This weekend I packed my cooler backpack with beers and made my annual pilgrimage to Stern Grove, a eucalyptus forest tucked into a corner of San Francisco, for a day of entirely free music.
To get to the venue, you walk down a giant hill into what feels like its own little hidden valley, then find a spot on the hillside under trees that smell so good you forget you’re still in the city. Or, if you’re very early, a coveted flat spot on the lawn.
This week it was Public Enemy and La Russell, so it was rap and hip-hop echoing through a eucalyptus forest while the fog rolled in and the sun fought to hang on. Only in San Francisco.
A few blocks from the entrance, getting off the MUNI, I started seeing people with giant clocks hanging around their necks, and by the end of the day I’d counted more than 11 of them. Hey, if you own a big clock, apparently when Public Enemy is headlining, it’s the time to wear it.
Stern Grove Festival has been putting on free concerts almost every summer since 1938, which makes this its 89th season and the longest-running free music festival in the country. Tickets work on a lottery system for crowd control, but it’s easy enough to find your way to a show you’re excited about…