BANDS of the Bay!

2025 Youth Band Competition

We are reopening registrations for our BAY-WIDE BATTLE OF THE BANDS for the YOUTH of the Bay Area (19 and under*), we call it BANDS OF THE BAY!

The WINNERS of the 2nd Annual BANDS OF THE BAY Youth Band Competition will play at the HAIGHT-ASHBURY STREET FAIR on the MAIN STAGES on September 7th, 2025!

COMPETITION RULES:

Please read the rules and criteria carefully!

Bands must be comprised of at least HALF players age 19 or younger. No players age 21 or older are eligible for this competition. Bands discovered with players age 21 or over will be disqualified (don’t make us check birth certificates, just be honest).

Three (3) rounds will be held; two (2) Preliminary Rounds and one (1) Final Round.

ROUNDS 1 & 2: a maximum of 9 bands will perform in each round (maximum of 18 total across 2 dates). From that group of 9, three (3) will be selected to advance to the FINALS, which will be held on August 24th @ Sunday Streets Bayview! Amount of time per act will depend on how many acts are signed up.
- ROUND 1: July 20th @ Mission Sunday Streets (location TBA)

- ROUND 2: TBD: Please be sure to fill out the registration form to help us find the best date for round 2.

ROUND 3: THE FINALS - The finals will be held on August 24th @ Sundat Streets Bayview (exact location TBA). This will be a face-off of the 6 bands from the prior two rounds. The winner will play the Main Stage @ the Haight Ashbury Street Fair!

Full Bands and SOLO ACTS, DUOS, TRIOS are all eligible!

CRITERIA and MISSION: We want Bay Area Youth to have a place to PLAY! This YOUTH BAND COMPETITION is about getting out there and putting your best effort on stage. EACH ROUND will have judges from the SF arts and music and educational community to rate each act objectively.

THE SCORING CRITERIA:

COHESIVENESS - how does the band sound together? are they sounding like a cohesive unit or separate players playing the same song?;

ORIGINALITY - are you playing carbon copies of “cover songs” or are you making it your own? Are you playing songs written by you or your band or not? those with compelling original songs will rate high in X Factor (keep reading);

OVERALL SOUND BALANCE - is everything sounding balanced or are we only hearing drum cymbals? etc. etc.,

TECHNICAL READINESS: set up and ready to play efficiently? Taking forever to soundcheck, or being distracted by other things? Does the band seem like they know how to handle any issues that may arise smoothly?

“X FACTOR” - the somewhat indescribable feeling a unique act gives you when they perform.

*Each category has a total of 10 possible points, maximum score is 50.