A confusing and expensive war of attrition has been raging when it comes to Californian music festivals. Who can outdo the next outdoor event with more bands, more internationally known DJs—even if they play here every dang EDM festival—or kitschy trends? You know, specially curated cannabis (aka fancy weed, holmes), opportunites to get married while BADBADNOTGOOD transitions into Shaboozey (that electric slide gone be special, my guy) for you and 30,000 of your closest peeps. And then there are the prices. 60 percent of the attendees at Coachella this past year paid for the experience on layaway. Festivals? They’ve been on one, for a minute.
But by Karl the Fog standards, the archetypal gold standard of San Francisco summertime outings remains an exercise in simplicity: Presidio Theatre’s Bliss Festival.
First of all, it’s in Presidio National Park, stretched out over a green lawn, where you can listen to captivating live music that just takes you places, with hearty libations and good food within a couple of steps.
Of course, you come prepared with your thin-to-thick clothing options, because the SF temperature dips just as quickly as the sun.
As I got off the 43 Masonic bus at the Presidio Transit Center, I barely heard a thing. Some Aussie tourists told me, “They must be on a break, we heard something coming from up the road.”
But as I ventured up toward Presidio Bowl, I faintly heard that low-end thickness, made for dropping it all night, getting deeper and more trancelike. Then I passed Bliss Road, and recognized it was The Seshen’s set.
As tucked away the yearly festival is, part of me roots for it to grow and become huge—then part of is selfish, hoping this beautiful little gem stays a secret.
And that, by my standards, is a sign of success.
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Yes, Bliss Fest was just that simple. As Martin Luther McCoy told the crowd before his headlining set, “We’re gonna have some fun and play some good music.” And with that, he launched into a tapestry of songs that pointed back and forward in time, featuring older rock standards with new hip-hop ideas. For example, his rendition of “Hotel California” with a gangster groove put all the lawn-sitters at ease, got them up and moving. It was go time.
For the third year in a row, the two-day outdoor music festival presented by Presidio Theater was an intimate, cozy, and personal gathering that didn’t make its patrons break the bank. These attendees didn’t need a payment plan for their fun. Isn’t that the way it should be?
Its Saturday lineup, mind you, consisted of locally based yet internationally known artists: Orchestra Gold, The Seshen, and Martin Luther McCoy—and all for $35? Let me put it another way: You could easily see these Bay-Area musicians featured at Brooklyn’s Afropunk Festival, the Montreux Jazz Fest, or Marfa Myths in Texas, for far more than $35.
But this enjoyable day-into-evening event with great music on the back lawn of the theater, featuring wine and beer tastings (shouts to Standart Deviant Brewing located in the Mission District), and local food trucks just outside the gate? Bay-Area naturalness always triumphs over doing too much.
In a private tour of the modernized Presidio Theater with 48hills in April, the organization’s new executive and artistic director Lilly Schwartz and director of communications Marshall Lamm—both formerly SF Jazz executives—showed off the new digs with proud-parents-type energy.
Peggy Haas, the daughter of a former Levi Strauss chairman and now chair of the Presidio Theatre’s board of directors, spent $44 million that her father left in a charitable account to renovate and expand the historic Presidio Theatre. Oh what that kind of chunk of change can do for an aged theater built in 1939 that supposedly, Bob Hope, Marlene Dietrich, and Jack Benny once performed in. Haas’s financial stake produced an expanded stage, with 600 new seats to replace the 800 or so that had been crowded together. No more obstructions.
Two new wings for its new outdoor plaza, kitchen facilities for catering, and a new downstairs level, with a second lobby, large dressing rooms, and a rehearsal studio that can be used for small shows or as a lounge for theater-club members. Plus, on Haas’s recommendation, a 24-stall women’s restroom to reduce lines.
Seeing all this innovation in person was impressive. Not to mention the fact that during the tour, Schwartz and Lamm also chatted about new jazz-fusion phenom Jeff Parker. That’s huge—some executives are not as engaged in what’s transpiring in the culture at the moment.
Take a look at Presidio Theater’s upcoming September through May performance schedule, with 90 shows that dazzle. Highlights include radio personality Garrison Keillor, the South African musical troupe Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, multi-hyphenate star Cheyenne Jackson, and Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell. Additionally, there will be a performance by the pioneering global band from Brooklyn, Red Baraat, an evening with Police guitarist Andy Summers, and Sweet Honey in the Rock.
The season will also feature “Unlimited Miles,” a retrospective celebrating the 100th birthday of Miles Davis. In many ways, Bliss Fest served as a tasteful preview of things to come for the fresh-faced venue.
As I was leaving that tour this past April, I commented to Lamm that from viewing their performance schedule, it seemed that Presidio Theatre was not scared of trying something new. On beat, he replied, “I’m scared of trying something old.”
For more information on Presidio Theatre’s upcoming season, go here.
