Parangal is a San Francisco music and dance company devoted to sharing the wealth of traditional arts of the Philippines by preserving and promoting ethnic attire, music, and dance through research, workshops, and performances. The organization serves as a bridge, inspiring and connecting Filipinos in diaspora to their roots, fostering a sense of pride and identity while educating diverse communities to spread awareness and appreciation of Philippine culture. For this special program, Parangal presents Adhika, meaning aspiration. The intricate dances were taught to the company by culture bearers from indigenous communities in the Philippines with the hope to convey their stories, living traditions and aspirations for their communities. The collaboration with YBG Festival underscores the importance of power and community through people and our shared environment.

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Parangal Dance Company: Adhika

Yerba Buena Gardens 

A dazzling, array of kinetic street dance idioms transforms the Gardens into a liberated movement zone with the world premiere of the way home is an upwards spiral. Commissioned by YBG Festival, Sammay Peñaflor Dizon (she/they) created this experimental, site-responsive work to push the boundaries of street dance forms, challenge Western notions of concert dance and draw attention to ongoing policy battles concerning a woman’s sovereignty over her/their body. A Filipinx American choreographer, interdisciplinary artist, and cultural producer of Bikol, Kapampangan and Ilokano descent, Dizon brings together Bay Area artists who are practitioners of Black social dance forms, specifically street dances like popping and krumping, and club styles such as house, whacking, and vogue/ballroom. Centering devotional practice as resistance, this timely work invites audiences to move and shift alongside the Earth and her children. “I believe that art serves to heal, transform and liberate marginalized communities and ultimately our planet,” Dizon says. “As an artist living at the intersection of marginalized identities, I center the practices and people that have the inherent access to the embodied knowledge our world so direly needs.”

SAMMAY: the way home is an upwards spiral – World Premiere

A quartet of first-generation New Yorkers with roots in the Colombian diaspora, Combo Chimbita formed in 2016  as a loose combination of friends and bandmates who grew up loving heavy metal, psychedelic funk and soul. Described by NPR’s Alt.Latino as an “otherworldly presence,” Combo Chimbita is the creative unity of Carolina Oliveros (vocals, guacharaca), Niño Lento es Fuego (guitar), Prince of Queens (bass, synthesizers) and Dilemastronauta (drums). Together they transcend common concepts of time and nationality through supremely danceable music. Seeking meaning beyond a Latin American framework, they carry the burning torch of an unbroken, unsubmissive people, unshackling their essence from the cruelty of conquest throughout Abya Yala. It sounds like Colombia, it sounds like New York City, it sounds like nothing you’ve heard before.

Combo Chimbita

There’s no reason kids can’t dance like they’re in a Bollywood epic. Dholrhythms Dance Company brings the party to the Gardens, offering a unique experience celebrating the beautiful and vibrant spirit of this traditional Punjabi folk music and dance. With the rhythm of pounding feet and the relentless energy of brilliant beats, Dholrhythms conjures an ecstatic scene from a Bollywood movie smack in the middle of the YBG. Dholrhythms highlights the traditional North Indian roots of the Punjabi folk dances while pushing boundaries with contemporary influences. The result is a fresh and exciting experience full of joy, energy, and passion.

Dholrhythms Dance Company (Kids’ Show)

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival kicks off with a salsa dance party featuring the great New York sonero Hermán Olivera y Orquesta Taíno. At the center of NYC’s Latin music scene since the late 1970s, Olivera is known for keeping company with the greatest instrumentalists in salsa and Latin jazz. Among the many storied musicians he’s collaborated with are trombonist Jimmy Bosch, percussionist Manny Oquendo, bassist Andy González and pianist/composer Eddie Palmieri. Hailed as the sonero of the 21st century, Olivera and his hard-hitting Orquesta Taíno are leading practitioners of the salsa dura sound that coalesced at Fania Records. Bring your dancing shoes, because the opening act is also a powerhouse.

