San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival marks 10th anniversary of artist’s death

The San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival is set for November 5-8, marking the 10th anniversary of the artist’s death, Mission Local reported. The event will feature programs at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco’s Kanbar Hall, the Swedish American Hall, and The Freight in Berkeley.

Produced by Conspiracy of Beards, a 30-member choir founded in 2003 to perform Cohen’s songs, the festival explores his poetry, music, and spirituality, according to Mission Local. The event has scaled back from larger venues like last year’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to smaller locations this year as part of a recalibration.

A notable moment connected to the festival is a viral video of Berlin-based klezmer musician Daniel Kahn performing Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” in Yiddish. The video gained widespread attention after Cohen’s death was announced on November 7, 2016, and has received about 2.7 million views to date.

The festival’s lead organizer, Clay Eugene Smith, said the event has evolved to focus more on storytelling and reflection alongside the musical performances, rather than just performing songs in sequence.