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Halloween in the Castro

February 26, 2023

Halloween in the Castro was an annual Halloween celebration held in The Castro district of San Francisco, first held in the 1940s as a neighborhood costume contest. By the late 1970s, it had shifted from a children's event to a gay pride celebration that continued to grow into a massive annual street party in the 2000s.

2006, the last year of the large organized street party, a crowded city bus with the destination "Halloween Castro."

In 2006, a mass shooting wounded nine people, prompting the city to call off the event.[1]

San Francisco's gay Halloween celebration in the early 1960s originally centered on the early gay bars in the Tenderloin district. They had moved there from the North Beach neighborhood which continues to be a magnet for adult entertainment and nightlife. In the late 1960s, the celebration was centered on Grant Avenue in North Beach. From 1970 to 1978, the Halloween celebration was held on Polk Street in Polk Gulch. In 1977, gay-bashers clashed with police and tear-gas was used to disperse the crowds.[2]

By 1979, the city's gay village had moved to the Castro and "gay Mardi Gras" followed.[3] The event became known as the leading Halloween celebration in the U.S., where costumes ranged from "the outrageous to the spectacular".[4] By 2002, Halloween crowds had grown to the hundreds of thousands and became difficult to control.[5]

History

Children's Halloween

In 1948, Cliff's Variety Store began hosting a children's Halloween festival that featured a costume contest and ice cream-eating contest. By 1979, the Children's Halloween ended as the neighborhood's population shifted from families with children to more single men. In the mid-1990s, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence revived Children's Halloween with an annual party held at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, including a costume contest and gifts from Cliff's.[3][6]

Halloween migrates from the Tenderloin to the Castro

Halloween in the Castro was tied to the LGBT culture of San Francisco and began in the 1950-1960s in the Tenderloin/Polk Street area of the city where the mainstream gay bars were first centralized. The event traces its history to the ostracism of LGBT people in the first half of the 20th century from mainstream culture which led to community identity and using gay bars as a focal point for socializing, networking and organizing politically. After World War II, in the 1940s, the San Francisco Bay Area became a haven for LGBT military personnel who didn't want to go back to their old lives. In the 1950s, a group of gay bars in San Francisco's Tenderloin area helped to create a strip of venues for "sex, drugs and late night fun".[7] There has also been a South-of-Market (SoMa) leather subculture and BDSM bar scene with gay-focussed sex clubs sharing Folsom street, a tradition which is carried on with the annual Folsom Street Fair. The nearby business- and tourist-oriented area, Union Square, was also popular for cruising for sex and was open to gay men whereas the Tenderloin was where drag queens, t-girls and prostitutes of all orientations were known to congregate publicly in the city, because they were unwelcome in gay bars at that time.

Halloween in the Tenderloin, North Beach and on Polk Street

Halloween in the Tenderloin grew in the early 1960s with the growing LGBT community and welcomed tourists, upon whom many of the prostitutes and hustlers relied for income. By the late 1960s, a major celebration area during Halloween was along Grant Avenue in North Beach, on which there were many gay bars in the late 1960s between Broadway and Union. By 1969, San Francisco had more gay people per capita than any American city; when the National Institute of Mental Health asked the Kinsey Institute to survey homosexuals, the Kinsey Institute chose San Francisco.[8] Beginning in 1970, an annual Halloween celebration was held on Polk Street in Polk Gulch, then still the most important gay neighborhood. By the mid-1970s, Polk Street was overwhelmed and closed to traffic for a few hours each Halloween to make room for the costumed revelry. In 1979, the adult gay Halloween party moved to Castro Street in The Castro which, by the early 1970s, had replaced Polk Gulch as San Francisco's most important gay neighborhood.

Halloween as a "gay" holiday

In the 1970s, the LGBT community moved to the Castro with a string of gay bars opening up and multitudes of gay men filing the sidewalks of the small business district.[9] The Castro became the home of the Halloween event starting in 1979 amid concerns of gay bashing at the Polk street event in the Tenderloin.[3][10]

There are differing and complementary ideas on why LGBT communities, and expressly, gay men, are attracted to the holiday. Throughout the 1980s, Halloween street events in gay villages Key West, Florida, Christopher Street in New York, Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and the Castro in San Francisco have evolved from informal parades into Mardi Gras-like events with "drinking and dancing and carrying on in the streets".[11] San Francisco's Polk street Halloween developed in the 1970s as people came out and moved to Castro street in 1979.[3] In addition to stereotypes about why LGBT people are attracted to fashion, theatricality and dressing up there are cultural reasons why the events have become "the major holiday" for LGBT people. In addition to the holiday's pagan roots, which is attractive to those who have been shunned by mainstream religions, many LGBT people are able to be outrageous and flamboyant even if they remain closeted. In the days before gay liberation, wearing masks symbolized that most gays were in the closet—if gays were interviewed on TV before 1969, they often wore masks so no one would know their real identity.[11]

According to Bruce Mailman, a gay events organizer, "public partying on Halloween fits into gay liberation in general, being seen and heard" in a heteronormative society where media watchdog groups like GLAAD have had to campaign to ensure that LGBT people are portrayed and done so accurately without perpetuating negative stereotypes. In addition to visibility issues there is also escapism components as the LGBT community dealt with the AIDS pandemic and faced the generally negative domestic policy of the Reagan administration towards LGBT people and the AIDS crisis that was impacting the gay male communities.[11]

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

 
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, promoting the 1995 HallowQueen charity event, a part of helping move Halloween in the Castro out of the neighborhood by staging a costume-mandatory party in the SoMa district instead.
 
2006 attendees dressed as Michael Jackson and a young boy, likely in reference to the 2005 Trial of Michael Jackson.

On Halloween night in 1989, two weeks after San Francisco was devastated by the 6.9 (Richter scale) Loma Prieta earthquake,[12] the Sisters performed street theater and used donation buckets to collect thousands of dollars for the mayor's Earthquake Relief Fund from the Halloween crowds that poured into The Castro for the massive street party.[13] The group formally added donation gates, a stage and structure to safely manage the event from 1990 to 1995,[14] until "drunken gay-bashers out to get their kicks" convinced the group the event was unsafe without official city support.[15] In 1995, the Sisters agreed to host a costume-mandatory dance, HallowQueen, in a SoMa gay nightclub – which raised over $6000 for charities – as their contribution to helping move the event out of the mostly residential neighborhood.[16] In multi-year planning discussions on how to address the events challenges, some Sisters cited New York City's Village Halloween Parade, the United States' largest Halloween celebration, as an example of the potential for the event to attract tourists and benefit local businesses as well.[17] Barbara Ehrenreich, in her book on collective joy mentions this as an example of how Halloween is changing from a children's holiday to an adult holiday and compares it to Mardi Gras. Halloween is now the United States' second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes is also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike.[18]

2000 to 2010

 
Poster for Halloween in the Castro 2005 featuring spokesperson Donna Sachet.

A decade later, San Francisco still struggled to manage the event.[19] The massive crowds quickly overwhelmed the streets, mass transit and because of the Castro's location along two major transport corridors, disrupting traffic flow well outside the neighborhood.[citation needed]

In 2002, 500,000 people celebrated Halloween in the Castro and four people were stabbed.[20] In 2003, the city's Entertainment Commission took responsibility for organizing the event. As part of its efforts, the City permitted the March of Light Halloween Parade to drive Art Cars and Costumed Revelers through the center of the event to provide a positive focus and celebratory moments for the event. [21]

In 2006, nine people were wounded when a shooter opened fire at the celebration.[20][22] Halloween in the Castro was canceled,[10][23] and in the following years a heavy police presence kept the event from happening spontaneously. In 2007, 600 police were deployed in the Castro on Halloween,[24] a practice that continued in 2009 according to a police press release that announced a "zero tolerance policy for public drinking and other crime".[25] By 2010, the city had cracked down completely on Halloween in the Castro, directing celebrants to various balls and parties elsewhere.

Halloween in the Castro, The Opera (2009)

In 2009, in response to continuing violence and political complications surrounding Halloween in San Francisco, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco produced an opera about Halloween in the Castro, called Halloween in the Castro, composed by Jack Curtis Dubowsky. The opera ran in the Castro at the Metropolitan Community Church (then located on 18th Street) for two weeks, culminating in a final performance on Halloween night.[26] The opera, whilst framed as "a horror opera", lampooned city policies, such as "closing" the Castro while allowing the bars to remain open, and closing the Castro MUNI station. The opera featured a Sister who recounted past years of hosting the event and its decline into violence caused by gawking outsiders as the event grew beyond a manageable size. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, through their 2009 Pink Saturday Grants program, donated money to support the opera.

Since 2011

In hindsight, the Sisters were seen as a bargain of sorts, raising money every year for charity without city funds while keeping the chaos under control by providing entertainment and structure.[3] They continue to stage and consult on large city events like Folsom Street Fair and Pink Saturday.[27] The city, through the Entertainment Commission established in the early 2000s, is charged with addressing the ongoing issues of Halloween in the city with widespread agreement the Castro can no longer be the focus of a citywide celebration.[28]

In 2011, the City of San Francisco's official site on the topic stated:

Halloween belongs to all of us. Following last year's successful campaign to keep everyone safe and maintain the Castro's tranquility, we're continuing and expanding the Home for Halloween campaign. Like last year there is no party or special event in the Castro. However, there are lots of events and celebrations around San Francisco, throughout the Bay Area and right in your own "home" neighborhood!

This October 31st, bars and restaurants in the Castro will be open for business. However, as was the case last year the streets will not be closed to traffic. As in every other community in the City, there will be zero tolerance for behavior which doesn't respect the celebrated diversity of our communities. And again like last year, there will be zero tolerance for individuals and businesses that do not obey alcohol consumption and distribution regulations. The Home For Halloween website will help promote your events so please let us know about what you have planned in your community.

The Castro is not appropriate for a party with 100,000 people. So, the Home For Halloween campaign enters its second year of celebrating Halloween throughout the Bay Area and encouraging people to respect everyone's home, including the Castro. With your support, we can indeed make Halloween a "home" for celebrations that are fun, festive and respectful. Halloween is for everyone.

 
2012 Halloween at the Castro, likely an unofficial bar crawl.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused the celebration to be shut down.

Legacy

In 2007, the event was lampooned in adult animated series The Nutshack, which parodied Filipino-American culture in San Francisco. It is heavily referenced and portrayed in Halloween episode "The Slasher." Explaining the event, a character states, "[Castro] is like Carnival or Mardi Gras, just with more gay people."[29]

