Key musical moments to mark park’s anniversary

“From the Golden Gate Band to the Human BeIn in 1967 through Hardly Strictly and Outside Lands, music has been an essential part of the park’s soul.”

Phil Ginsburg, general manager, S.F. Recreation and Park Department

The celebration of Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary that was scheduled for Saturday, April 4, has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that doesn’t mean the observance is going to go silent. Like everything else nowadays, it’s just moving online.

A new online concert series will feature footage of an array of iconic musical events from the park’s history, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the San Francisco Parks Alliance announced Friday, April 3.

Leading off the free weekly series is a 2016 set by Bay Area favorite Boz Scaggs from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free festival hosted in the park every October. In addition, Metallica is releasing three songs from its 2017 performance at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival — an excerpt from the full concert set that will be streamed on April 13, as part the band’s #MetallicaMondays series.

Both clips will be available at www.goldengatepark150.com beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 4. Future artists will be announced weekly as the series continues.

“Music has always played a key role in the park’s history,” Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, said in a phone interview with The Chronicle.

“From the Golden Gate Band to the Human BeIn in 1967 through Hardly Strictly and Outside Lands, music has been an essential part of the park’s soul. Really, the park is San Francisco’s collective memory, and music can do the same thing.”

In addition to the musical events, a special section of the Golden Gate Park anniversary website will be dedicated to an array of video, podcasts, digital books, historic news stories and photo albums, all designed to convey the experience of the park in a digital format.