1. Take Public Transportation.
If you live outside of the city, this is going to be your best bet. BART will be running extra trains into the city’s central locations, which will be near impossible to reach by car, what with the parades and drunken people walking around Market street and the Civic Center.

2. Attend Both Days.
The parade doesn’t start until Sunday, but the party begins on Saturday with a concert at the Civic Center Plaza. This is a great chance to meet some other Pride supporters, to lounge out in the San Francisco sun, and to venture around the booths that are set up in the Plaza. Which brings me to my next tip…

3. Accept All Handouts.
There are very few celebrations–even in SF–whose staple handouts include free condoms, dental dams, rainbow buttons, and lube for free. Embrace the fact that you’re only going to receive these things once a year in such high quantity.

4. Arrive Early at the Party.
Did I mention that half a million people will be in the city on Sunday? If you want prime viewing space on Market street, get there at least 30 minutes before the 10:30 start time on Sunday morning.

5. The Party Doesn’t Stop After the Parade, so Neither Should You.
There are a plethora of afterparties on both nights, including the infamous Pink Party in the Castro. Our recommendation: Saturday night, head to Queen at Temple where Chris Cox, JJ Flores, Trevor Simpson, and more will be playing, or you can (and should!) go to the Pink Party, Castro’s block party, and witness the raucousness that makes this party legendary.

6. If You’ve Got the Gall, Dress Up.
Many, many people will be dressed up–bright colors, flamboyance, and extravagance are widely accepted and expected at this celebration. Don’t be the only person in your group donning normal clothing.

7. Enjoy the sights.
You are going to see an incredible array of many different people doing an incredible array of many different things. Whether it’s watching the floats or the Dykes on Bikes roll by, you have almost no choice but to embrace the fact that this will happen only one weekend per year, so enjoy every minute that you’re there. It is a quintessential San Francisco celebration and one that should be attended at least once in your lifetime.

For those who aren’t initiated: The Greek Theater, located in Berkeley on the UC-Berkeley campus, is a stunning amphitheater with stadium-style seating in back and a standing-room-only pit right near the stage. The venue is large but surprisingly intimate–one of the few Bay Area amphitheaters to have that feel. And with many of their events On a summer night, this outdoor venue can’t be beat.

How the Greek Theater promoters landed these all gigs I don’t know, but a bevy of a-list artists will be coming through the Greek throughout the summer, and it would be a shame to miss any of these shows. Starting on May 31 with R.E.M and Modest Mouse and ending their summer lineup with Dave Matthews Band on September 5, everything in between. Thievery Corporation will be playing on June 20 (which you can win tickets to, courtesy of Metrowize) and Death Cab for Cutie will be playing just a day after that, while the True Colors Tour finishes off the June month. Feist, Stone Temple Pilots, Steely Dan, and James Taylor are all arriving in July to play while. August won’t let up either, as Dolly Parton and Sound Tribe Sector 9 are playing just 11 days after one another.

Now you see what I mean. If there isn’t a show here that doesn’t interest you, I question whether you’re a fan of music. So go out there and buy your tickets before the shows all sell out–because they will!

Full Lineup:

June Shows
R.E.M - May 31, June 1
Thievery Corporation - June 20
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Or win your tickets, courtesy of Metrowize!
Death Cab for Cutie - June 21
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - June 27
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Mark Knopfler - June 28
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
True Colors Tour feat. Cyndi Lauper, B-52s, and more - June 29
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster

July Shows
Feist - July 19
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Stone Temple Pilots - July 25
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Steely Dan - July 26
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
James Taylor - July 27
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster

August Shows
John Mellencamp - August 2
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Dolly Parton - August 5
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Sound Tribe Sector 9 - August 16
Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
Or win your tickets for free, courtesy of Metrowize!