Season Opener: Hermán Olivera y Orquesta Taíno

Aireene Espiritu creates music that embraces folks from all over. Born in the Philippines and raised in the Bay Area, she’s a veteran singer/songwriter who’s honed an extensive book of original songs combining Afro-Caribbean and African rhythms, American folk forms, bluegrass techniques and gospel music fervor. As a young musician she absorbed the sounds of Alan Lomax’s field recordings from the South, as well as her uncles’ Filipino folk guitar fingerpicking. Accompanying herself on guitar and ukulele, she gained widespread attention with her critically hailed 2016 tribute to the great R&B singer Sugar Pie DeSanto, Back Where I Belong (Little Village Foundation). She followed it up with A Color-Coded Symphony, an album and interactive musical experience designed to nurture curiosity and openness towards other cultures through music. She’s also part of The Sampaguitas, singing Filipino folk songs and originals in three-part harmonies. Her primary project, Aireene & The Itch, features a veteran cast of masters with Karl Sevareid on bass, Derrick “D’Mar” Martin on drums, Tony “Macaroni” Lufrano on keys and Bob Welsh on guitar. The group plays mostly Espiritu multi-genre originals, drawing on the blues, alt-country and roots influences from a third-culture Filipina-American.

Aireene & The Itch

In the 1970s, when Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa entered a musical golden age powered by a cadre of brilliant musicians combining traditional song forms with American jazz, funk and soul. Keyboardist Hailu Mergia’s Wallis Band was at the center of the action. Even repression by a military regime didn’t slow him down, as he pivoted to writing and playing instrumental pieces so that lyrics wouldn’t give the authorities a pretext for offense. But by the early 1990s Mergia had settled in Washington, D.C. and was no longer performing. His return to the stage in recent years is one of world music’s great stories, and his band is a creative force, delivering ancient melodies set to state-of-the-art Ethio-jazz grooves. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, Mergia deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. As he approaches 80, he seems indefatigable, extending his legacy with intoxicating performances.

Hailu Mergia

The pandemic spawned many unlikely musical connections, but the story of Larry & Joe continues to resonate long after lockdown lifted. Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of música llanera, the celebratory harp-driven national music and dance of the South American nation. Joe Troop grew up in North Carolina’s Piedmont and is a Grammy-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. When Larry was forced into exile he sought asylum in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Joe, after a decade in Buenos Aires leading the Latingrass quartet Che Apalache, got stranded back in his North Carolina stomping grounds by the pandemic. Larry worked construction to make ends meet and Joe turned his attention to working with asylum-seeking migrants. It seems they were destined to meet. A musical friendship was quickly struck and they’ve been inseparable musical partners ever since. Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. Performing a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass and whatever else they decide to throw in the van, the duo creates a singular blend of their musical inheritances, punctuated by storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

Larry & Joe

Blending the percussive Afro-Mexican tradition of son jarocho with electronic beats and cogent rhymes, Las Cafeteras have earned a global following with their infectious live performances. Emerging from an East Los Angeles community center in the mid-aughts, the group has taken their electric sound around the world, from Bonnaroo and the Hollywood Bowl to WOMAD New Zealand and the Montreal Jazz International Jazz Festival. Modern day troubadours dedicated to remixing Mexican roots music with lyrics that document stories of a community seeking to “build a world where many worlds fit,” Las Cafeteras have honed an encompassing sound infusing soul, rock and hip-hop into Afro-Mexican grooves. Busy at work on a multimedia production celebrating the legacy of Chicano rocker Ritchie Valens, Las Cafeteras honor the past by deploying traditional instrumentation like the 8-string jarana, 4-string requinto, donkey-jawbone quijada shaker and wooden platform tarima for percussive footwork. Determined to reach all audiences, Las Cafeteras sings in five distinct languages: English, Spanish, Spanglish, love and justice.

Las Cafeteras

One voice can change the world, but when people sing together they transform themselves. Singers from the Community Music Center Openhouse LGBTQ+ Choir, directed by Zahra Rothschild, and CMC 30th Street Choir, directed by Martha Rodriquez Salazar, perform popular and folkloric music from the Americas with the accompaniment of pianist Jennifer Peringer and other musicians. The CMC Choirs are part of a tuition-free Neighborhood Choir Program for Older Adults composed of 17 choirs at neighborhood and senior centers throughout San Francisco. The Community Music Center is a non-profit institution making high-quality music accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, regardless of financial means. With a newly expanded campus in the Mission and along with the Richmond center , CMC students come from every neighborhood to learn and make beautiful music!

