are lit by the end. Caltrain's Redwood City stop is two blocks away.
If it rains. Outdoors in a paved square. Light rain is manageable, heavy rain moves the stage programming.
The holiday season starts in earnest on November 14. Dickens Fair Early Bird pricing ends October 31, which is the one deadline in this edition.
The cultural programming is pleasant and the food is the actual reason to drive down: beef noodle soup, bao, shaved ice and a dense run of snack stalls through the EXPO Hall. At $3.79 admission this is the best food-per-dollar event in the window by a wide margin. Parking at the Event Center is ample but costs extra.
The tenth edition, and it has grown into the best single place to taste across Bay Area roasting in one afternoon. Expect brew bars, latte art throwdowns and a lot of free cupping. Entry is timed, so pick the earliest slot you can stand; by mid-afternoon the Festival Pavilion is loud and the queues at the good roasters are long.
Five hours of South Asian food vendors, bhangra DJs and open dance lessons on the lawn behind SFMOMA. It is free, it is downtown, and it is one of the few evening street-food events still running this late in the year. Go for the chaat and the jalebi; stay for the fact that strangers will teach you the steps.
If it rains. On grass with no cover. Rain would be the one thing that genuinely spoils this.
The reliable start of Bay Area holiday shopping, and the outdoor food trucks make it a reasonable lunch stop even if you buy nothing. Five dollars is a suggested donation rather than a gate price. Saturday morning is the least crowded hour of the weekend.
Smaller and calmer than the coffee festival, and the vendors are more willing to talk you through what you are drinking. Expect Taiwanese oolongs, Japanese greens and a handful of local blenders. The listing's price tiers are inconsistent, so check what you are buying at checkout.
A straightforward trade-show format that works because the sampling is generous: six hours, eighty-odd exhibitors, and enough tasting to count as lunch. Advance tickets save two dollars over the door. Same venue as the Taiwan Expo the weekend before, so if you liked that hall you know the drill.
Lightscape turns the Botanical Garden into a night walk through light installations, and the food and mulled-drink stalls along the route are a real part of it rather than an afterthought. It opens November 20 and runs nightly through January 3, so going in the opening week avoids the December crush. Pricing and nightly start times were not published at the time of writing, so check before you buy.
If it rains. An outdoor night walk. It runs in light rain; the garden paths get slick.
Five acres of indoor Victorian street scene, hundreds of costumed performers and a dozen pubs serving actual food and drink. The opening weekends are the least crowded of the season and the only ones the Early Bird ticket covers. Early Bird adult tickets are $40 before fees but are sold only through October 31, so that decision has to happen this week.
Artisan chocolate makers, confectioners and a few coffee and tea producers fill the Hall of Flowers for five and a half hours. The Funcheap code FUNCHEAP brings early-bird entry to $18.47, which is a lot of tasting for the money. Go early; the better makers run out of samples.
Restaurants announce their own opening dates and then miss them, routinely. Every date below is the operator's, not a confirmed one, so treat all five as provisional.
Also in the pipeline with no dates attached, worth watching: Monami, a Korean steakhouse from the Ssal team at 2001 Fillmore Street; Sutro Hall at 140 New Montgomery Street in the old Mourad space; Bayview Oyster Bar at 5114 Third Street, New Orleans seafood from the chef behind the closed Auntie April's; Jupiter Room, a martini bar at 2065 Polk Street; and Lorella, a bakery-cafe from the Octavia and Saturbake team at 2139A Polk Street.
Pillar three
All eight home teams were checked. The Warriors are the story: an 0-3 road start, then nine home dates inside this window including the longest homestand of their season. The Earthquakes clinched a playoff berth and have two home matches left before Decision Day. Bay FC's season ends November 1 after a 15th-place year, so the November 1 finale is a goodbye rather than a push. Both USF Dons sides close their WCC regular seasons at home before the conference's first ever soccer tournaments on November 11 to 14.