Notes

  1. ^ Meredith May (October 31, 2006). "7 shot at revel in Castro". SFGate. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
    - Heather Knight (November 2, 2006). "S.F. ASKS: IS PARTY OVER?". SFGate. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Jim Stewart, "Halloween on Polk Street 1975", Bay Area Reporter, October 24–30, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e Meredith May (November 3, 2006). "Halloween started as a kids' costume contest. Then". SFGate. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  4. ^ Joseph Siano (September 7, 1997). "Halloween by the Bay". New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
    - Szymanski, Zak (November 3, 2005). . Bay Area Reporter. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  5. ^ Jesse McKinley (November 2, 2006). "San Francisco on Halloween Turns Violent; 10 Are Injured". New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  6. ^ . SF Bay Times. November 8, 2007. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  7. ^ Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (2005) Documentary by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker.
  8. ^ Clendinen, p. 151.
  9. ^ . Archived from the original on May 13, 2007.
  10. ^ a b Brown, Patricia Leigh (October 30, 2007). "Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passé". The New York Times. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  11. ^ a b c "Key West Journal; Homosexuals Unmask On Night of Costumes". New York Times. October 31, 1988. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  12. ^ "On This Day". BBC News. October 17, 1989. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
  13. ^ Johnson, Chip (October 30, 1990). . Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  14. ^ May, Meredith (October 17, 2007). "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have history of charity, activism". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
    - "Castro District's Halloween party must find a new haunt". San Francisco Chronicle. May 20, 1995. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  15. ^ . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
  16. ^ Levy, Dan (October 16, 1995). "New Controls for Castro Halloween Bash". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
    - . Archived from the original on October 12, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
  17. ^ Sister Dana Van Iquity (September 27, 2007). "Calling for Halloween In the Castro in 2007". San Francisco Bay Times.
  18. ^ "History of Halloween: Second Largest Commercial Holiday In United States After Christmas". Space Coast Daily. October 30, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  19. ^ Bajko, Matthew S (April 19, 2007). . Bay Area Reporter. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  20. ^ a b . KTVU News. November 1, 2006. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  21. ^ Szymanski, Zak (November 28, 2013). "Castro leans toward no more Halloween". Ebar.com. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  22. ^ Chen, Vivien Lou (October 18, 2007). "San Francisco Spooked by a Gunshot-Marred Halloween". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  23. ^ Provenzano, Jim. "Masked marvels". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  24. ^ Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross (October 2, 2007). "Castro Halloween 'non-party' will be heavily policed". SFGate. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  25. ^ "Castro Halloween A No-Go Again This Year". The San Francisco Appeal. October 16, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  26. ^ Bogues, Maureen (October 22, 2009). "'Halloween in the Castro': Still a party". The San Francisco Chronicle.
    - Knight, Heather (September 8, 2009). "Castro's spooky Halloween opera". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  27. ^ Connell, Kathleen; Paul Gabriel (2007). "Folsom Street Fair History: SMMILE Regroups". Folsom Street Fair. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
  28. ^ "The Castro is not appropriate for a party with 100,000 people." Home For Halloween, City of San Francisco website on this subject.
  29. ^ The Nutshack S2E3: "Slasher", retrieved September 5, 2022

Bibliography

  • Bullough, Vern L. (2002), Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, New York, Haworth Press ISBN 1-56023-193-9
  • Clendinen, Dudley, and Nagourney, Adam (1999), Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America, Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-81091-3
  • D'Emilio, John (1983), Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970, Chicago, University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-14265-5
  • de Jim, Strange (2003), ..San Francisco's Castro, Arcadia Publishing ISBN 978-0-7385-2866-3
  • Gorman, Michael R. (1998), The Empress is a Man: Stories From the Life of José Sarria, New York, Harrington Park Press: an imprint of Haworth Press ISBN 0-7890-0259-0 (paperback edition)
  • Lockhart, John (2002), The Gay Man's Guide to Growing Older, Los Angeles, Alyson Publications ISBN 1-55583-591-0
  • Marcus, Eric (1992), Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights 1945 – 1990, An Oral History, New York, HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-016708-4
  • Miller, Neil (1995), Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present, New York, Vintage Books ISBN 0-09-957691-0
  • Shilts, Randy (1982), The Mayor of Castro Street, New York, St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-52331-9
  • Weiss, Mike (1984), Double Play: The San Francisco City Hall Killings, Addison Wesley Publishing Company ISBN 0-201-09595-5
  • Witt, Lynn, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus (1995), Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America, New York, Warner Books ISBN 0-446-67237-8

External links

  • – San Francisco city official event website archived version from 2008 with press releases and news updates.

