The Return of San Francisco’s How Weird Street Faire

The Return of San Francisco’s How Weird Street Faire

30 January, 2008 | 10.28PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: PhilG

This past Thursday San Francisco’s Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation issued street closure permits for the How Weird Street Faire, bringing back one of the most important electronic music events in the city after the same committee last year refused their permit request. 

The How Weird Street Faire began in 2000 as an event sponsored by the World Peace Through Technology non-profit, and took place on a stretch of Howard Street in front of a warehouse occupied by members of the Consortium for Creative Consciousness (CCC), a collective associated with Goa trance, art, technology, and spiritual exploration. Since that time the How Weird Street Faire, which kicks off the street fair season in San Francisco, has become known locally as “The Burning Man Street Fair” because of the number of groups associated with Burning Man who also produced stages at the event. In 2007, for example, there were music stages produced by Symbiosis, Get Freaky, CCC, El Circo, Pacific Sound, Dub Profit, Tantra, and others, all featuring a long line-up of local DJs and musical styles ranging from psy-trance to breaks to drum n’ bass to house and downtempo.

Since the first How Weird Street Faire in 2000, the original stretch of Howard Street has seen several luxury condominium developments go up, and it was due to complaints from residents, supported by the district police captain, that led to the cancellation of the How Weird permits after last year’s event (more on last year’s controversy can be found on my SFScene blog). The problems encountered by the How Weird Street Faire are illustrative of the general issues currently affecting the San Francisco scene; the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood has been the traditional location of clubs and warehouse spaces, but it has also been the site of most of The City’s recent upscale residential development, leading to conflicts, club closures, and, as in this case, the cancellation of permits.

Fortunately, this year the How Weird organizers were able to relocate to a different stretch of Howard Street that is populated primarily by commercial properties that are empty on the weekend. No announcements have been made yet regarding events, stages, or line-ups for this year, but it is all certain to be a weird San Francisco experience indeed.

The 8th Annual How Weird Street Faire will take place on Sunday, May 4th, from 11:11AM to 5:55PM on Howard Street between 1st Street and New Montgomery and on 2nd Street between Mission and Howard. Gate admission is usually $5, and in addition to numerous sound stages there will be vendors, food stalls, and opportunities for drinking.

• (0) Comments
• (458) Views