Community Music Center Neighborhood Choirs

The Manilatown Ancestral Ensemble presents the pre-colonial music, dance and attire traditions of Mindanao, Southern Philippines and Kalinga, Northern Philippines. All trained in the traditional manner by indigenous Philippine culture bearers, the Manilatown musicians and dancers take pride in introducing young people to the joyful and unifying power of tribal Philippine polyrhythmic percussion music, song and dance.

Manilatown Ancestral Ensemble (Kids’ Show)

Yerba Buena Gardens

For nearly five decades Gamelan Sekar Jaya has set the standard for Balinese music and dance in North America. The only foreign group ever awarded the Dharma Kusuma, Bali’s highest honor for artistic achievement, the Berkeley-based company is credited with helping spark a cultural renaissance in Indonesia that continues today. Commissioning leading Balinese composers and choreographers and collaborating with Bay Area artists across an extravagant array of disciplines, GSJ gracefully navigates a twofold path marked by both reverence for tradition and creative innovation. Returning to the Gardens, GSJ brings a varied program that includes western Balinese jegog, an ensemble directed by local Balinese artist I Gede Artha Negara. Rarely heard outside of Indonesia, it’s a loud, fast, and precisely rhythmic tradition performed on bamboo instruments. GSJ also presents the bronze-keyed, metallophone-powered gong kebyar, the most prevalent type of orchestra in Bali, directed by Balinese guest music director I Bagus Made Widnyana. Tightly coordinated to represent an ideal of perfect unity with every gesture, nuance, expression, phrase and rhythmic change, GSJ dancers accompany the gong kebyar, directed by Balinese guest dance director Ida Ayu Wayan Arya Satyani.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya

An uproarious variety show manifesting the fabulous creative diversity of queer artistic expression, Pride in Yerba Buena! celebrates San Francisco’s LGBTQIA community with the best in drag, circus arts and music. With drag king Tyson Check-In serving as host and headliner joined by drag queen and the current San Francisco Drag Laureate Per Sia, the afternoon is filled with thrills, quips and zingers. Performers include aerialists Vix Nolan and Joey Tiger, juggler Lucy, drag queen and vocalist Malitia Scunt and Puerto Rican drag prince Tito Soto, who co-produces the weekly drag showcase Princess at SF Oasis, among many others.

Pride in Yerba Buena!

Some sounds could only emerge in San Francisco, like the Arabic psychedelic rock of Camellia Boutros. A first-generation Lebanese-Palestinian composer and multi-instrumentalist, she spent years performing on trumpet, oud and bass in Arab, Balkan and Mexican combos. Eventually she developed a fretless 12-string electric oud-guitar as a vehicle for composing her own brand of experimental Arab rock. Writing music rooted in Arabic scales (known as Maqam) and San Francisco rock, she’s captured her experience growing up between California and the Levant with her highly personal blend of psychedelia, folk, jazz and hip-hop. When she’s not fronting her own band, Boutrous can be found performing with the percussion and brass-powered Mission Delirium, the Romany-inspired Balkan brass band Inspector Gadje, the all-femme son jarocho and Arabic folk musical project Corazón de Cedro and with Mexican-born rapper Chhoti Maa. For this afternoon’s show she’s joined by drummer Michael Morales, electric bassist Sean Spangenberg and tenor saxophonist Michael Booker.

Camellia Boutros

Co-founded by Oakland stand-up comic Jackie Keliiaa, the smash hit, all-Native comedy revue Good Medicine has sold-out venues around the country, including A.C.T’s Strand Theater. More than a comedy showcase, Good Medicine lives up to its billing, cultivating joy and community while transforming clichéd narratives about Native life. “You won’t find any stoic Hollywood tropes in these sets,” says Keliiaa, who was raised in Hayward and draws inspiration and material from her Native American, Native Hawaiian, Portuguese and Italian heritage. “These comedians are using humor to define Native identity in our own words and on our own terms.” Don’t miss the latest edition of this nationally acclaimed tour featuring the best and brightest Native comedians from across North America.

Good Medicine

Led by New Orleans-native Michelle Jacques, a soul-steeped vocalist with a big, bold voice, Chelle! & Friends bring to the Gardens a family-friendly taste of the Crescent City, the cradle of so much essential American music. Chelle! & Friends is made up of some of the most distinguished and accomplished musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Rhonda Crane and Bryan Dyer on vocals and percussion, Donna Viscuso on saxophone, Eric Swinderman on guitar, Kevin Scott on bass and Michaelle Goerlitz on drums. Chelle! & Friends deliver music that’s steeped in the cadences of gospel and animated by the earthy grooves of R&B and the Caribbean. Join the party, move your feet, sing along and join a Mardi Gras parade!

