Sweetwater Music Hall
Calling all Mill Valley Peetniks! Don’t Be Sad – We’re Here for You! Starting November 4th at 7am, Sweetwater Music Hall’s Café Will Be Open & Proudly Pouring Peet’s. Café’s Open 7 days a week, 7am-7pm!
As coffee lovers can attest, there’s been lots of Sturm & Drang in recent months about the future of Peet’s Coffee at 88 Throckmorton in downtown Mill Valley. The Peet’s Coffee store in Mill Valley has been part of the company success that began in 1966. Peet’s opened its first Bay Area store in Berkeley in 1966 and the Mill Valley location was opened in 1987. Peet’s determined in recent months that the size of the 88 Throckmorton space no longer matched the customer experience of the other successful Peet’s shops elsewhere in Marin County. Rather than simply move on, the ever-creative folks, legendary Sweetwater Music Hall saw an opportunity to keep Peet’s in downtown Mill Valley.
Read MoreIJ Music Legend Paul Liberatore Gets an Inside Look at the Sweetwater Music Hall’s New Life as a Nonprofit Arts Organization – And Some People’s Confusion About How It Functions Day-to-Day
While the Trump administration tries to make diversity a dirty word, Sweetwater is all about presenting a diverse selection of music from different ethnicities, histories and cultures. They’re trying to steer away from a steady stream of tribute acts and Grateful Dead-inspired jam bands that draw crowds and make money but limit the variety of music that Sweetwater feels that it’s obligated to offer its audiences. “As a nonprofit, we have to have something for the whole community,” Hoppe said. “We can’t just be a jam band venue. We can’t just be a rock venue or a cover band venue. We actually have a firm rule that we can’t have more than three tribute bands a month.”
Read MoreMill Valley Music Fest News: For now, Given the Current Macro-Economic Climate & Profound Changes in Music Festival Economics & the Impending MVMS Construction Project, We’ve Decided to Take a Pause in 2026 From MVMF. We’ll Keep Innovating & Serving our Members and Community in Every Way We Can. But for now, We’ll Pause MVMF in 2026. We’ll see you around, and we’ll be back!
We hope to get back to being a source of amazing music again in our community. For now, given the current macro economic climate and profound changes in music festival economics, we have decided to take a pause in 2026 from producing the Mill Valley Music Festival. We will keep innovating and serving our members and community in every way we can. But for now, all these years later, we have decided to take a brief pause from producing the Mill Valley Music Fest in 2026. We’ll see you around town, and we’ll be back!
Read MoreGov. Newsom Slashes $11.5 Million for Performing Arts Fund, Devastating Bay Area Organizations
Newsom’s revision isn’t final, though; the legislature makes its own amendments before passing a budget on June 15. In the meantime, SFBATCO and other performing arts companies are urging their followers to write their representatives, the state budget committee and the governor’s office, with Dance Mission inviting allies to a letter-writing and phone-banking potluck at its Mission District facility at 3316 24th St. starting at noon on Saturday, May 17. The move comes nearly two weeks after theaters, circuses, music groups and more across the region and the country received “letters of termination” regarding their promised grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Read MoreMarin IJ Earns Statewide Awards For News Coverage, Photos, Opinion Section & Much More!
The Marin Independent Journal has been a beacon of top-notch journalism for decades, and this year has been no different.The organization earned 20 awards — including five first-place honors — in an annual statewide journalism contest. The California News Publishers Association announced the results of its California Journalism Awards at a gala in Universal City on May 17. The association, which distributes awards by circulation division, includes hundreds of publications. The judges honored the IJ with a first-place award for in-depth reporting for a six-part series on President Trump’s impact on Marin. The paper also took the top prize for outstanding local news coverage of the November 2024 elections.
Read MoreMarin IJ: Mt. Tamalpais Hiking Acclaimed in State Parks Poll And Insider’s Guide to Mount Tamalpais Hiking, Camping and Beyond
The state’s park system has 280 parks and about 5,200 miles of trails. The poll, conducted this spring, garnered more than 1,300 responses from the foundation’s members and supporters. Rachel Norton, the executive director of the foundation, said the effort was about introducing places to people who might not know about them. The survey featured 10 categories, including best for dog-friendly adventures, best for birdwatching, most kid-friendly, best for camping and best for wildflowers. “To people in San Francisco and in southern Marin, Mount Tam is not a secret, but it could be to someone from Southern California who is visiting the area for the first time, or somebody from the East Bay who hasn’t been over the bridge in a while,” Norton said.
Read MoreMarin Voice, Via Dave Perron: Social-Service Organizations Deserve Our Support
All of us are impacted in different ways by actions on the national scale. You can help us sell out our upcoming benefit on May 29 at The Sweetwater in Mill Valley. We plan an outstanding concert titled, “Lebo and Friends Play Dylan.” Those joining us will experience the joy of a talented collaboration playing iconic acoustic and electric tunes by Bob Dylan interpreted through their own unique lens.
Read MoreBehind the Lens: California Dreamin’ 2025 Tour 2025 By Legendary Photographer Henry Diltz – Live at Sweetwater Music Hall, May 27th, 8pm
In the world of music photography, Henry Diltz occupied the upper strata of legendary photographers. His images of popular musicians of the Sixties and Seventies defined the musical landscape of that time, when you were part of the band and a photographer could create lasting friendships and document each artist’s beginning through their assent to greatness. Behind The Lens is a one-hour plus visual feast of music photography and stories as told from one of the worlds iconic music photographers who documented those memorable times. Featuring The Doors, Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Woodstock and many more… and the stories!
Read MoreThe 2025 Mill Valley Music Fest Is a Wrap!! With our 4th Year Behind Us, an Event That Has Consistently Marched Forward, Will ALWAYS Have Mill Valley in Mind!
With our 4th year behind us, an event that has consistently marched forward, will ALWAYS have Mill Valley in mind. We’ve had plenty of ups and downs along the way, but we are as committed to this community as any organization could possibly be. We are forever grateful for your support at so many levels, and we hope to keep putting vibrancy, honesty, care and mindfulness behind everything we do! Want to share your input, good, bad and indifferent? Email us here!
Read MorePardon the Interruption Brings High-Energy New Wave and Prog-Pop to Sweetwater Music Hall on June 5th with Ska/Soul Favorites Jethro Jeremiah Band
Blending New Wave nostalgia with prog-pop punch, Pardon The Interruption (PTI) returns to Sweetwater Music Hall for a high-energy set guaranteed to get Mill Valley moving. Led by guitarist and vocalist David Noble—whose credits range from Wreckless Strangers to Nina Hagen—PTI draws from funk, ska, jam and vintage rock to deliver a sound that’s both retro-chic and totally its own. The band features a killer lineup of NorCal session talent including bassist Rob Fordyce, drummer Rob Hooper and sax maven Jamison Smeltz. Opening the night is soulful ska powerhouse the Jethro Jeremiah Band. Thursday, 8pm, June 5, Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. Tickets $30. sweetwatermusichall.com
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