Almost four years after a flood in a San Francisco park forced Stern Grove Festival to cancel one of its most anticipated performances, the producers of the summer concert series will receive a $225,000 settlement from the city.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the settlement at its Tuesday meeting months after the festival’s operator sued in August 2024.
“We really appreciate the city’s commitment to helping to make us become whole over the situation, and their partnership and relationship with the Stern Grove Festival Association,” Bob Fiedler, the group’s executive director, told KQED ahead of the vote.
The producers of Stern Grove say it’s one of the country’s oldest outdoor music festivals; it has hosted free summer concerts annually since 1932. In 2021, the festival had to call off its season finale with Too $hort and Tower of Power because over 700,000 gallons of water burst out of a broken water main operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). According to the 2024 lawsuit, a “landslide of water and debris” flooded Stern Grove.
The ensuing cleanup by the SFPUC cost approximately $23 million, according to a city report, and included removing 63 eucalyptus trees and historical rock walls.