Chelle! & Friends (Kids’ Show)

A jazz harp player and soul-powered vocalist, Destiny Muhammad champions the legacy of the women who came before her while taking the instrument into enthralling new terrain. Following in the footsteps of jazz harp master Dorothy Ashby (who recorded with everyone from Freddie Hubbard and Frank Wess to Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder), the Destiny Muhammad Trio is her sleek and soulful ensemble. In addition to her many accolades, Muhammad is a current YBG Festival Seed Commission Artist. Designed to showcase Muhammad’s soaring vocals and transporting string work, her combo turns every piece into a spirit-rousing adventure, whether she’s interpreting jazz standards or her original tunes.

Destiny Muhammad Trio

The heat is on when Yerba Buena Salsa Nights return to the YBG Festival! Designed to delight salseros, this popular evening series transforms the plaza across from SFMOMA into an open-air dance party with live bands playing the hard-grooving sounds of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mozambique, New York and beyond! Taking place alongside Downtown First Thursdays, Salsa Nights adds a whole new dimension to the neighborhood. Friends, families and conga lines welcome!

Yerba Buena Salsa Nights

The ukulele is truly the people’s instrument, and the popular SF Uke Jam is the Bay Area’s leading force bringing fans of the diminutive 4-string uke together. Whether you play or just enjoy hearing the ukulele strummed by trained fingers, come join the SFUJ community for an afternoon uke-apalooza in the summer sun. The 9th Annual Uke Jam is both a showcase for the region’s foremost ukulele talent and a community strum-and-sing-along (bring your uke!) accompanied by special hula performances. Hawaii’s popular YouTuber Cynthia Lin and the Bay Area’s ebullient Ukulenny preside over the party, with support from multi-instrumentalist Steven Espaniola. From jazz and bossa nova to Hawaiian classics and reggae remixes, SF Uke Jam creates an island-inspired cross-cultural sound, turning the ukadacious celebration into an archipelago of aloha.

SF Uke Jam’s Summer Uke-splosion: Peace, Love and Ukulele

Over the past decade Mae Powell has earned a sterling reputation as a winsome singer-songwriter who can also put a personal, jazz-inflected stamp on American Songbook standards. She keeps company with some of the finest players in the region, musicians she counts among her best friends. Last year Powell released her second album, Making Room for the Light, a gauzy, late-afternoon skinny-dip of a session featuring her ethereal originals. She’s focusing on this folk-inspired material at the Gardens, bringing a taste of the verdant natural setting where she recorded the album in a Vancouver Island-adjacent studio.

Mae Powell

A third-generation musician from Jalisco, Aurelio Aceves didn’t wait long after moving to the Bay Area in 1990 before launching Mariachi San Francisco. The group quickly gained recognition for sharing the excitement, passion, and timeless spirit of mariachi, but over the years it’s become much more than a band. Mariachi San Francisco is a joyous family affair. Featuring an unusual mixed line up of male and female players, the 10-member ensemble includes Aceves’s daughters, sons and son-in-law, all dedicated to honoring and sharing the rich musical traditions of Mexico through unforgettable performances. Known for their top-notch musicianship, powerful vocals and vibrant energy, the group has honed a wide-ranging, audience-pleasing repertoire with rancheras, danzones, polkas, huapangos, sones, boleros, cumbias and more. The group has performed at hundreds of festivals, community events, family gatherings and street fairs, turning every occasion into a fiesta.

Mariachi San Francisco (Kids’ Show)

Nurtured in church, selected by Missy Elliott to launch her new label and now soaring into new musical realms, Lady Wray is a soul powerhouse making music on her own terms. As Nicole Wray she scored a top-five Billboard Hot 100 single while still a teenager, earning a gold record with “Make It Hot,” the title track of her debut album produced by Elliot and Timbaland. She’s been Lady Wray ever since, a regal title she wears with grace. Combining an almighty voice, revelatory lyrics, and a magnetic stage persona, the singer-songwriter continues to elevate her artistry while pushing the boundaries of soul and R&B. Lady Wray’s music reflects her appreciation for her family, her faith, and her renewed love for herself—all of which drive her acclaimed fourth album, 2025’s Cover Girl.

