Corporate America’s rightward lurch means San Francisco Pride is struggling to retain longtime sponsors for its annual Civic Center party over the last weekend of June. But across town, a massive indoor-outdoor club just announced a single-day, 18-and-over festival of its own — and the lineup is studded with local queer promoters and gay icons.
Headlined by a trio of glittering LGBTQ-identified divas — trans pop princess Kim Petras, bisexual alt-R&B singer-songwriter Tinashe, and the Bay Area’s own Grammy-nominated lesbian neo-soul queen Kehlani — SoSF (opens in new tab) promises to bring thousands of people to Pier 80 on Pride Weekend. With two stages, it’s anchored around the enormous warehouse space that’s a linchpin of the Portola Music Festival every October.
It’s all happening June 28 — long known as Pink Saturday — and presale tickets go on sale (opens in new tab) April 9.
SoSF is a collaborative effort between Dogpatch venue The Midway, Downtown First Thursdays, and long-running SF parties like Electroluxx and Fake & Gay. It builds on last year’s Above & Beyond event, which drew an estimated 15,000 revelers to the same spot on the Central Waterfront.
Supporting acts include Tinzo + Jojo, Noodles, Adam Kraft, FineA$$ Lanecia, and reality-TV personality Heidi Montag.
It’s very much a local festival, too. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is set to sing, and there will be performances from the queens behind Nicki Jizz’s hugely popular all-Black drag show Reparations.
Notably, Oakland-born Kehlani is not merely a performer at SoSF but a full partner as well. Her 2018 headlining performance (opens in new tab) at San Francisco Pride memorably started 30 minutes late and was cut short due to the city’s noise curfew, leading to a brief brawl in the crowd.
- Website
- SoSF (opens in new tab)
- Date and time
- June 28 (tickets on sale April 9)