San Francisco will soon welcome a new craft market every single month at Yerba Buena Gardens! The Yerba Buena Art and Maker’s Market will take place from 11am-4pm on the first Sunday of every month starting April 2nd, 2023, and lasting all the way through the end of the year (with a special week-long market in December). Check out a rotating lineup of musical performances and local vendors selling original arts, crafts, and artisanal items.
The first market on Sunday, April 2nd will feature live music by Curt Yagi, an award-winning singer-songwriter; and Sang Matiz, an Afro-Latin funk band. For the May 7th market, the event will be AAPI-themed in honor of AAPI month. Some other performers we can expect at future markets include Theatre Flamenco, Jaleh, Roem Baur, LoCura, Amy Obenski, and Grrrl Brigade. Performers and artists are curated with input from community groups including the Museum of the African Diaspora.
Browse booths with plentiful work by local artisans including jewelry, ceramics, woodwork, prints, macrame, and more handcrafted works. There is no fee for vendors to join the market, meaning that more makers can participate who would otherwise face monetary barriers when trying to sell their wares.
As one of SF’s tried-and-true picnic destinations, Yerba Buena Gardens has plenty of fun things to do in addition to this new upcoming market. Grab food at a nearby restaurant and sprawl out on the grass, or make a day of it by visiting one of the neighborhood museums including the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and SFMOMA. Other places to look for are the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which showcases work from local artists, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which is the second-largest memorial of its kind in the country. And finally, don’t forget to look for the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival which should start back up this summer.
The Yerba Buena Arts & Maker’s Market is part of the city’s Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco’s Future, which works to revitalize Downtown SF’s economy and vitality as a cultural center of the city. Some of the Roadmap’s other initiatives include investments in sanitation, safety, and transportation.