Lady Wray

More than a celebration of indigeneity, Honoring Our Relatives seeks to bridge shared struggles across communities while centering the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people here on Turtle Island. The integration of Mexica dancers, Palestinian Dabke and other cultural elements highlights solidarity, shared grief and collective resilience.

Honoring Our Relatives: A Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Gathering

As his band’s name suggests, Rafael Bustamante Sarria created LA GENTE SF as a vehicle to bring a cosmopolitan array of grooves to the people. Back in the Bay Area after several years in Madrid, the charismatic frontman has honed a dance-inducing Caribbean sound blending cumbia and reggae, salsa, hip-hop and reggaeton. LA GENTE SF’s fifth album, 2025’s Entre 2 Mundos, captures the group’s international spirit with music videos recorded and filmed in San Francisco, Colombia, Spain, Mexico and Morocco. Featuring Bustamante (lead vocals, guitar, percussion), Diana Rivera (vocals, percussion), Jordan Feinstein (keyboards, vocals), Jesse Weber (vocals, percussion), Patricio Angulo (drum kit, vocals) and Julio De La Cruz (electric bass, vocals) the sextet delivers politically conscious tunes designed to unite everyone in ecstatic movement.

La Gente Sf

In Chinese culture, the lion symbolizes power, wisdom and superiority, and when the lion arrives you know it’s a special occasion. The Lion Dance is a traditional Chinese ritual performed at significant events, most famously Lunar New Year festivals, when the appearance of the auspicious creature augurs good luck, happiness and prosperity for the upcoming year. With expert moves and regal choreography, the Toishan Lions Dance Troupe turns the Gardens into a joyous celebration. Presented by the Oakland-based Toishan Benevolent Association, the Toishan Lions Dance Troupe features traditional acrobatics and music as part of its mission to promote Chinese traditional culture, including kung fu, tai chi and traditional folk, lion and dragon dances. Bringing joy and delight to the young and old, the lion dance is the most popular performance for Chinese cultural events, religious festivals and important occasions of all stripes, such as ribbon cuttings, wedding ceremonies and honoring special guests, like everyone who comes out to the Gardens.

Toishan Lions Dance Troupe (Kids’ Show)

The Sacramento-based taiko collective Iwa Daiko builds community through the thunderous power of percussion. Roughly translated, Iwa Daiko  means “Collective Purpose,” signifying music’s singular ability to bring people together for the sharing of authentic expression. Far more than kinetic entertainment, Iwa Daiko aims to promote peace, understanding and pluralism with music that honors cultural tradition and exploration. The ensemble includes Japanese American descendants of those who were forcibly relocated to WWII internment camps and those whose families migrated more recently, as well as Asian Americans of diverse cultural identities. Through taiko, Iwa Daiko is for a pluralistic world where all people can be free. Presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Japan, San Francisco, the program embodies Iwa Daiko’s belief that tradition is not in opposition to invention, but an essential link between where we have been and who we can become.

Iwa Daiko

Spanning three generations and an array of celebratory Latin American musical traditions, René y Familia is the latest gift from an iconic San Francisco musical clan. Led by educator and songwriter René Peña-Govea, the ensemble includes her son Diego, whose original music appeared on the KTVU show SF Loves Learning, and her sister Cecilia Peña-Govea (aka renowned reggaeton artist La Doña). Their parents, Susan Peña and Los Compas bandleader Miguel Govea, got the party started more than two decades ago with La Familia Peña-Govea, which was a mainstay at community events, festivals and fundraisers. Like that storied conjunto, René y Familia delivers rancheras, cumbias, merengues, boleros and sones, turning every gathering into fiesta while also raising themes of cultural pride, socio-emotional awareness and solidarity.

René y Familia (Kids’ Show)

Like a wall waiting for a mural or a stage ready for a play, the Gardens call for human bodies in motion. Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest, a mini-festival of site-specific work, turns the Gardens’ various open spaces into a showcase for the extravagant creativity, diversity and vibrancy of the Bay Area dance scene. Co-curated by David Herrera, Artistic Director of David Herrera Performance Company, and PUSH Dance Company Artistic Director Raissa Simpson and Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle, YBG ChoreoFest includes new work by a bevy of brilliant choreographers and dance companies. This year, all the action occurs on two dance-filled days.

