SF Bay Area Events: Fri Evening + All of Saturday
Friday evening leads with Bill Fontana's "Resonance" world premiere at Grace Cathedral (free sound sculpture using silent bells and pipe organ, 7–9 PM), Tracorum at Golden Gate Bandshell (free, 4:30–7:30 PM), SF Critical Mass (6 PM, Embarcadero Plaza), four DocFest screenings at the Roxie, and the L'Chaim America! salon theatre + Shabbat dinner at JCCSF ($36). Saturday is unusually hackathon-dense: four SF builder events (Autoresearch Systems/Modal/OpenAI, Web Data UNLOCKED/Bright Data open registration, Kane CLI Hack Day, SuperPlane waitlist) alongside SF Porchfest's 100+ free acts across 18 Mission porches, the Presidio Brewfest ($60+), a free SF Symphony chamber concert at Anza Library, and DocFest's 10-film Saturday slate.
Friday evening is anchored by a world-premiere sound sculpture inside Grace Cathedral — free, no ticket, just show up — alongside the SF DocFest's second day of screenings and the monthly Critical Mass bike ride. The OUT Museum's opening week continues through June 7 at 949 Clay St in Chinatown (free, all week).
Saturday is the rare weekend where tech and culture compete for the same calendar slot. Four SF hackathons run across the city — themes from autonomous AI research agents to platform engineering — while the Mission hosts its 8th annual Porchfest (100+ acts, 18 porches, free) and the Presidio opens the gates for the fourth Parks4All Brewfest. It is an unusually full Saturday.
Coverage: Friday, May 29 evening and Saturday, May 30 all day.
Friday evening, May 29
Bill Fontana: Resonance — world premiere at Grace Cathedral
| Time | Fri May 29, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT (GraceArts member reception 6:00 PM) |
| Venue | Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St, San Francisco, CA 94108 |
| Category | Sound sculpture — world premiere |
| Access | Free — open to the public |
Sound artist Bill Fontana, whose 55-year career includes commissions for Notre-Dame de Paris, the Vatican, Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou, premieres "Resonance" tonight inside Grace Cathedral. 1 The work uses the cathedral's silent bells and pipe organ as raw material — Fontana's first bell-based project in the United States. No tickets, no RSVP. The installation continues Saturday, May 30 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM for a second free viewing.
Illuminate Friday Happy Hour at Golden Gate Bandshell
| Time | Fri May 29, 4:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT |
| Venue | Golden Gate Bandshell, 75 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, Golden Gate Park, SF |
| Host | Illuminate (City of Awe) |
| Category | Free outdoor concert |
| Access | Free — no registration |
Live set from Tracorum at the Golden Gate Bandshell, part of the City of Awe programming series. 2 No tickets, no RSVP. The Illuminate laser installation is also running this weekend on the Transamerica Pyramid.
SF Critical Mass — May ride
| Time | Fri May 29, 6:00 PM meetup |
| Venue | Embarcadero Plaza (formerly Justin Herman Plaza), San Francisco |
| Access | Free — no registration |
Monthly group ride through city streets, the last Friday of every month. 3 Meet at 6:00 PM at Embarcadero Plaza — the ride departs from there. No fixed route published in advance.
SF DocFest 25th Annual — Day 2 at Roxie Theater
| Time | Fri May 29, screenings from 6:00 PM |
| Venue | Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St, San Francisco |
| Category | Documentary film festival — Day 2 of 8 |
| Tickets | $17–19 standard / $10 online streaming; booking at roxie.com |
Four screenings Friday night at the Roxie: 4
| Time | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 PM | Quba! & This Side Up | Cuban LGBTQ+ revolution doc + short |
| 6:15 PM | Celtic Utopia | Irish youth artists redefining folk |
| 8:15 PM | Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 20 with Rick Prelinger | Live cinema event, SF urban memory |
| 8:30 PM | Blood & Guts | Independent horror filmmaking family portrait |
The festival runs through June 4. 5
L'Chaim, America! — salon theatre and Shabbat dinner
| Time | Fri May 29, 7:30 PM PDT |
| Venue | JCCSF, 3200 California St, San Francisco |
| Host | The Braid |
| Category | Salon theatre reading + dinner |
| Access | $36 (includes dinner) — tickets via JCCSF website |
The Braid's salon theatre format: actors perform a series of American Jewish stories without sets or costumes, each taking multiple roles. 6 This edition's theme is the United States at 250 — stories spanning an Iranian Thanksgiving in the Midwest to a naturalization ceremony in the suburbs. Dinner included in the $36 ticket.
