Sara Bareilles and More Set for MARKET STREET ARTS & THEATER FESTIVAL
The Warfield will feature Jessie Ware, plus more.
The Mid-Market Foundation will present the inaugural Market Street Arts & Theater Festival, a celebration of live performance across Mid-Market on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 4–11 p.m. As part of their Market Street Arts initiative, the event transforms the corridor into a walkable arts destination, offering free programming in shops, sidewalks, and plazas alongside ticketed shows at local theaters and clubs. Audiences will experience aerialists, acrobats, R&B line dancing, theatrical cameos, sing-a-longs, shredding bass solos, comedy, drag, spoken word, visual & kinetic art, and novel performances in unexpected places.
Festivalgoers will discover performances from Dear San Francisco, 200 Channels, and The Living Earth Show, Oasis and San Francisco's first-ever Drag Laureate D'Arcy Drollinger, among others. Artists from the Tenderloin and neighboring cultural districts are showcased alongside programming at independent clubs such as Monarch and Mr. Tipple's. Mid-Market's major venues will also participate: SFBATCO presents “Every Saturday Night” at ACT's Strand Theater, Sara Bareilles performs at The Theater at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and The Warfield will feature Jessie Ware in separately ticketed performances. The Orpheum Theater is also opening its doors to its Sunroom for a Broadway-themed drag queen sing-along. This stretch of Market Street between 5th Street and Van Ness Avenue offers 15,000 seats across some of San Francisco's most iconic cultural venues.
Mid-Market has always been San Francisco's historic theater district, with five major theaters, independent venues, and vibrant local businesses. The festival creates paid opportunities and new audiences for local artists and drives audiences to restaurants, hotels, nightlife, and small businesses across the corridor.
Market Street Arts and Theater Festival is supported by a $100,000 Culture Forward grant from the Svane Foundation, and by the Office of Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD). Mid-Market Foundation is seeking financial sponsors, venue partners, cultural and community collaborators, corporate sponsors, and production or in-kind supporters. Sponsorships will fund artist compensation, event production, free public programming, marketing, audience engagement, and neighborhood placemaking.
“The Market Street Arts & Theater Festival is a wonderful example of how sustained investments can create the conditions for collaboration,” Kelsey Issel, Culture Forward Director. “As Culture Forward enters the final year of its three-year grant program, it's exciting to see grantees Mid-Market Foundation, SFBATCO, and Warfield Commons building on one another's work to strengthen their shared creative ecosystem.”
“Mid-Market has an extraordinary concentration of arts and cultural institutions, from historic theaters to independent and experimental venues that make this corridor uniquely San Francisco,” said Anne Taupier, Executive Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “OEWD's support for this festival builds on years of investment in the neighborhood, and the Mid-Market Business Association has been a critical partner in turning those investments into strategies that support its continued economic growth.”
ABOUT MARKET STREET ARTS
An initiative of the MMBAF, Market Street Arts is a multi-year collaboration between the City, neighborhood stakeholders, businesses, residents, private donors, and corporate sponsors to actualize the true potential of Mid-Market. It capitalizes on Mid-Market's centralized location and creative infrastructure as San Francisco's historic theater district. Implementation strategies specifically leverage the neighborhood's larger cultural venues with a fabric of new and existing creative entrepreneurs, arts organizations, businesses, public art, beautification, and events of various scales, serving as a multipronged platform for creative expression, human connection, and economic investment.
Market Street Arts is funded by the Mid Market Foundation, a 501c3 established in 2019 to conceive, implement, and manage transformative programs, in partnership with the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Learn more at: www.MarketStreetArts.org
ABOUT THE MID MARKET BUSINESS ASSOCIATION & FOUNDATION (MMBAF)
The Mid Market Business Association is a 501c6 and advocates on behalf of businesses, property owners, and other stakeholders along Market Street between 5th and Van Ness and surrounding areas. The Mid Market Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit established in 2019 that accepts charitable donations and seeks funding to conceive, implement, and manage transformative programs. Together, MMBAF works to create a safe, clean, and vibrant Mid-Market corridor where businesses thrive, community flourishes, and residents and visitors alike experience a welcoming neighborhood.
###
259 Clinton Park
San Francisco, CA 94103, United States
Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences
|
ELTON DOM: The Young Elton Experience Great Star Theater (9/10-9/13) |
|
Julius Caesar Marin Shakespeare Company (8/14-9/13) |
|
Pickleball Hillbarn Theatre (8/20-9/13) |
|
The Fantasticks San Anselmo Playhouse (9/04-9/07) |
|
Private Lives by Noel Coward Santa Cruz Shakespeare (9/04-10/04) |
|
Broadway Under the Stars - Mamma Mia! Transcendence Theatre Company (8/13-8/30) |
|
School of Rock Hillbarn Theatre (11/19-12/20) |
|
WRECKAGE: A Musical Tragicomedy San Francisco Mime Troupe (7/03-9/07) |
|
The Glass Menagerie The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (9/18-9/20) |
|
Robyn DeGuzman’s Enough Free The Marsh Berkeley (8/28-8/30) |