Participating companies include La Mezcla, Ishami Dance Company, BrasArte, Yeni Lucero, Spearman & Co., Sharp & Fine, PUSH Dance Company and David Herrera Performance Company.

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest (Day One)

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Women’s Audio Mission bring Local Sirens to the Gardens for an afternoon of dynamic music. WAM’s Local Sirens is an all-ages performance series that features exceptional Bay Area women and gender-expansive musicians and performers. To date, Local Sirens has presented more than 75 Bay Area artists and reached over 7,500 attendees at venues including The Rickshaw Stop, The New Parish and others. Artists to be announced.

WAM Presents: Local Sirens

Like a wall waiting for a mural or a stage ready for a play, the Gardens call for human bodies in motion. Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest, a mini-festival of site-specific work, turns the Gardens’ various open spaces into a showcase for the extravagant creativity, diversity and vibrancy of the Bay Area dance scene. Co-curated by David Herrera, Artistic Director of David Herrera Performance Company, and PUSH Dance Company Artistic Director Raissa Simpson and Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle, YBG ChoreoFest includes new work by a bevy of brilliant choreographers and dance companies. This year, all the action occurs on two dance-filled days. 

Participating companies include La Mezcla, Ishami Dance Company, BrasArte, Yeni Lucero, Spearman & Co., Sharp & Fine, PUSH Dance Company and David Herrera Performance Company.

Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest (Day Two)

Curated by visionary East Bay percussionist Sameer Gupta of Rootstock Arts, Color Your Mind is a gathering of musicians dedicated to expanding the boundaries of classical Indian music and related traditions into exciting new territory. This year’s program features the brilliant Carnatic violinist and vocalist Sruti Sarathy, who has forged a highly personal sound by combining her South Indian classical training with influences from North India’s Hindustani tradition. Multi-instrumentalist Siddique Ahmed (aka Sohrab), a founding member of Afghanistan’s first rock band, Kabul Dreams, brings his lute-like rubab, the national instrument of Afghanistan. And Delhi-born Suhail Yusuf Khan, who hails from a musical dynasty, performs on vocals and sarangi, the bowed, short-neck, three-string instrument that can sound strikingly like a human voice. Each artist presents their own set exploring improvisation within the wide-open framework of Hindustani and Carnatic raga music, “which has been translated to mean ‘that which colors the mind,’” Gupta says. “Color Your Mind really cuts to the essence of the idea that this is music for anyone and everyone.”

Color Your Mind

Born in Côte d’Ivoire and long based in the Bay Area, Fely Tchaco seamlessly blends traditional Ivorian sounds with Afro-pop, jazz and world music, delivering mesmerizing performances that combine cultural celebration, storytelling and visions of social change. An award-winning singer, songwriter and performer, Tchaco has honed a unique fusion of West African rhythms with contemporary influences. Known for her electrifying stage presence, she’s a seasoned performer who has captivated audiences at renowned festivals and venues around the world. Tchaco’s music transcends borders, making her an exceptional choice for international concerts, cultural events and high-energy live shows. Whether with a full band or an intimate acoustic set, she brings passion, originality and a mesmerizing energy that leaves audiences inspired.

AfroSolo Presents: Fely Tchaco

Every summer some of Brazil’s greatest musicians gather in the redwoods of Cazadero for California Brazil Camp, and every season several faculty members venture down to the Gardens to share their mesmerizing music. Past concerts have included some of the South American nation’s most celebrated artists, such as Monica Salmaso, Teco Cardoso, Guinga and Fabiana Cozza. This year’s show, “Brazilian Choro” is led by two masters at the forefront of a virtuosic instrumental tradition that marked Brazil’s first African/European musical fusion, clarinetist/composer Alexandre Ribeiro and seven-string guitarist/composer Alessandro Penezzi. Born in late 19th century Rio de Janeiro, choro has undergone repeated revivals over the decades, while influencing almost every subsequent Brazilian idiom, from samba to Brazilian jazz. Frequent performing and recording partners, Penezzi and Ribeiro played an essential role in sparking the choro renaissance of the 1990s. They’ve forged deep ties to many Bay Area musical Brazilophiles and will be joined by several colleagues for an afternoon of jaw-dropping instrumental interplay.