February 26, 2023
halloween, castro, annual, halloween, celebration, held, castro, district, francisco, first, held, 1940s, neighborhood, costume, contest, late, 1970s, shifted, from, children, event, pride, celebration, that, continued, grow, into, massive, annual, street, par. Halloween in the Castro was an annual Halloween celebration held in The Castro district of San Francisco first held in the 1940s as a neighborhood costume contest By the late 1970s it had shifted from a children s event to a gay pride celebration that continued to grow into a massive annual street party in the 2000s 2006 the last year of the large organized street party a crowded city bus with the destination Halloween Castro In 2006 a mass shooting wounded nine people prompting the city to call off the event 1 San Francisco s gay Halloween celebration in the early 1960s originally centered on the early gay bars in the Tenderloin district They had moved there from the North Beach neighborhood which continues to be a magnet for adult entertainment and nightlife In the late 1960s the celebration was centered on Grant Avenue in North Beach From 1970 to 1978 the Halloween celebration was held on Polk Street in Polk Gulch In 1977 gay bashers clashed with police and tear gas was used to disperse the crowds 2 By 1979 the city s gay village had moved to the Castro and gay Mardi Gras followed 3 The event became known as the leading Halloween celebration in the U S where costumes ranged from the outrageous to the spectacular 4 By 2002 Halloween crowds had grown to the hundreds of thousands and became difficult to control 5 Contents 1 History 1 1 Children s Halloween 1 2 Halloween migrates from the Tenderloin to the Castro 1 3 Halloween in the Tenderloin North Beach and on Polk Street 1 4 Halloween as a gay holiday 1 5 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 1 6 2000 to 2010 1 7 Halloween in the Castro The Opera 2009 1 8 Since 2011 2 Legacy 3 Notes 4 Bibliography 5 External linksHistory EditThis section may contain material unrelated or insufficiently related to the topic of the article Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page May 2012 Learn how and when to remove this template message This section contains information of unclear or questionable importance or relevance to the article s subject matter Please help improve this section by clarifying or removing indiscriminate details If importance cannot be established the section is likely to be moved to another article pseudo redirected or removed Find sources Halloween in the Castro news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Children s Halloween Edit In 1948 Cliff s Variety Store began hosting a children s Halloween festival that featured a costume contest and ice cream eating contest By 1979 the Children s Halloween ended as the neighborhood s population shifted from families with children to more single men In the mid 1990s the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence revived Children s Halloween with an annual party held at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center including a costume contest and gifts from Cliff s 3 6 Halloween migrates from the Tenderloin to the Castro Edit Halloween in the Castro was tied to the LGBT culture of San Francisco and began in the 1950 1960s in the Tenderloin Polk Street area of the city where the mainstream gay bars were first centralized The event traces its history to the ostracism of LGBT people in the first half of the 20th century from mainstream culture which led to community identity and using gay bars as a focal point for socializing networking and organizing politically After World War II in the 1940s the San Francisco Bay Area became a haven for LGBT military personnel who didn t want to go back to their old lives In the 1950s a group of gay bars in San Francisco s Tenderloin area helped to create a strip of venues for sex drugs and late night fun 7 There has also been a South of Market SoMa leather subculture and BDSM bar scene with gay focussed sex clubs sharing Folsom street a tradition which is carried on with the annual Folsom Street Fair The nearby business and tourist oriented area Union Square was also popular for cruising for sex and was open to gay men whereas the Tenderloin was where drag queens t girls and prostitutes of all orientations were known to congregate publicly in the city because they were unwelcome in gay bars at that time Halloween in the Tenderloin North Beach and on Polk Street Edit Halloween in the Tenderloin grew in the early 1960s with the growing LGBT community and welcomed tourists upon whom many of the prostitutes and hustlers relied for income By the late 1960s a major celebration area during Halloween was along Grant Avenue in North Beach on which there were many gay bars in the late 1960s between Broadway and Union By 1969 San Francisco had more gay people per capita than any American city when the National Institute of Mental Health asked the Kinsey Institute