San Francisco is practically famous for its street performers, those creative (and sometimes not-so-creative!) artists who congregate in particular parts of the city to show off their skills with music, art, comedy or just getting attention. Some of these street performers are worth your time – after all, when was the last time that you walked down the street anywhere else and saw people swallowing fire, walking on glass, performing tribal drumming or designing T-shirts with air brush skills? And of course, some of these street performers will do as little as they can to get your money out of your hand and into their pockets.
Here are a few tips for getting the good side of San Francisco street performance:
- Go to the right place:
o Fisherman’s Wharf / Pier 39 – These side-by-side areas are where a majority of the famous street performers are located. There’s break dancing, caricature drawing, the infamous Bush Man and lots of other options. The environment is kid-friendly and there are often sponsored events here.
o The Powell Street BART station – It’s hit-or-miss but this is the place to go if you’re looking to find good music on the streets. Both aboveground and within the station itself, there are people playing all kinds of instruments and singing and dancing along.
o The Haight – This is generally the place to avoid because it’s more people asking for money than doing something for money, but if you want to check out the area anyway, you can sometimes catch a good street show while you’re there.
- Go at the right time
o Weekends are going to give you the best performances in general.
o Catch the annual Street Performers festival at the end of March at Pier 39.
- Be respectful
o If you’re approached to see a show and you aren’t interested, just say so politely and move along.
o If you do stay for a whole performance, and you liked it, you should tip the performer. It’s not required and there’s no certain amount, but consider the fact that you pay a lot less to go see non-live performance like movies.
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