SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION

The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy.

The San Francisco Arts Commission envisions a San Francisco where the transformative power of art is critical to strengthening neighborhoods, building infrastructure and fostering positive social change. We believe the arts create inspiring personal experiences, illuminate the human condition and offer meaningful ways to engage with each other and the world around us. We imagine a vibrant San Francisco where creativity, prosperity and progress go hand in hand. We advance artists’ ideas to improve the quality of life for everyone through a united cultural sector whose contributions are vital and valued.

Enter the world of Charles Dickens' Victorian London, where it's always Christmas Eve and the streets resound with revelry of the Season. To recreate old London town, we transform over three acres of vintage exhibition halls into lamplit lanes, pubs and theatres, dance floors and music halls, tearooms and shops.

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair is a one-of-a-kind holiday adventure  into Victorian London -  an elaborate party with hundreds of costumed players performing and interacting with patrons in over 120,000 square feet of theatrically-lit music halls, pubs, dance floors, and Christmas shops. It's a twilight evening in Charles Dickens' London Town - a city of winding lanes filled with colorful characters from both literature and history. Enticing aromas of roasted chestnuts and hearty foods fill the air. Cries of street vendors hawking their wares ring out above the bustling crowd. Dozens of lamplit shops are filled to overflowing with Christmas gifts. The Dickens Christmas Fair is a treasured Bay Area tradition since 1970 and a splendid way to celebrate the holidays.