to survey homosexuals the Kinsey Institute chose San Francisco 8 Beginning in 1970 an annual Halloween celebration was held on Polk Street in Polk Gulch then still the most important gay neighborhood By the mid 1970s Polk Street was overwhelmed and closed to traffic for a few hours each Halloween to make room for the costumed revelry In 1979 the adult gay Halloween party moved to Castro Street in The Castro which by the early 1970s had replaced Polk Gulch as San Francisco s most important gay neighborhood Halloween as a gay holiday Edit In the 1970s the LGBT community moved to the Castro with a string of gay bars opening up and multitudes of gay men filing the sidewalks of the small business district 9 The Castro became the home of the Halloween event starting in 1979 amid concerns of gay bashing at the Polk street event in the Tenderloin 3 10 There are differing and complementary ideas on why LGBT communities and expressly gay men are attracted to the holiday Throughout the 1980s Halloween street events in gay villages Key West Florida Christopher Street in New York Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and the Castro in San Francisco have evolved from informal parades into Mardi Gras like events with drinking and dancing and carrying on in the streets 11 San Francisco s Polk street Halloween developed in the 1970s as people came out and moved to Castro street in 1979 3 In addition to stereotypes about why LGBT people are attracted to fashion theatricality and dressing up there are cultural reasons why the events have become the major holiday for LGBT people In addition to the holiday s pagan roots which is attractive to those who have been shunned by mainstream religions many LGBT people are able to be outrageous and flamboyant even if they remain closeted In the days before gay liberation wearing masks symbolized that most gays were in the closet if gays were interviewed on TV before 1969 they often wore masks so no one would know their real identity 11 According to Bruce Mailman a gay events organizer public partying on Halloween fits into gay liberation in general being seen and heard in a heteronormative society where media watchdog groups like GLAAD have had to campaign to ensure that LGBT people are portrayed and done so accurately without perpetuating negative stereotypes In addition to visibility issues there is also escapism components as the LGBT community dealt with the AIDS pandemic and faced the generally negative domestic policy of the Reagan administration towards LGBT people and the AIDS crisis that was impacting the gay male communities 11 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Edit The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence promoting the 1995 HallowQueen charity event a part of helping move Halloween in the Castro out of the neighborhood by staging a costume mandatory party in the SoMa district instead 2006 attendees dressed as Michael Jackson and a young boy likely in reference to the 2005 Trial of Michael Jackson On Halloween night in 1989 two weeks after San Francisco was devastated by the 6 9 Richter scale Loma Prieta earthquake 12 the Sisters performed street theater and used donation buckets to collect thousands of dollars for the mayor s Earthquake Relief Fund from the Halloween crowds that poured into The Castro for the massive street party 13 The group formally added donation gates a stage and structure to safely manage the event from 1990 to 1995 14 until drunken gay bashers out to get their kicks convinced the group the event was unsafe without official city support 15 In 1995 the Sisters agreed to host a costume mandatory dance HallowQueen in a SoMa gay nightclub which raised over 6000 for charities as their contribution to helping move the event out of the mostly residential neighborhood 16 In multi year planning discussions on how to address the events challenges some Sisters cited New York City s Village Halloween Parade the United States largest Halloween celebration as an example of the potential for the event to attract tourists and benefit local businesses as well 17 Barbara Ehrenreich in her book on collective joy mentions this as an example of how Halloween is changing from a children s holiday to an adult holiday and compares it to Mardi Gras Halloween is now the United States second most popular holiday after Christmas for decorating the sale of candy and costumes is also extremely common during the holiday which is marketed to children and adults alike 18 2000 to 2010 Edit Poster for Halloween in the Castro 2005 featuring spokesperson Donna Sachet A decade later San Francisco still struggled to manage the event 19 The massive crowds quickly overwhelmed the streets mass transit and because of the Castro s location along two major transport corridors disrupting traffic flow well outside the neighborhood citation needed In 2002 500 000 people celebrated Halloween in the Castro and four people were stabbed 20 In 2003 the city s Entertainment