Reservations to open for first Stern Grove Festival concert with Tower of Power, Too $hort

SAN FRANCISCO — Reservations for the first concert of this year’s 85th annual Stern Grove Festival featuring Tower of Power and Too $hort will be made available online at 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

The two famed East Bay acts were scheduled to close out last year’s festival when flooding from a broken water main flooded the Grove just days before the late August show date, causing “catastrophic damage” to the park and putting this year’s festival in doubt.

Flooding washed mud across the concert meadow area in front of the stage and did considerable damage to the backstage area at the venue. According to reports, the initial SFPUC estimates of a $4 million cost to repair the Grove was woefully short. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors eventually approved the updated repair cost of $20 million back in April.

Those interested in attending can visit sterngrove.org to reserve  up to four tickets for the June 12 concert, which will also mark the first time that the majority of Stern Grove is once again open to the general public since the flooding. The originally scheduled concert quickly sold out of ticket reservations

The festival had operated on a first come, first served basis as far as seating for most of its history, but instituted the ticket reservation policy with the advent of COVID after health restrictions forced the festival to place some limits on the number of people attending. That system will remain in place this season.

Two more June dates will soon be available for reservations. The schedule for those performances are as follows:

• June 19: Toro Y Moi, Hello Yello (reservations open on Tuesday, June 7)
• June 26: Liz Phair, Peaches Christ, Madi Diaz, DJ Ladyryan (reservations open on Tuesday, June 14)

Additional information on the 85th Stern Grove Festival season, COVID safety protocols and more are available at the Stern Grove website.