The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a Castro mainstay. They’re activists, performance artists, and entertainers. Dressing as nuns in drag, the sisters have been known to cause a stir when showing up at places like church services, local festivals like the Folsom Street Fair, and even sponsoring and hosting their own benefits for human rights, gay rights and even local environmental charitable causes like cleaning up the San Francisco bay. The sisters are very active in the San Francisco community and keep a calendar of events on their website, so if you’re interested in learning more about them or would like to see them in action, be sure to see if they have any events planned during your stay. For a more regular gig, the Sisters will be hosting bingo in the Castro starting in 2008, so keep your calendars open for that!

 

Folsom Street Fair

The Folsom Street Fair is a San Francisco institution, the likes of which you’ll find nowhere else in the United States. If you’re lucky enough to be in San Francisco on the last Sunday in September, you definitely do not want to miss this event! The Folsom Street Fair is a nonprofit event which earns funds for San Francisco area adult-alternative communities, especially the leather/BDSM community.

The Folsom Street fair showcases entertainment like bands, dj’s, theater and comedy. Exhibits include vendors peddling leather gear, community outreach booths, leather groups, food vendors, beauty products, gifts, art and more. In 2006, Folsom Street Fair even incorporated a “women’s area” where female leather aficionados can enjoy the FSF in a safe, woman-friendly space.

SF Pride

While not entirely in the Castro neighborhood, SF Pride is without a doubt San Francisco’s biggest, GLBT event. Since 1970, SF Pride has been holding a massive pride parade and culminating events open to everyone. Pride is a celebration of GLBT lifestyles, and acts as an activist/awareness event for those outside of the community looking to learn more. Each year, more than 500,000 people from outside SF flock to the city to celebrate with the city’s thriving GLBT community. What develops is a weekend long event with concerts, parties at local clubs, bars and restaurants, culminating with one of, if not the biggest pride parades in the world! Best of all, the parade and concerts are all free!

SF Blues Festival

If you like the blues, then you definitely don’t want to miss the San Francisco Blues Festival. You might be surprised to know that the SF Blues festival is the longest-running blues festival in the world! Around since 1973, the festival gets bigger every year, and always boasts a jam-packed lineup of some of the best blues artists in the world. Tickets for the festival are less than one might expect to pay to see just one of the A-list performers featured any given year. However, at SF Blues you can expect to see over a dozen acts over the two-day event!

 

Comedy Day

Every fall in San Francisco, local and international comedians put on a massive free stand-up and improv showcases right in the heart of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Comedy Day has been entertaining San Francisco every year since 1975. Featuring up to 30 of today’s hottest comics, Comedy Day has featured free stand-up performances from famous comedians like Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Ellen Degeneres and Dana Carvey.  Proceeds from food, drinks and souvenirs sold at Comedy Day benefit the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation.