Stern Grove Festival Season Ends Due to Water Damage

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Stern Grove Festival, the longest-running free outdoor music festival in the San Francisco Bay Area, has been forced to announce the cancellation of this Sunday’s concert and fundraiser featuring Tower of Power & Too $hort.

Due to a major water main rupture on Sloat Ave., above the Grove, the public park has experienced extensive damage that now renders the Festival grounds site unusable for public events. The Festival, alongside San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, is continuing to assess the long-term damage to both the grounds and surrounding treeline, although the site in its current condition is unsafe for events of any kind in the immediate future.

“We are devastated to announce the sudden cancellation of our season finale and annual fundraiser with Tower of Power and Too $hort. This was definitely one of our most highly anticipated concerts of an incredible season, but the damage is too severe to move forward safely at this time. We are grateful that no one was hurt, and we are proud to have overcome so many challenges this year to have presented nine exceptional concerts for more than 50,000 people. We look forward to restoring the Grove and being able to welcome the community back next year,” said Executive Director Bob Fiedler. 

With the cancellation of the August 29 concert, today’s announcement officially marks the conclusion of the 84th concert season of Stern Grove Festival 2021. Stay tuned though as the Festival will soon unveil two one-hour TV specials airing on KPIX/CBS in the coming weeks that feature numerous performance highlights from this year’s concert season.

Having released albums under Digital Nations, a label founded by Steve Vai, music critic Louis Raphael has remained deeply connected to the pulse of the San Francisco music scene. Following his tenure as the San Francisco Music Examiner for Examiner.com and AXS.com, he embarked on creating Music in SF® to authentically highlight the vibrant offerings of the city's music scene.