Commission took responsibility for organizing the event As part of its efforts the City permitted the March of Light Halloween Parade to drive Art Cars and Costumed Revelers through the center of the event to provide a positive focus and celebratory moments for the event 21 In 2006 nine people were wounded when a shooter opened fire at the celebration 20 22 Halloween in the Castro was canceled 10 23 and in the following years a heavy police presence kept the event from happening spontaneously In 2007 600 police were deployed in the Castro on Halloween 24 a practice that continued in 2009 according to a police press release that announced a zero tolerance policy for public drinking and other crime 25 By 2010 the city had cracked down completely on Halloween in the Castro directing celebrants to various balls and parties elsewhere Halloween in the Castro The Opera 2009 Edit In 2009 in response to continuing violence and political complications surrounding Halloween in San Francisco the Lesbian Gay Chorus of San Francisco produced an opera about Halloween in the Castro called Halloween in the Castro composed by Jack Curtis Dubowsky The opera ran in the Castro at the Metropolitan Community Church then located on 18th Street for two weeks culminating in a final performance on Halloween night 26 The opera whilst framed as a horror opera lampooned city policies such as closing the Castro while allowing the bars to remain open and closing the Castro MUNI station The opera featured a Sister who recounted past years of hosting the event and its decline into violence caused by gawking outsiders as the event grew beyond a manageable size The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence through their 2009 Pink Saturday Grants program donated money to support the opera Since 2011 Edit In hindsight the Sisters were seen as a bargain of sorts raising money every year for charity without city funds while keeping the chaos under control by providing entertainment and structure 3 They continue to stage and consult on large city events like Folsom Street Fair and Pink Saturday 27 The city through the Entertainment Commission established in the early 2000s is charged with addressing the ongoing issues of Halloween in the city with widespread agreement the Castro can no longer be the focus of a citywide celebration 28 In 2011 the City of San Francisco s official site on the topic stated Halloween belongs to all of us Following last year s successful campaign to keep everyone safe and maintain the Castro s tranquility we re continuing and expanding the Home for Halloween campaign Like last year there is no party or special event in the Castro However there are lots of events and celebrations around San Francisco throughout the Bay Area and right in your own home neighborhood This October 31st bars and restaurants in the Castro will be open for business However as was the case last year the streets will not be closed to traffic As in every other community in the City there will be zero tolerance for behavior which doesn t respect the celebrated diversity of our communities And again like last year there will be zero tolerance for individuals and businesses that do not obey alcohol consumption and distribution regulations The Home For Halloween website will help promote your events so please let us know about what you have planned in your community The Castro is not appropriate for a party with 100 000 people So the Home For Halloween campaign enters its second year of celebrating Halloween throughout the Bay Area and encouraging people to respect everyone s home including the Castro With your support we can indeed make Halloween a home for celebrations that are fun festive and respectful Halloween is for everyone 2012 Halloween at the Castro likely an unofficial bar crawl The COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 caused the celebration to be shut down Legacy EditIn 2007 the event was lampooned in adult animated series The Nutshack which parodied Filipino American culture in San Francisco It is heavily referenced and portrayed in Halloween episode The Slasher Explaining the event a character states Castro is like Carnival or Mardi Gras just with more gay people 29 Notes Edit Meredith May October 31 2006 7 shot at revel in Castro SFGate Retrieved December 4 2013 Heather Knight November 2 2006 S F ASKS IS PARTY OVER SFGate Retrieved December 4 2013 Jim Stewart Halloween on Polk Street 1975 Bay Area Reporter October 24 30 2013 a b c d e Meredith May November 3 2006 Halloween started as a kids costume contest Then SFGate Retrieved December 4 2013 Joseph Siano September 7 1997 Halloween by the Bay New York Times Retrieved December 4 2013 Szymanski Zak November 3 2005 Mixed reviews for Castro Halloween Bay Area Reporter Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved October 23 2020 Jesse McKinley November 2 2006 San Francisco on Halloween Turns Violent 10 Are Injured New York Times Retrieved December 4 2013 All s Quiet for