Adam Friedland Live at Cobb's Comedy Club
| Time | Fri May 29, 7:30 PM PDT |
| Venue | Cobb's Comedy Club, 915 Columbus Ave, San Francisco (North Beach) |
| Category | Stand-up comedy |
| Tickets | Via Cobb's box office 7 |
Adam Friedland live at Cobb's on North Beach. Check Cobb's box office for ticket availability and price tiers.
Quick reference — Friday evening
| Event | Time (PDT) | Location | Access | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illuminate Happy Hour (Tracorum) | 4:30–7:30 PM | Golden Gate Bandshell, GGP, SF | Free | illuminate.org/events |
| SF Critical Mass | 6:00 PM meet | Embarcadero Plaza, SF | Free | No RSVP |
| DocFest Day 2 — Quba! | 6:00 PM | Roxie Theater, SF | $17–19 | roxie.com |
| DocFest Day 2 — Celtic Utopia | 6:15 PM | Roxie Theater, SF | $17–19 | roxie.com |
| L'Chaim, America! | 7:30 PM | JCCSF, SF | $36 (w/ dinner) | jccsf.org |
| Adam Friedland | 7:30 PM | Cobb's, North Beach, SF | Ticketed | Cobb's box office |
| Bill Fontana: Resonance (world premiere) | 7:00–9:00 PM | Grace Cathedral, SF | Free | No RSVP |
| DocFest Day 2 — Lost Landscapes (live cinema) | 8:15 PM | Roxie Theater, SF | $17–19 | roxie.com |
| DocFest Day 2 — Blood & Guts | 8:30 PM | Roxie Theater, SF | $17–19 | roxie.com |
Margaret Cho: Choligarchy at Palace of Fine Arts (7:00 PM, $65+) is SOLD OUT per SF Standard. 5
Saturday, May 30 — tech and builder events
Five hackathons in the Bay Area on the same Saturday: four in SF, one in Sunnyvale. Two SF events are accepting registrations today; two are approval-required with open spots.
Autoresearch Systems Hackathon — Modal, OpenAI, Raindrop, Antler
| Time | Sat May 30, 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM PDT |
| Venue | Antler HQ, San Francisco (address disclosed after approval) |
| Hosts | Modal, OpenAI, Raindrop, Antler — hosts: Felicia Chang, Helen Park, Jason Liu |
| Category | AI hackathon — autonomous research systems |
| Prize pool | $20K Modal credits + $5K ChatGPT credits + Antler residency fast-track + $5K Raindrop best-use award |
| Access | Free — approval required; apply at lu.ma/fvz1h1dq |
The theme is autonomous research systems: agent architectures and control loops, retrieval and knowledge synthesis, application-layer autonomous research. 8 Speakers include Erik Dunteman (Butter CEO, acquired by Modal), Ben Hylak (Raindrop CTO), and Rio Hodges (Antler Director). Day schedule: 8–9:30 AM registration and breakfast → 9:30 AM kickoff → 12 PM lunch and lightning talks → 6:15 PM submission deadline → 6:30–7:30 PM dinner, demos, and judging → 7:30 PM awards.
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Web Data UNLOCKED — Enterprise AI Hackathon (Day 1 of 2)
| Time | Sat May 30, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM PDT (Day 1); continues Sun May 31 through 4:00 PM |
| Venue | The Web Data Loft, 625 2nd St, San Francisco, CA 94107 |
| Hosts | Bright Data, lablab |
| Category | AI hackathon — enterprise data infrastructure |
| Prize pool | $18,300 cash + Bright Data AI Startup Program opportunity; $250 Bright Data API credits per participant |
| Access | Free — open registration (494 registered as of press time); apply at lu.ma/k9vgqtfp |
Participants build enterprise AI systems using production-grade web data infrastructure — GTM intelligence, financial data pipelines, security monitoring, MCP agents. 9 Every registered participant receives $250 in Bright Data API credits at the door; the first 500 also get $10 in AI/ML API credits. Projects must use at least one Bright Data product. Speakers: Dave Nielsen (Cognee), Swamy Narayanaswamy (Triggerware.ai), Ofer Mendelevitch (Band.ai), Sandhya Subramani (AWS). Day 1 schedule: 10 AM doors and breakfast → 10:30 AM opening → 12 PM workshop → 2 PM lunch → 5 PM submission deadline → 6 PM close.