Brazil in the Gardens: Alexandre Ribeiro and Alessandro Penezzi

The son of Ecuadoran immigrants, Roberto Carlos Lange is a producer and singer-songwriter who has created an expansive, intoxicating body of music as Helado Negro. Known for crafting compassionate, atmospheric, and experimental pop music, he joins forces with Reyna Tropical, a decade-long project led by Fabi Reyna, the Mexican-born, Texas-raised activist, and guitarist who also founded She Shreds Magazine – the world’s first and only print publication dedicated to women guitarists and bassists. Reyna Tropical expands on their highly personal blend of Afro-Indigenous drum beats, Reyna’s gauzy guitar riffs and environmental samples.

Helado Negro + Reyna Tropical

The 7th Annual African Arts Festival celebrates the glorious diversity and extraordinary creativity of the continent’s peoples. Co-presented by Duniya Dance and Drum Company and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, it’s a family-friendly celebration of live music and dance featuring Bay Area ensembles representing different regions of Africa and the African diaspora. Formed in April 2007, Duniya Dance and Drum Company creates dance and music from the Indian state of Punjab, the West African nation of Guinea and beyond, as well as unique blends of these forms. Along with interactive activities like dance and drum lessons and face-painting for children, vendors offer a variety of traditional African food and goods for sale, including clothing, jewelry, hair care and skin care. “The idea for the festival came from the desire to bring Africans and the diaspora together as one community in the Bay Area, to inspire each other and share each other’s culture,” explains Duniya Dance and Drum Company Artistic Director Bongo Sidibe. “We are highlighting joy and celebrating who we are as Black people.”

African Arts Festival

A wind quintet with an imperative mission, Quinteto Latino is a singular Bay Area-based chamber ensemble devoted to breaking down the racial and social barriers that have long plagued the classical music world. Spotlighting and performing compositions by artists of Latin American heritage, the quintet’s acclaimed musicians are devoted to building community through classical music, performance and advocacy. With concerts featuring expertly melded flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon, QL brings out the vibrant colors and vigorous rhythms of Latin American music. The group’s programs include arrangements of beloved Latino folk melodies and contemporary works by illustrious composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank, Orlando Jacinto García and Paquito D’Rivera, including many commissioned by the ensemble.

Quinteto Latino

Since launching in 2023 Follow the Music has been at the forefront of a rising movement promoting arts education around the Bay Area. The nonprofit organization introduces its next phase with an emerging artists music festival designed to showcase aspiring young musicians. Bringing families and young people from all over the region to the urban oasis of the Gardens, Follow the Music celebrates the Bay Area’s unrivaled cultural heritage by building a bridge between that legacy and the young people carrying it forward. Featuring musicians ages 14-25, the event includes musicians from the San Francisco Community Music Center, Oakland School for the Arts, SFJAZZ, GLIDE Memorial Church, Blue Bear School of Music, Elevate Oakland, Enriching Lives Through Music and other organizations. Drawing on the Bay Area’s cultural diversity, the lineup crosses genres from classical and jazz to soul, rock and Latin jazz. It also features guest speakers from music, sports and popular culture. A community resource fair provides families and students with opportunities to connect directly with many Bay Area music education programs while learning about classes and scholarships. The muse can take many pathways and Follow the Music is here to ensure that all are open.

Follow the Music

A party, a workout, a meditation and a communal celebration, Yerba Buena Gardens Dance Day is a portal to a joyous dance-filled world! Presented by YBG Festival and Rhythm & Motion, YBG Dance Day transforms the Gardens into an outdoor dance heaven where participants can sample dance in a variety of forms and flavors with some of the Bay Area’s most talented teachers. Classes are one-hour long and span a wide range of dance genres. Whether you are new to dance or a seasoned professional, Yerba Buena Gardens Dance Day is open to everyone! Bring comfortable shoes, a water bottle and your curiosity for movement – stay for an hour or the full day. Invite friends and family. This is your day to dance!

This year, Dance Day honors the life and legacy of Rhythm & Motion founder Consuelo Faust (1953-2025). We celebrate the spirit she championed – living the belief that anyone can dance and that dance has the power to bring people together in joy. Following the day of classes, there will be a celebratory music and dance performance that uplifts her vision and the vibrant SF Bay Area dance community she deeply loved and helped to nurture throughout her life.

