Castro Halloween will be ‘very different’ from decades-old event

When it was first reported that the Castro Night Market would be expanded and moved to coincide with Halloween this year on Friday, October 31, some may have conjured up memories of the wild street parties that were held in the LGBTQ neighborhood decades ago. But leaders of the Castro Merchants Association want to dispel that notion. 

Because Halloween falls on a Friday this year, the Castro Night Market, usually the third Friday of the month, will be held on the fourth Friday of the month, as the Bay Area Reporter was first to report last month. In the past couple of years, the merchants held a daytime event on Noe Street on the Saturday before Halloween, as community leaders sought to resurrect Halloween festivities without the nighttime concerns. 

At the September 4 merchants meeting, President Nate Bourg, a gay man, wanted to make it very clear that while there will be a night market on Halloween night in the Castro this year, “It’s not Halloween back in the Castro like 15, 20, 30 years ago.”

Halloween has had a long, tortured history in the Castro and was eventually shut down over a decade ago following violent incidents. In recent years, community leaders have attempted a Halloween comeback but at a fraction of the size and shorter duration than the original unofficial street party.

Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro on the board, was not at the meeting, and did not immediately return a request for comment for this report.

Bourg stressed at the meeting that, “It will be well attended whether we talk about it that much or not.”

“It’s going to be a big night for the restaurants, for the bars,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Producer CG Events will have volunteers and private security to keep things safe, and will be doing an orientation with bars and restaurants in the area. The entertainment zone will be activated, allowing for purchase of alcohol for outdoor consumption from those businesses within the footprint of the street market.

The market’s usual footprint will also be expanded, running along 18th Street from Diamond Street to Noe Street, with Castro Street staying open to vehicles, Bourg said. 

An Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation hearing to allow for the event with the expanded footprint has not yet been scheduled, according to CG Events co-founder Chris Carrington, a gay man. Known as ISCOTT, the oversight body’s next meeting is September 11, with others scheduled for September 25 and October 9, though the agendas have yet to be released. 

Carrington stated entertainment is still to be announced.

“Everyone has memories of when this happened in the past,” he continued. “Most of you have been around the city. That's not what we're intending it to be. Lots of people, lots of conversations. … I'm not a big Halloween person but I’m excited about it.”

Halloween festivities in the Castro, which harken back to celebrations among queer people in the Tenderloin, North Beach, and Polk Gulch in the mid-20th century, became one of the premiere events of the year for the neighborhood by the 1970s, when it was known as an LGBTQ event.

But with the large crowds descending upon the Castro – including gay bashers – it became hard for the city to ensure public safety at the street party. In 2002, four people were stabbed on Halloween night in the Castro; but the death knell for the old-time Halloween festivities was in 2006, when nine people suffered gun-related injuries in a mass shooting while a 10th victim was trampled in the melee that marred the annual street party.

A heavy police presence stopped the event from occurring again, and by 2011 stakeholders agreed that the Castro shouldn't be the focal point of a region-wide celebration. Government policy became to direct people, as much as they'd listen, to diverse events in other neighborhoods, as well as to strictly enforce alcohol consumption and sale laws in the Castro.

San Francisco Police Department Captain Sean Perdomo, who oversees Mission Station, agreed with Bourg this year will be different from the pre-2011 event.

“I was at Halloween when it got shut down,” Perdomo said. “That was a very different event, though. If it stays in that location [on 18th Street], I think it’s going to be manageable. As a young officer, all of Market Street was taken over, everything. We were out there till 2 [a.m.]. Hoping that does not happen this year.”

The night market will be from 5 to 10 p.m. October 31.