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Street Musicians and Powell Cable Cars Turnaround in San Francisco, California

Updated on June 29, 2014

Street Musicians at Powell and Market

Uploaded by:  redd_plinke  In album: San Francisco: Downtown & Embarcade...  In Webshots channel: travel
Uploaded by: redd_plinke In album: San Francisco: Downtown & Embarcade... In Webshots channel: travel
Laurel and Hardy pie fight
Laurel and Hardy pie fight

So what's so special about the Market and Powell cable car turnaround?

Well, as Herbie Hatman puts it...

Powell Cable Car Turnaround is a charming locale. Tourists. Local working class. Shoppers. Business people going home for the weekend. Folks coming in from BART for the evening. The unending stream of people give the sense of a busy city which San Francisco has to provide.

  • Scheduled Pie fights occur here, every so often. Come one, come all, bring shaving cream.
  • Lots of shopping
  • Powell Hotel
  • Part of LoveFest parade and celebration
  • Global events parades
  • The cable car turnaround, of course
  • Powell Street station
  • Blondie's Pizza
  • Three districts  meet at this juncture
  • 5 way traffic
  • Street performers and musicians, bien sur!

and much much more.

Jennifer Phillips singing at Market and Powell

Street Musicians of San Francisco of the 1970's

Street performers, alive and living it up.

Street performers come in all shapes and sizes sounds and spectaculars. One of the best places to find them? San Francisco, of course! The people of San Francisco enjoy free concerts every day.

San Francisco is know for it's vast array of sidewalk and street corner musicians. They come and go. They linger. They float from spot to spot. Some are expected. Others are unexpected. They play alone. They play in groups.  They line the sidewalks.

Drums may greet you on your way to work. You may come across an entising Salsa band on your way back home. A walk down a San Francisco mainstreet can feel like taking a walk through the radio waves.

Spectators stand and watch, converse, meet, dance, sing along, eat, pass by, toss some change. Some have even been known to join in.

What we sometimes look for in San Francisco

We look for something new, different, exciting, and something that will change us, bring us "home" again.

We look for variety, culture, sights, sounds, entertainment, the usual and the unusual. Meltingpots of people, outdoor extraviganzas. Life. Love

And, of course, we look for the cable cars. We expect to see them, hear them, watch them go by. One of the best places to catch the cable car action, is at the Market Street at Powell cable car turnaround. Take a look:

You can hear a street band in the background of this one.

Ryan Hupfer on his way to work one day...

Ryan Hupfer of HubPages is one of the lucky ones. He gets to live in San Francisco AND walk to work. Envious? Heck yeah I am.

Just the other morning, his ears were greeted by opera.

Schubert's "Ave Maria" none the less!

Lucky us, he caught it on his cell via video record (TGFC - thank goodness for cell phones!). Okay, so it's not the same as if we were really there, face to face with this the incredible surprise of loveliness, but for some of us, like me, it will have to do. (Not taken at the Market and Powell cable car turnaround, but had to share; you never know, she might just show up there when one least expects it.)

Check related links for his HubBlog post on this experience, and the juggler video.

Video courtesy of Ryan Hupfer

Remembering Market Street and Powell ~ By Frieda Babbley

"Darlin', if you want ta dance, you betta do it today!" - overheard (This poem is based on a true story heard via an interview on 88.1 KDHX St. Louis, some 18 years ago. Stuck with me all these years.)

You remember me

Market Street and Powell

You know, where the streetcar turns around

There was a San Francisco street band

playing Jazz there.

You stood in the crowd

feet plastered to the ground

when the rhythm walked me up

swayed my hips

the way you wanted yours to sway.

That's right

I'm that old black woman

that come up and started dancin'

in front of the band

the one they aaall laughed at

the one who kept dancin' even then

who looked deep into their eyes

and pointed a slow... serious finger

that hushed them all

and when I got to you

I knew you understood

'cause your feet let go

and your hips began to sway.

album cover
album cover

Books on San Francisco Parades

Nearing the Market Street and Powell Street Car Turnaround
Nearing the Market Street and Powell Street Car Turnaround
Market street near Powell at one of the BART entrances.
Market street near Powell at one of the BART entrances.

Jazz Saxaphone at Market Street and Powell

turntable at night, a lovely sight

Video taken by a woman Riding on the Cable Car on Powell

San Fancisco Street Musician - Craig on Clarinet

Photo by Ranjay Mitra
Photo by Ranjay Mitra

San Francisco Street musician*** by Hot Flash Photography

San Francisco Street musician*** by Hot Flash Photography    74 comments    65 faves       Tagged with sanfrancisco, door, musician, canon ...     Taken on December 15, 2006, uploaded December 17, 2006     Taken in Union Square, San Francisco, CA, Un
San Francisco Street musician*** by Hot Flash Photography 74 comments 65 faves Tagged with sanfrancisco, door, musician, canon ... Taken on December 15, 2006, uploaded December 17, 2006 Taken in Union Square, San Francisco, CA, Un
working

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