Castro Halloween SF Bay Times November 8 2007 Archived from the original on November 9 2013 Retrieved October 22 2020 Screaming Queens The Riot at Compton s Cafeteria 2005 Documentary by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker Clendinen p 151 The original queer district A brief history of the Polk s queer cred Archived from the original on May 13 2007 a b Brown Patricia Leigh October 30 2007 Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passe The New York Times Retrieved October 30 2007 a b c Key West Journal Homosexuals Unmask On Night of Costumes New York Times October 31 1988 Retrieved December 4 2013 On This Day BBC News October 17 1989 Retrieved April 23 2007 Johnson Chip October 30 1990 The Devil You Say San Francisco Faces Halloween Exorcism Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on October 26 2007 Retrieved October 23 2007 May Meredith October 17 2007 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have history of charity activism San Francisco Chronicle Retrieved October 23 2007 Castro District s Halloween party must find a new haunt San Francisco Chronicle May 20 1995 Retrieved October 23 2007 A Sister Fears Halloween in the Castro Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved April 23 2007 Levy Dan October 16 1995 New Controls for Castro Halloween Bash San Francisco Chronicle Retrieved October 23 2007 Sistory Archived from the original on October 12 2006 Retrieved October 29 2006 Sister Dana Van Iquity September 27 2007 Calling for Halloween In the Castro in 2007 San Francisco Bay Times History of Halloween Second Largest Commercial Holiday In United States After Christmas Space Coast Daily October 30 2020 Retrieved April 26 2021 Bajko Matthew S April 19 2007 City pursues moving Halloween out of Castro Bay Area Reporter Archived from the original on January 7 2016 Retrieved October 23 2007 a b Gunfire At Castro Halloween Party Leaves 9 Wounded KTVU News November 1 2006 Archived from the original on June 6 2011 Retrieved October 22 2020 Szymanski Zak November 28 2013 Castro leans toward no more Halloween Ebar com Retrieved December 4 2013 Chen Vivien Lou October 18 2007 San Francisco Spooked by a Gunshot Marred Halloween Bloomberg Retrieved October 23 2007 Provenzano Jim Masked marvels Bay Area Reporter Retrieved December 4 2013 Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross October 2 2007 Castro Halloween non party will be heavily policed SFGate Retrieved December 4 2013 Castro Halloween A No Go Again This Year The San Francisco Appeal October 16 2009 Retrieved December 4 2013 Bogues Maureen October 22 2009 Halloween in the Castro Still a party The San Francisco Chronicle Knight Heather September 8 2009 Castro s spooky Halloween opera The San Francisco Chronicle Connell Kathleen Paul Gabriel 2007 Folsom Street Fair History SMMILE Regroups Folsom Street Fair Retrieved September 17 2007 The Castro is not appropriate for a party with 100 000 people Home For Halloween City of San Francisco website on this subject The Nutshack S2E3 Slasher retrieved September 5 2022Bibliography EditBullough Vern L 2002 Before Stonewall Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context New York Haworth Press ISBN 1 56023 193 9 Clendinen Dudley and Nagourney Adam 1999 Out for Good The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 684 81091 3 D Emilio John 1983 Sexual Politics Sexual Communities The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States 1940 1970 Chicago University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 14265 5 de Jim Strange 2003 San Francisco s Castro Arcadia Publishing ISBN 978 0 7385 2866 3 Gorman Michael R 1998 The Empress is a Man Stories From the Life of Jose Sarria New York Harrington Park Press an imprint of Haworth Press ISBN 0 7890 0259 0 paperback edition Lockhart John 2002 The Gay Man s Guide to Growing Older Los Angeles Alyson Publications ISBN 1 55583 591 0 Marcus Eric 1992 Making History The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights 1945 1990 An Oral History New York HarperCollins ISBN 0 06 016708 4 Miller Neil 1995 Out of the Past Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present New York Vintage Books ISBN 0 09 957691 0 Shilts Randy 1982 The Mayor of Castro Street New York St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 52331 9 Weiss Mike 1984 Double Play The San Francisco City Hall Killings Addison Wesley Publishing Company ISBN 0 201 09595 5 Witt Lynn Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus 1995 Out in All Directions The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America New York Warner Books ISBN 0 446 67237 8External links EditHalloween In The Castro San Francisco city official event website archived version from 2008 with press releases and news updates Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Halloween in the Castro amp oldid 1108546656, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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