July

Halloween – Halloween has been celebrated boisterously in the Castro since the 1970’s, when hundreds of gay men would congregate there on Halloween night to show off their fabulous and sometimes outrageous costumes and party together. As the years passed, the street celebration grew, attracting not just thousands of gays and their friends but others who crowded in to gawk at and sometimes bash gays. By 2006, the party had become Nightmare on Castro Street. An unruly mob of 200,000 generated major problems such as public drunkenness, streets blocked, neighbors angered by people peeing or vomiting in their doorways, fist fights, beatings and shootings. For Halloween 2007, the City asked Castro/Upper Market businesses to shut down on Halloween night, encouraged people to stay home, and spent nearly $1 million on police patrols. This tactic ended the fights, as well as the fun. For 2008, San Francisco is encouraging small, neighborhood oriented Halloween festivities throughout the city. Castro businesses will be open and the neighborhood is hoping for a return to the quieter, smaller celebrations of the past.