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How Weird Street Faire
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
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12 reviews for How Weird Street Faire
Just like most of events in SF - it's FUN! Nice dressed-up crowd... good music...dances till you fall)))))
Whoo-hoo! When's the next one?)
Given the opportunity, San Franciscans know how to throw a street party with flare! Before moving here, I'd never seen anything like this - theatrical costumes, techno music, dancing, street foods, hula hooping, and partying in the middle of an otherwise business-minded financial district.
Pictures capture this experience best (see attached). For street party-goers, How Weird is more laid back than Bay to Breakers, more weird than Carnival, and less crowded than Love Fest.
Couple of tips:
- bring ear plugs, especially for kids (the music is loud!)
- bring your camera, this is a photographer's dream
- wear your craziest costume (to save $5 off the $10 fee)
- if you don't already have an appropriate costume, check out the one-of-a-kind faux fur outfits for sale by local vendors at the faire
I will never look at the Financial District the same ever again.
2nd and Howard and the other streets of FiDi that make up my workday commute looked like a hippie circus yesterday. Girls dressed in fishnet stockings with a ton of colorful make-up on. Men dressed in the tighest leather chaps with their white bottoms hanging out, some flaunted bell-bottoms..it was all a very confused, crazy Halloween.
$5 (if you go in a costume) or $10 (if you're boring, like moi) - gets you a Magic Sticker - which gets you great deals. Like, wine is normally $5, but if you have a sticker, you get it for a dollar off. Beer, wine, sodas were for sale -- along with some delicious street food - Indian food, cannoli, polish sausages..
The music was fun - mostly psytrance or minimal trance. My favorite DJ was Syd, who played really good trance and the crowd flocked to him. Oh yeah, it definitely helps to have a couple of drinks in you when you're dancing with..a big furry mouse? Or a man dressed in a grandma's outfit -- complete with a wig and granny panties...
I really love SF -- we have it all - originality, characters, color, culture. Definitely a thing to you have to do -- especially if you call yourself a San Franciscan.
I celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday since my mom had plans on Sunday, but it was very cool to see that some people brought their mommas to this festival. How weird.
It was on Mother's Day this year, so hopefully that is the reason for less people, not a whole lot of booths and excitement. It was their 10th anniversary and we wanted to get out of the house. I love dressing up so with fanciful attire we headed up to the city.
The booths were mostly crafts from hats, feather decorations, jewerly etc. Some of the booths were cute but nothing really caught my eye. There were so many spots for music though - mostly electronic types - so many to choose from and dance with random people. Didn't have any food but the beer/wine selection was decent and decently priced.
The bathrooms were a bit gross, but it's a festival. We found parking midday in a lot for $10 right around the corner so that was convienent. It was $5 donation with costume to get it - I thought more than fair.
Overall it was fun to people watch, listen to music, have a few drinks and browse the booths.
it's like a combination of burning man, the love fest, and an amalgamation of all the fairs in san francisco that provide quirky and interesting vendors, and booths of all different ethnic cuisines.
another one of san francisco's iconic and token street parties!
How Weird '09 was totally fun. We were able to easily find parking very close shortly after noon or 12:30, and spent about 2 hours there. The stages were fun and the decorations were cool.
I would have liked to see more people dancing, though.
Next year I will definitely look into how I can get more involved.
I'm not sure what it's like in previous years, but this year's How Weird was a pretty laid back affair.
Yes, there was lots of techno/trance/dance music on different stages throughout the 3+ blocks along Howard Street. Yes, there were people out in all kinds of associated costumes.
However, it wasn't anything extravagant. No all out big costumes, no floats, etc. Kind of like Camden Market gone street fair.
Bonus this year was that although they took donations on entry, there was not a required fee to get in.
Dance music always sounds better when you're bouncing around in the middle of the street, surrounded by towering skyscrapers and high-rises.
Contrary to what's reflected in earlier reviews, the How Weird Faire (HWF) lives on just in a slightly different location. Not having been to a HWF before, it made no difference to me that this year the festival took place along Howard between 1st and 2nd streets, with smaller stages spread up 2nd to Natoma and Minna Streets.
While the costumes didn't seem all that weird to me -- either because the hardcore HWF people didn't attend this year or because living in SF is desensitizing me to stilts and furries -- the music was the real center of attention. Like a mini Love Fest, minus the parade. There were at least 10 stages, all with great beats and throngs of dancing citizens.
haven't been in about 5 years but last time i went i had a blast. great music, awesome ppl. entrance is a bit pricey but it's worth it. come to seattle's summer solstice parade/festival for the same experience!
This is a cool little festival which takes place once a year on Howard street. Many different costumes and some fun dancing takes place. There's a little place in the center where they put some grass and a fountain which makes a nice place to sit. See my photos to get a good taste for what it's about:
http://www.flickr.com/...
I like it...you have to pay so that pretty much keeps the douchebags out. It's an easy place to have fun and bring out your inner Burningman. Floats, crazy folks on stilts, and half nakedness....it's all right.
i went to my very first how weird faire this weekend which, i am very sad to say, is the last how weird faire ever. apparently, they lost a permit or two or something and can't carry on the tradition next year. so sad.
it was certainly a day of firsts for me! i learned to dance to psy-trance in three different languages (i'd have to demonstrate). i learned for the first time that not all psy-trance sounds the same. i drank my first blue cocktail. i petted a real chicken - i'd never done that before! i watched michael do tequila shots - who'd have guessed? i saw claudia do something which i'd never seen her do before (can't mention it on yelp). and, i bounced a grown man on my knee for the first time ever.
what a great day!