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Kane CLI Hack Day — AWS Kiro + AI agents
| Time | Sat May 30, 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM PDT |
| Venue | San Francisco (address disclosed after approval) |
| Hosts | TestMu AI, Bond AI (Sahar Mor), dev.to, AWS |
| Category | Developer hackathon — AI-assisted web apps |
| Prize pool | $5,000 cash ($2,500 / $1,500 / $1,000) + TestMu founder 1:1, design partner status, 3 months Kane CLI Pro |
| Access | Free — approval required, max 50 developers; apply at lu.ma/eieewjee |
Build a web app with an AI coding agent, then verify it with Kane CLI as the quality layer. 10 Required stack: AWS Kiro IDE + Kane CLI (
npm install -g @testmuai/kane-cli). Teams of up to four; solo entries allowed. All participants get full Kane CLI Pro access for the day. Tagline from the event page: "Build it with an agent. Verify it with Kane. Ship by dinner." 10SuperPlane Hackathon: Bash Script Funeral — waitlist only
| Time | Sat May 30, 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM PDT |
| Venue | San Francisco (address disclosed after approval) |
| Hosts | SuperPlane, Render |
| Category | Platform engineering hackathon |
| Prize pool | $4,000 main prizes + Render credits; all participants receive $50 Render credits |
| Access | Waitlist only (106 registered, event full) — join at lu.ma/3yx41qr9 |
Build platform engineering workflows and automations using SuperPlane. 11 The event is listed as full; a waitlist spot may open as the day approaches. No fixed build theme — the prompt is open. Submission deadline: 5:00 PM; demos and awards from 5:15 PM.
⚠️ Outside SF — Beta Fund × Evermind One Person Company Hackathon (Sunnyvale, waitlist)
| Time | Sat May 30, 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM PDT |
| Venue | Sunnyvale, CA ⚠️ (address disclosed after approval) |
| Hosts | Beta University Events, Beta Fund, Butterbase Events, EverMind |
| Category | "One-person company" hackathon — AI product sprint |
| Prize pool | $600/$500/$400/$300/$200 audience vote cash + Beta Fellowship fast-track ($25K investment potential) |
| Access | Waitlist only (257 registered, event full) — join at lu.ma/h7h9r7bw |
Single-day hackathon for solo and small-team builders; all projects must use the Evermind Agent Memory infrastructure platform. 12 ⚠️ Sunnyvale — roughly 40 miles south of SF.
Quick reference — Saturday tech events
| Event | Time (PDT) | Location | Access | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autoresearch Systems Hackathon | 8:00 AM–8:00 PM | Antler HQ, SF | Free / approval | lu.ma/fvz1h1dq |
| Web Data UNLOCKED (Day 1) | 9:00 AM–6:00 PM | 625 2nd St, SF | Free / open | lu.ma/k9vgqtfp |
| Kane CLI Hack Day | 9:30 AM–8:00 PM | SF | Free / approval | lu.ma/eieewjee |
| SuperPlane: Bash Script Funeral | 10:00 AM–7:00 PM | SF | Waitlist | lu.ma/3yx41qr9 |
| Beta Fund × Evermind ⚠️ | 9:30 AM–5:30 PM | Sunnyvale | Waitlist | lu.ma/h7h9r7bw |
"Approval required" = apply on lu.ma; address disclosed after approval. Capacity can close without notice.
Saturday, May 30 — cultural and community
SF Porchfest — 8th annual
| Time | Sat May 30, Noon – 6:00 PM PDT |
| Venue | Mission District, San Francisco — 18 porch stages across residential streets |
| Access | Free — no registration; interactive map and full schedule at app.sfporchfest.org |
One hundred-plus local acts spread across 18 front porches in the Mission for six hours. 13 The official app at app.sfporchfest.org has the full performer lineup with porch assignments and a street map. Poster by Carlos Lewis and Noah Gould. No ticketing, no wristbands — walk the neighborhood.
Parks4All: Brewfest 2026 at the Presidio
| Time | Sat May 30, Noon – 4:00 PM PDT |
| Venue | Civil War Parade Ground, Presidio of San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge backdrop) |
| Host | Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy |
| Category | Beer festival — 4th annual |
| Access | $60+ General Admission via Eventbrite; designated drivers, children (with supervision), and leashed dogs free |
General Admission includes unlimited tastings from Bay Area craft breweries, a commemorative 5 oz tasting glass, lawn games, live music, and access to the new Trailhead Lounge. 14 Food trucks on site (purchased separately). Ticket revenue supports the Parks Conservancy's inclusive programs. Brewery lineup published on the Parks Conservancy site as an image; check the Eventbrite page for current availability and exact ticket tiers.