Three teams have nothing in the window: the Valkyries finished their 2026 season as the No. 2 playoff seed and return in 2027, when Chase Center hosts the WNBA All-Star Game on July 31; the Giants finished 65-97 and are in an offseason built around the bullpen, with Tony Vitello expected back as manager; Oakland Roots played their last ever match at the Coliseum on October 10 and are out of season with no 2027 home ground settled. SF City FC is a summer league and resumes around May 2027.
San Jose clinched an MLS Cup Playoffs berth in mid-October and sit fourth in the Western Conference on 48 points from a 13-9-9 season. Where they finish decides whether Round One opens at home, so these last two home matches still matter. PayPal Park is a tight 18,000-seat ground and the Ultras behind the north goal set the volume.
If it rains. Open-air stadium. Matches play through rain; the north end has least cover.
Golden State opened 0-3 on the road and comes home needing this one, which is also an NBA Cup group game, so the result carries double weight. It launches a six-game homestand that runs through November 9, the longest of their season. Chase Center is a short walk from the Muni T line at UCSF Mission Bay.
Final home date of the regular season, with Decision Day away at Minnesota the following Saturday. A top-four finish would bring Round One playoff matches back to PayPal Park between November 20 and December 2. The 2:00pm kickoff makes this the rare Bay Area fixture you can do and still get to a Halloween party.
If it rains. Open-air stadium, plays through rain.
Santa Clara is USF's nearest serious rival and the last home match of the Dons' women's regular season, which ends the following weekend at LMU. Negoesco is an old-fashioned campus ground with a steep bank of seats on one side, and the atmosphere at a rivalry game is far better than the attendance figures suggest. The inaugural WCC women's tournament follows November 11 to 14.
If it rains. Outdoor grass pitch. College soccer plays through rain.
This is matchday 30 of 30 and the last NWSL date of the regular season. Bay FC's year was hard: 15th of 16 with 22 points from 23 matches at the last published standings, so the playoffs are gone and this is a goodbye rather than a push. At $13 to get in it is still the cheapest top-flight professional sport in the Bay, and the 2:00pm Sunday kickoff suits families.
If it rains. Open-air stadium, plays through rain.
The second of nine Warriors home dates inside this window and the first of two against the Clippers, who also visit on November 29. Sunday evening tips at Chase are the easiest to get to and from. Daylight saving ends this morning, so the 5:30pm start is after dark.
The Warriors lost in Phoenix a week and a half earlier, which gives a routine November Monday a little edge. Third game of the homestand and the first of three in a row at Chase. Weeknight 7:00pm tips mean the Muni T platform is heaving at about 9:40pm.
Fourth game of the six-game homestand and the one Eastern Conference opponent in the early-November run. Thursday nights at Chase are usually a slightly easier ticket than weekends. The arena's upper bowl corners are consistently the best value seats in the building.
Portland is historically the strongest men's programme in the conference, and this is the WCC regular-season finale on November 6. The first ever WCC men's soccer tournament follows from November 11 to 14, with four teams, so this result shapes the bracket. A Friday-night floodlit game at Negoesco is one of the better free-ish sporting evenings in the city.
If it rains. Outdoor grass pitch. College soccer plays through rain.
A 5:30pm Saturday tip, which is the most civilised slot Chase Center offers: done by eight and the whole of Mission Bay still open afterwards. Orlando's only visit in the window. Fifth of six on the homestand, with New Orleans closing it out two days later.
The Warriors close out their longest home run of the season here, then leave town until November 22. If the 0-3 start has turned around, this is where you will be able to tell. Monday-night tickets are typically the softest of any Chase Center week.
The Warriors return from a five-game road trip to host Boston, which is reliably the hardest non-playoff ticket Chase Center sells. A 5:30pm Sunday start and two Finals-era franchises makes this the one casual fans will want. Buy early or expect to pay resale.
An NBA Cup group game against the nearest rival on the night before Thanksgiving, which guarantees a visiting-fan contingent that drove down I-80. Cup games carry group-stage consequences, so neither side rests anyone. Public transport is lighter than usual on the holiday eve, so plan the trip home.
