Party Alert: San Francisco Street Festival Going Down This Weekend

By Meesha Halm

It’s almost time for the city’s biggest street food powwow: the San Francisco Street Food Festival orchestrated by La Cocina. Each year, the curbside party expands, and this year that means not only a food entrepreneurship conference but also the debut of a new public event to kick off the festivities on Friday.

Starting on Friday, August 17 from 6-9 PM, the San Francisco Night Market will take place on the site of the Alemany Farmer’s Market (100 Alemany Boulevard) and will feature music, dancing, drinks and tastes from over 27 food vendors. Entrance fee is $25 per person (bring cash to pay for individually priced food and drink) with proceeds going to support La Cocina. There will be paid parking on site but La Cocina is also running a free round-trip shuttle bus to and from the site from Mission Pie (corner of 25th and Mission Streets).

Saturday is the big day when well-known city chefs join their street-side brethren (85 in all) in the Mission to hawk their tasty wares to the some 80,000 people expect to show up for the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Passports (aka tickets) to the daytime event range from $25-$150 per person (providing different levels of buying eating and drinking power) can be purchased ahead of time online. (The street food festival takes place from 11 AM- 7 PM on the streets surrounding Folsom St, between 20th and 26th Streets.)

On Sunday and Monday, La Cocina will bring together a panel of food professionals, policy makers, entrepreneurs and media to discuss the 411 on everything from how to break into the food business, how to create successful spaces for food entrepreneurs and the intersection of food and technology during its two-day long Food Entrepreneurship Conference at SoM Arts. (Sunday 10 AM-4PM and Monday 9AM-5:30 PM, two-day conference package costs $158.49, individual day tickets costs $53.49 each; note: Monday-only conference tickets are already sold out.)

San Francisco Street Festival: August 17-20; Friday Night Market 6-9 PM (Alemany Farmers Market); San Francisco Street Festival Saturday 11 AM- 7 PM (in the Mission); Food and Entrepreneurship Conference Sunday and Monday at SoMa Arts (934 Brannan St); get complete event info and tickets online.