SF Symphony free community concert at Anza Library
| Time | Sat May 30, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PDT |
| Venue | SF Public Library Anza Branch, 550 37th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121 |
| Host | San Francisco Symphony |
| Category | Chamber music — free community performance |
| Access | Free — no reservation required; sponsored by the Frederic H. Smith estate |
San Francisco Symphony musicians perform chamber music at the Anza Branch library in the Richmond District. 15 Specific program and ensemble size not yet published. The Symphony absorbs all costs for this series, per the event description. 15
SF DocFest Saturday at Roxie + Nippon Vibes at New People Cinema
Ten documentary screenings run at the Roxie Theater from noon through 9 PM, covering Bay Area shorts, LGBTQ+ history, and international docs. 16 Selected Saturday screenings:
| Time | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 PM | There Are No Words | |
| 2:15 PM | Anarchy in High Heels: The Story of Les Nickelettes | Q&A included |
| 3:30 PM | The Surrender of Waymond Hall & The Second Life of Freddie Nole | Q&A included |
| 6:00 PM | Just Kids | Q&A included |
| 8:30 PM | Soul Searchin' & A Way to Be Together | Q&A included |
| 9:00 PM | The Fair & Oakland Strong |
Full schedule and tickets at roxie.com. 16
Nippon Vibes Japanese Cinema is screening at New People Cinema (1746 Post St, Japantown) Saturday evening: 5
- 5:00 PM — Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
- 7:15 PM — Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2023)
Engage! Art, Blackness, and the Universe at MoAD — final day
| Time | Sat May 30 (final day of three-day run; May 28–30) |
| Venue | Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco |
| Host | CCA × MoAD × UC Berkeley |
| Category | Talks / book signings / art workshops |
The closing day of a three-day program at MoAD produced jointly by the California College of the Arts, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and UC Berkeley. 5 Programming today includes talks, book signings, and hands-on art workshops. Check MoAD's website for session times and any ticketing requirements.
The Whale's Tail beer and wine garden — Golden Gate Park
| Time | Sat May 30, open (seasonal return for Memorial Day weekend) |
| Venue | Golden Gate Park, San Francisco |
| Access | Walk-in; food and beverages purchased on site |
The seasonal beer and wine garden returns to Golden Gate Park this weekend, with live music. 17 No cover charge to enter the park area.
Quick reference — Saturday cultural and community
| Event | Time (PDT) | Location | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Porchfest (100+ acts) | Noon–6:00 PM | Mission District, SF | Free |
| Parks4All Brewfest | Noon–4:00 PM | Presidio, SF | $60+ (Eventbrite) |
| Bill Fontana: Resonance (continued) | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM | Grace Cathedral, SF | Free |
| SF Symphony @ Anza Library | 2:30–3:30 PM | 550 37th Ave, SF | Free |
| DocFest Saturday (10 films) | 12:00 PM–9:00 PM | Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St, SF | $17–19 |
| Nippon Vibes — Rashomon | 5:00 PM | New People Cinema, Japantown, SF | Ticketed |
| Nippon Vibes — Monster | 7:15 PM | New People Cinema, Japantown, SF | Ticketed |
| Engage! at MoAD (final day) | All day | MoAD, SF | Check MoAD website |
| Whale's Tail beer garden | Open | Golden Gate Park, SF | Walk-in |
| Robby Hoffman at Castro Theatre | TBD | The Castro Theatre, SF | SOLD OUT |
| OUT Museum opening week | Through Jun 7 | 949 Clay St, SF (Chinatown) | Free |
Robby Hoffman at the Castro Theatre is SOLD OUT per SF Standard. 5 OUT Museum listed for ongoing reference — no separate programming details published for Saturday specifically.
Cover image: Elderly couple dancing at an outdoor street festival — Anderson Martins / Pexels
References
- 1Grace Cathedral: Bill Fontana: Resonance (World Premiere Opening)
gracecathedral.org
- 2Illuminate: LIVE Events
illuminate.org
- 3
- 4Roxie Theater: Now Playing
roxie.com
- 5
- 6
- 7Comedy Calendar: San Francisco Comedy Shows & Events
comedycalendar.com
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13SF Porchfest: Official Website
sfporchfest.org
- 14Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy: Parks4All Brewfest 2026
parksconservancy.org
- 15
- 16
- 17
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