The second Clippers visit of the month and the last Warriors home game before the next edition of this digest. A 5:30pm Sunday tip on the final day of the window. By now the shape of the Warriors' season should be clear.
Four Thanksgiving races across four counties, plus two rounds of cyclocross. None of the turkey trots published entry prices on the pages checked.
Round five of the Bay Area Super Prestige series, run on the old Mare Island shipyard in Vallejo, which gives it a backdrop no other cross race in California has. Racing runs in categories through the day from beginners to elites, so there is something on whenever you arrive. Spectators can walk most of the course, and the barriers and run-ups are where to stand.
If it rains. Cyclocross runs in any weather and mud improves it. Bring boots.
The course starts near Municipal Pier and finishes in the Presidio, which means a long flat waterfront opening and a climb you will feel in the last three miles. The forecast for this weekend is upper 50s with a slight chance of rain, which is close to ideal racing weather. The start time was not published on the race site at the time of writing, so confirm before race morning.
If it rains. Road race. Runs in rain; the Presidio trails sections get greasy.
Nutty Cross is the series round everyone turns up to regardless of form, because the course runs through a working farm and finishes near beer. Categories run through the day. The venue's street address had not been posted at the time of writing, so it carries no map pin in this edition.
If it rains. Cyclocross runs in any weather. Mud is the point.
Tens of thousands of runners, a 5K, a 10K, a kids' fun run and a CEO race, all starting on West Santa Clara Street. It is as much a civic event as a race, and the charity proceeds are the reason most people enter. Entry pricing was not published on the pages checked.
If it rains. Road race on closed streets. Goes ahead wet.
Run from the College of Marin's Indian Valley campus, which sits against open hillside and makes for a far prettier course than a town-centre route. A one-mile youth race runs alongside the 5K and 10K. Entry pricing was not published on the pages checked.
If it rains. Campus and trail course. Goes ahead in rain.
The North Bay's Thanksgiving race, flat and fast out of the Napa Valley College campus. It is the one on this list you could reasonably pair with a tasting room afterwards, once you have earned it. Entry pricing was not published on the pages checked.
If it rains. Road race. Goes ahead wet.
Brazen Racing's Thanksgiving event runs on the flat shoreline trails at Point Pinole, which is one of the prettiest and least crowded regional parks in the East Bay. A kids' race runs alongside the 5K and 10K. Entry pricing was not posted on the calendar page, so check at registration.
If it rains. Shoreline trail race. Brazen events run in rain; the trails drain reasonably well.
Brazen's Quarry Lakes event is the flattest half marathon in the East Bay, run on gravel paths around the lakes, which makes it a popular personal-best attempt. The 7:00am start is early even by race standards. A kids' race runs alongside the longer distances.
If it rains. Gravel lakeside paths. Runs in rain, with puddles.
Two volunteer mornings and the standing Saturday museum deal, which still catches people out because it needs an advance ticket.
The Ridge Trail Council runs a coordinated volunteer day at sites around the region, doing the kind of tread work and brush clearing that keeps the 400-plus-mile ridge network open. You do not need experience and you do not need tools. Specific sites had not been posted at the time of writing, so register to find out which one is nearest you.
If it rains. Trail work is usually cancelled or relocated in heavy rain. Check the morning of.
General admission at both Fine Arts Museums is free on Saturdays for Bay Area residents, which covers the permanent collections but not special exhibitions. You need an advance timed ticket and proof of residency at the door, and the slots do run out. Pair the Legion with a Lands End walk, or the de Young with Golden Gate Park.
A small volunteer morning reopening overgrown paths through the Laguna Honda open space, which most San Franciscans have never walked despite living minutes from it. Expect loppers, native plant work and a view of the city from an angle you have not seen. Three hours, free, no experience needed.
If it rains. Habitat work is often cancelled in rain to avoid soil damage. Check the morning of.
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