San Francisco Declares Metallica Day For Band's 40th Anniversary

(hennemusic) Metallica kicked off their 40th anniversary celebrations in San Francisco, CA on Thursday (December 17th) as Mayor London Breed declared "Metallica Day" in the city.

Drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Robert Trujillo received news of the honor form the Mayor during a ceremony at the city's Chase Center, notes KPIX 5 San Francisco, where the band will perform a pair of concerts this weekend.

Mayor Breed praised the band for its importance to San Francisco and the Bay Area, pointing out that even though they can sell out large venues, the band also maintains its ties to the community by playing much smaller venues like the Independent on Divisadero Street as they did for a surprise concert last September.

"When you talk about San Francisco, you talk about cable cars and then you talk about Metallica," said Breed. "And on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco, I want to officially declare today Metallica Day."

In addition to the December 17 and 19 concerts, Metallica's "San Francisco Takeover" festivities will include a livestream of the arena shows, a mix of curated live music performances, a Metallica film festival, Blackened Whiskey tastings, a book signing and gallery show featuring the work of photographer Ross Halfin, and more. Watch the video of the press conference here.

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