September Shows
Dave Matthews Band - September 5, 6, 7
Every DMB show is sold out, but you can still find some tickets through StubHub

Whether the festivals are expecting tens, hundreds, or hundreds of thousands, this summer is the summer of sustainability around the country. Rothbury Festival, for instance, is celebrating their inaugural festival with huge artists supporting environmental sustainability. Dave Matthews Band is making a stop at this Michigan event, along with John Mayer, Snoop Dogg, Modest Mouse and perennial festival players Brett Dennen and Michael Franti, to name a few. But the music is just half of the real goal of Rothbury, which is ”to educate and empower people through an open dialogue regarding solutions to climate change and sustainable energy needs, and to engage the live music community in this social movement.”. To ensure that their goal is met, they are holding the Rothbury Think Tank, which will bring together high-ranking members of academia, politics, and music and have a forum with festivalgoers.

The Pemberton Music Festival in British Columbia is utilizing their location to help power their festival: Hydro-electric energy will be the main source of power for the event, and the festival will also promote carpooling by offering free parking for those who drive in with four people. A farmer’s market is even being planned for the event. South By Southwest and Sasquatch, two festivals that have already passed, took it one step further and went completely carbon-neutral during the whole time the event was held.

Perhaps the most remarkable Green Festival, however, is Burningman, which takes the idea of ”Leave No Trace” to another level. The event takes place on an ancient lakebed in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. ”By the time the event is completed and the volunteers leave, sometimes nearly a month after the event has ended,” the website states, ”there will be no trace of the city that was, for a short time, the most populous town in the entire county.”

Whether it’s a small festival in California or the largest one on the east coast, These festivals mark an important step in the green movement. While not every festival needs to be like Burningman, it’s imperative that festivals begin to make small steps to reduce carbon emmisions. Each year, millions of people attend summer music festivals, and tapping into this diverse yet dedicated fanbase is an important step in increasing awareness of global warming and the effects it could have for our future. Simply by adding recycling to all events, or by powering the festivals with cleaner energy, millions upon millions of pounds of carbon emmisions are spared from being released into the atmosphere.

The Bay Area has been a premier stop for Rock the Bells since 2006. We have seen the festival grow and the performers shift first hand from headlining more classic backpacker hip-hop acts like Living Legends, Talib Kweli and Mos Def to bigger and more classic acts in 2007 like David Banner, EPMD, Cypress Hill, and Wu-Tang Clan. With its ear to the streets, Rock the Bells is evolving, and the juxtaposition of the lineup of this year and the past shows that things have definitely changed.

The 2008 Rock the Bells lineup format has expanded to include cutting edge indie acts like Spank Rock, Amanda Blank, The Cool Kids, and Kid Sister who are torch bearers in the new party/club rap movement. This is a direct reflection of the recent change and the creation of a new sect of underground Hip-Hop which involves rappers that focus more on partying, fun, sex and gladly welcomes the convergence between dance music hip-hop and female emcees. This sound is a far cry from the politically and emotionally charged rhymes and production from emerging groups in the 2000�??s, some of which Rock the Bells has hosted. Many would say this is a relief–after all, isn�??t hip-hop also about having fun? But some worry that is this just a clever marketing strategy, rather than a willful move and a show of event promoters’ perceptiveness into what their fans like.

This years Rock the Bells tour features stops in nine different North American Cities with rotating lineups. Check out more on the talent, the Bay Area lineup, and buy tickets for Rock the Bells here. Be sure to catch Rock the Bells at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View on August 16th, as it is sure to be the most interesting year yet.

1. 2nd Sunday
Date: June 8, July 13, August 10, September 14, October 12
Location: Mission Rock Cafe (817 Terry Francois Boulevard)
For those of us who can’t get enough of the party lifestyle, even if it means showing up to work unbelievably hungover, or are just looking for a great time to finish the week, 2nd Sunday is for you. Over 15 DJs will play a 10-hour long House music dance party that will happen every 2nd sunday at Mission Rock Cafe.

2. San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration & Parade
Date: Saturday-Sunday, June 28-29
Location: Civic Center Plaza
If you’re looking for the largest parade in Northern California (and the second largest in all of California), you might be surprised to hear that the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration & Parade hold those distinctions: over a half a million people will cram the streets on the weekend of June 28-29 and partake in the parade and celebration in the Civic Center Plaza and subsequent afterparties in the Castro. Whether you are gay or straight, you are guaranteed to have a good time in the San Francisco sun.

