Summer’s coming…check out the festival & fair schedule

Provided the world doesn’t end on Saturday, soon San Francisco will be in full festival and fair swing, with city streets full of good food, music of varying quality, lots of opportunities to buy stuff, and in some cases, the chance to bust out your leather fetish wear. This is San Francisco, after all.

Because it seems like the list of festivals, fairs, film screenings, art shows, and other summer-centric activities grows each year, I’m going to start with a handful of events scheduled for May and June, and I’ll add more posts with upcoming events as the summer progresses.

So, without further ado, here are just a few of the events that will happen in the next few weeks.

* Young At Art, at the de Young Museum. This one ends soon, on May 22, so head out in the next few days to check out the artistic achievements of San Francisco’s school kids.

* San Francisco Carnaval, on Harrison St. between 16th & 22nd Streets, May 28 and 29. There’s also a gigantic parade on Sunday, May 29, 9:30 am, that begins at Bryant & 24th Streets and proceeds down Mission to 17th Street.

* Union Street Festival, June 4 and 5, 10 am-6 pm, Union Street between Gough and Steiner. It’s alcohol-free, people, so plan ahead.

* The Great San Francisco Crystal Fair, June 4 (10 am-6 pm) and 5 (10 am-4 pm), Fort Mason, 99 Marina Blvd. @ Buchanan. I don’t even really know what to expect from this one, but it seems oh-so-only-in-San Francisco. (Well, and in Contra Costa county, where they’re having one, too.)

* The Haight Ashbury Street Fair, June 12, 11 am-5:30 pm, on Haight Street between Stanyan and Ashbury. Don’t come to this if your employer performs random drug tests. You will no doubt inhale something here that rhymes with marijuana.

* Frameline Film Festival, June 16-26, various venues. This is the 35th year for this LGBT film festival.

* North Beach Festival, June 18 & 19, 10 am-6 pm. There will be food, there will be beer and wine gardens, there will be children’s activities, and there will be a blessing of the pets. What else could you need?

* San Francisco Pride Celebration, June 25 and 26, Civic Center and all down Market Street, from Beale to Civic Center as the parade parades by.

More events for July, August and September will be posted in the coming weeks. If you have a favorite event that you’d like us to post, drop us an email or post a comment. Happy summer to you!