San Francisco: The Festival City

San Francisco is made up of acculturated, well developed subcultures. They range from the hippies in the Height ,formerly known as Strawberry Hill, to the LGBT community in the Castro District.

It's wealth in cultural and scenic diversity makes for a city experience unlike any other. Cause for celebration? Yes.

Aside from the city's token tourist destinations like the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the trolley traveled Union Square, San Francisco is home to numerous festivals.

To a newbie like me that is what San Francisco seemed like, a city of festivals. Just this month there have been 14 festivals ranging from Pride, The Pinot Grand Festival to music festivals at Stern Grove.

Stern Grove is an outdoor auditorium in the middle of San Francisco's Pacific Heights District. It's covered in Eucalyptus trees and features tree stumps and grassy hillsides as auditorium seating.

Free shows are scheduled every weekend during the summer time. It's a perfect venue to sit back and relax to good music and smell some herb.

The city might not be located near Hollywood, but showcases some of the country's most dynamic films. Film lovers should look into these upcoming film festivals: The Jewish Film Festival, The Silent Film Festival and the famous San Francisco Frozen Film Festival - showcasing indie filmmakers from around the world.

For the music lover, I recommend making plans to be in SF for the North Beach Jazz Festival. This music fiesta coupled with the Italian district's locally owned boutiques, Italian restaurants, cafes and pubs makes it worthy of a visit.

Each of the festivals named here are actually scheduled in July. If you're interested in checking the complete list of festival happenings in San Francisco for the year, go to About for a thorough schedule of events.