3. Outside Lands Festival
Date: August 22, 23, 24
Location: Golden Gate Park
The inaugural Outside Lands Festival has garnered national media attention with Radiohead, Tom Petty, Jack Johnson and many more will be playing in Golden Gate Park for three days in late August. This is easily the largest amount of a-list names to play at what will be an annual festival in San Francisco, so make sure you’re there to make history and be one of the first people to ever attend Outside Lands.
Buy Tickets for Outside Lands via Ticketmaster

4. Treasure Island Music Festival
Date: September 20, 21
Location: Treasure Island
No festival is any more quintessentially San Franciscan than the Treasure Island Music Festival. Located on the beautiful Treasure Island and described as part carnival, part concert, event promoters have made sure that they invite artists with small, devoted, local fanbases. This year’s lineup features a bevy of electronic and indie rock bands and is sure to be a great way to end your summer.
Buy Tickets for Treasure Island:
1 Day Pass, Saturday (electronic set feat. Justice, Goldfrapp + More): Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
1 Day Pass, Sunday (Indie Rock Set feat. Raconteurs, Vampire Weekend + More): Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster
2-Day Pass: Buy your tickets via Ticketmaster

5. LoveFest
Date: Saturday-Sunday, October 4-5
Location: Civic Center Plaza
Billed as a ”Dance music parade and festival,” LoveFest brings in over 60,000 people and the world’s best DJs every year. Saturday morning is when you can bank on the parade, which snakes through Market street, while the evening and Sunday afternoon are reserved strictly for the raucous revelry that will transpire. Mark your calendars for this one, because everyone’s going to it!

This distinctly San Franciscan event will happen on May 31 and June 1 and will feature an organic farmer’s market, arts and crafts, gourmet food booths, two stages of live entertainment, and many, many boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants. This year, however, the name of the game is ”Eco-Urban,” a movement that Bay Areans have embraced for quite some time. Local vendors have teamed up with festival promoters to create fun exhibits that will champion sustainability and carbon footprint reduction–a theme that is gaining steam around the country. Don’t be surprised if many more San Francisco festivals and events will head down this path–the Green movement started in the Bay Area, and it looks like it’s here to stay.

For more information, check out the Union Street Fest Website.

Last year, the Treasure Island Music Festival proved to be one of the most unique festivals in the country, taking place on Treasure Island, smack-dab in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. The event–complete with a carnival-style ferris wheel, and eco-friendly mass transportation that is the only transportation allowed on the island–was distinctly San Franciscan, and it seems that Another Planet, the event coordinator, is completely content with that. Unlike the Outside Lands Festival, where the lineup sports a bevy of nationally-recognized artists that will draw people from around the country, the event promoters are finding bands with small yet dedicated fanbases who reside in or around San Francisco. The result? A festival with just enough big names to grab your attention but still has a distinctly San Francisco feel to it.

The two days also feature lineups of two very different genres–another seemingly conscious decision by Another Planet. Saturday seems to be more of the electronic genre while Sunday is all about Indie Rock, allowing for fans of either genre to have their day in the Treasure Island Sun. Either way, while the festival as a whole might not be appealing to the typical festivalgoer, it will prove to be one of the most entertaining summer events in San Francisco. Do not, by any means, miss this.

Tickets go on sale on May 30. Single-day tickets will cost $65, while two-day passes will be $115. VIP Tickets are also on sale in groups of four for $445.

Lineup:
Saturday, September 20
Justice
TV On The Radio
Goldfrepp
Hot Chip
CSS
Antibalas
Aesop Rock
Amon Tobin
Foals
Mike Relm
Nortec: Bostich + Fussible
More Artists TBA

Sunday, September 21
The Raconteurs
Tegan & Sara
Vampire Weekend
Spiritualized
Okkervil River
Tokyo Police Club
The Kills
Dr. Dog
John Vanderslice
The Dodos
Fleet Foxes
More Artists TBA