This year’s ooky-spooky season concluded in a resounding roar across San Francisco as people bar crawled, danced, and consumed slices of pizza in outfits that spanned the gamut of creativity (and sex appeal).
San Francisco was alive with sex-positive, imaginative costuming this past weekend for what felt like the first real Halloween revelry since the pandemic began in March 2020. The Castro was crowded — mobbed, dare we say — with queerdos donning all sorts of skimpy regalia, despite the frigid fall temps Saturday and Sunday.
Though the sidewalks and parklets along Castro and 18th streets doubled as catwalks/stages to display well-executed looks, The Midway was the place to be Saturday. Electroluxxx, a dance party that hosts events in San Francisco and Seattle, held the zenith of local late-night Halloween ragers at the aforenoted Bayview venue.
The sold-out event attracted thousands of bipeds, all of whom funneled inside the 40,000-square-foot venue. Performances from San Francisco’s own Newoncé Gazelle and others electrified the mains stage; saccharin art installations from the likes of Serge Gay Jr., Elliott C. Nathan — one of the co-founders of Electroluxx and a multi-hyphenated creative in his own right — and more brought holiday-themed eye candy to the space.
This weekend’s Halloween celebrations felt like yet another instance of San Francisco returning to its pre-pandemic form. (However, let’s all agree on the notion that we should still keep the current smattering of car-free corridors open in SF [including the JFK Promenade] that were born out of the Covid-19 health crisis.)
Maybe you caught a glimpse of the Sailor Scouts — a quartet that included local writer and self-described “Swiss army knife” of San Francisco’s nightlife scene, Joe Wadlington — on duty defending the seven-by-seven from darkness Saturday night. But, alas, even the most fervent guardians of good need still need a break to release their bladders.
What else happened over the Halloween weekend? Here’s a somewhat haunting rundown:
- San Jose experienced its 31st and 32nd homicides. The San Jose Police Department shared on Twitter that the shootings and a double stabbing occurred Saturday night and early Sunday morning; the first incident happened on the 700 block of Kaufmann Court Saturday evening that involved a shooting that killed one individual and injured another; the second shooting incident occurred around 12:45 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Madera Avenue — marking the city’s 31st and 32nd homicides this year. More info.
- The former “ex-life partner” of David DePape, the man accused of attacking Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their SF home on Friday, Gypsy Taub said he at one point in their relationship thought he was Jesus. Also: Paul Pelosi underwent successful surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to repair his fractured skull. More info.
- Musk’s Twitter takeover apparently included layoffs… that he conducted over the weekend. Because he’s an asshole. More info.
- Is the attack on Paul Pelosi yet another turning point of what’s to come? An opinion piece in the New York Times today suggests that the violent attack on Pelosi’s husband marks another dangerous juncture in the country — one where Republicans on Capitol Hill will create a “haunting” future for us all. More info.