YBG Dance Day

Join us in celebration of San Francisco Indigenous Peoples Day with a magnificent profusion of Native American art, music and vendors. The event highlights the vastly diverse and talented community of Indigenous artists in the Bay Area, California and the Americas. Presented on Yelamu, Ramaytush Ohlone Territory, in partnership with the International Indian Treaty Council, the program at Yerba Buena Gardens follows the Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz – please check the IITC website for updates. Schedule to be announced.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day with special performance by Jeremy Dutcher

The 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birthday has inspired dozens of performances across the Bay Area this year, but no artist is better equipped to evoke the legacy of the saxophone titan and spiritual seeker than Richard Howell. An acclaimed musician, composer and educator, he defines his performances as “Bridge Music,” a jazz pathway that creates sonic connection across obstacles and differences. It’s music that celebrates diversity as it bridges, unites and merges the experience of all listeners, an approach rooted in the spirit of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” Howell, who spent years on the road with Etta James, also embraces the contradiction of James Brown’s simple yet intricate African-inspired rhythmic concepts and the deep soulfulness of the Isley Brothers. As a saxophonist and vocalist, he has a gift for connecting to multi-generational audiences with an abiding spirituality that invites all listeners to partake. He’s particularly eager to present an afternoon honoring the spirit and music of John Coltrane, he explains. “I’ve had the blessing of a close relationship with his son, Ravi Coltrane, as my son Elé has been part of Ravi’s rhythm section as a drummer for the past seven years. What I’m envisioning is an acoustic jazz quartet – tenor saxophone, acoustic piano, bass and drums – rooted in the Coltrane tradition, but also reflecting the living continuum of that music.”

Richard Howell’s John Coltrane Tribute

Festival favorite Joe Bataan, a Latin music legend since the mid-1960s, returns to the Gardens for his third performance in the past four years. He made an indelible mark as one of the early stars of Fania Records with a seductive combination of doo-wop vocals and boogaloo, one of the era’s defining sounds. Born Bataan Nitollano to a Filipino father and African-American mother and raised in Spanish Harlem, he is the father of the Latin soul sound, crooning hits like “Gypsy Woman” and “Ordinary Guy.” But Bataan never stayed in one groove for long. He went on to expand his sound in the ’70s with his Ghetto Records releases, co-coining the apt moniker “salsoul,” though he adapted to changing currents at the end of the decade with forays into disco and hip-hop (scoring the early rap hit “Rap-O Clap-O” in 1979). Stepping back from performing in the early ‘80s, he largely disappeared from the scene while working as a youth counselor in detention facilities. It’s a dramatic story that he recounts with humor and searing detail in his 2024 memoir Streetology: The Legacy of the Afro-Filipino, King of Latin Soul. Since returning to music in 2005, he’s reclaimed his crown and is still going strong in his 80s, a fact made evident by his triumphant YBG Festival performances.

Joe Bataan

Few artists have appeared at the Festival more frequently than flutist, percussionist and arranger John Calloway. Whether he’s leading his own band, performing in the sextet of longtime creative partner John Santos, or directing the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, Calloway is a Bay Area icon who’s been at the center of the San Francisco Latin jazz scene for some five decades. But his latest and most personal project yet, the Afro-Filipino Jazz Project, takes his music in a new direction. Founded in 2022 as a creative, interactive space, the Project is intended to bring together Afro Filipinx, African American and Filipino American musicians to explore a broad range of musical styles, with a particular emphasis on jazz idioms, African American roots and traditional and folkloric Filipino music. It’s one component of the larger Afro-Filipino Project, a platform dedicated to highlighting and celebrating, individually and collectively, the art practices and artists of the African American and Filipino American communities whose contributions have profoundly shaped our nation’s artistic narrative. For this performance the AFJP features bass star Marcus Shelby, inveterately grooving drummer Deszon Claiborne, Latin jazz piano specialist Murray Low, saxophonist TJ Milan, Conrad Benedicto on kulintang, vocalist and dancer Ting Alvarez and guest vocalist Anna Maria Flechero.

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

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Aireene & The Itch

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Hailu Mergia

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Larry & Joe

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Las Cafeteras

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Yerba Buena Gardens Festival