{"id":35211,"date":"2024-07-29T12:16:03","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T19:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35211"},"modified":"2024-07-29T12:16:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T19:16:03","slug":"san-franciscos-revenge-summer-an-explosion-of-art-and-music-stirs-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/29\/san-franciscos-revenge-summer-an-explosion-of-art-and-music-stirs-a-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s revenge summer: An explosion of art and music stirs a comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
From lasers to raves, statues to falling crime, SF seems to have turned its frown upside down. Is the vibe shift real? | Source:Photo illustration by Clark Miller for The Standard; Photos by The Standard, Getty Images, Courtesy Skyler Greene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Astrid Kane<\/a> Updated\u00a0Jul. 28, 2024 \u2022 (SFStandard.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an era when vibes often overpower facts, San Francisco is beginning to feel as if the vibes and the facts are on the same side.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rainbow laser cannons illuminating Market Street, monthly festivals taking over downtown, impromptu raves on the waterfront, impromptu raves at Civic Center, beautiful light displays at Grace Cathedral \u2014 San Francisco is having its best summer of the 16 I\u2019ve spent here. Something about the city\u2019s mood has begun to shift for the better, and we have the pictures \u2014 and the data \u2014 to prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call it our \u201cbrat\u201d summer (assuming that cultural moment isn\u2019t over already<\/a>). It\u2019s starting to feel like that long, dark period when San Francisco-bashing reached a fever pitch is over. Collectively, we are waking up to the city\u2019s inherent awesomeness, led by visual art and live music, along with plenty of new parks<\/a> and way less bipping<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DJ-producers Fred Again and Skrillex perform June 1 at Civic Center Plaza, effectively kicking off what has become San Francisco\u2019s comeback summer. | Source:Courtesy Julian Bajsel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another Planet Entertainment partnered with SF\u2019s Dirtybird Records to produce a rave Sunday on the Embarcadero, drawing thousands. | Source:Jason Henry for The Standard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the loudest part: all those outdoor shows. Virtually every week, thousands of people of all ages have headed out to shake their tail feathers together. In last weekend\u2019s case, it was free of charge: For the first time in my San Francisco memory, Embarcadero Plaza was a desirable place to be Sunday, thanks to \u201cBack to BAYsics,\u201d a four-hour set with DJs from Dirtybird<\/a>, the local label that grew out of free barbecues in Golden Gate Park. Staged by SF concert powerhouse Another Planet Entertainment, the show was part of an agreement between the promoter and City Hall to produce three free outdoor events per year for three years in exchange for a second festival in the park one week after Outside Lands<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This program, called SF Live, is designed to breathe new life into beleaguered downtown spaces, something Mayor London Breed \u201chas prioritized as a component of her broader economic strategy to revitalize and add vibrancy to pockets\u201d of the city, according to a spokesperson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s pure bureaucratic boilerplate, no doubt. But there\u2019s no denying that it\u2019s working, with the reinvigoration of the Hibernia Bank<\/a>, a Beaux Arts white elephant in the Tenderloin, well underway after an open-to-close Bonobo set this month. Noise Pop, another veteran of the live music scene, is the force behind this weekend\u2019s SF Live performance, with violinist and vocalist Sudan Archives<\/a> crowning an all-Black, all-queer lineup Saturday at Dogpatch\u2019s Crane Cove Park. More free Noise Pop events will hit parks later this summer<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Downtown First Thursdays have succeeded in bringing revelers to previously moribund corners of the Financial District. | Source:Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DJ Steve Fabus plays at Hibernia Bank, a venue in the Tenderloin that is seeing new life. | Source:Courtesy of DJ Dials and 15Utah\/John Slack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Previously quiet corners of the city pulsate with unprecedented nocturnal vigor. The Taiwanese-style Sunset Night Market that debuted last year<\/a> will see its footprint swell to seven blocks of Irving Street when it returns for three nights in August and September. At Battery and Clay streets downtown, the Bhangra & Beats Night Market<\/a> has two samosa- and henna-filled Fridays yet to go this season. And all this novelty hasn\u2019t crowded out the established players, with the Tenderloin\u2019s First Thursday art walks still going strong<\/a>. Contrast that vitality with Oakland\u2019s vaunted First Fridays, whose future is again in doubt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the realm of visual arts, Illuminate, the nonprofit responsible for the \u201cBay Lights\u201d and \u201cGolden Mile\u201d on JFK Drive, has expanded on its previous \u201cSummer of Awe\u201d successes, shooting 20 rainbow lights<\/a> down the entire length of Market Street over Pride Weekend and, more recently, projecting light through Grace Cathedral\u2019s rose window<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t remember the last time I went to church at 10:30 p.m. on a weeknight and sat reverently in a pew, quieting my chatter-prone mind. But the Grace Cathedral display, titled \u201cWindow,\u201d really was transcendent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, at the Embarcadero, we have an addition to our overwhelmingly male civic statuary in \u201cAs Sounds Turn to Noise<\/a>,\u201d Thomas J. Price\u2019s nine-foot depiction of a Black woman in jogging clothes that has  become a meeting point for running clubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Several
Illuminate shot a series of rainbow laser cannons through the rose window of Nob Hill\u2019s Grace Cathedral, the latest large-scale installation in the group\u2019s \u201cSummer of Awe.\u201d | Source:Tayfun Coskun\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, these are just the events that have gotten the green light from the city. San Francisco has a long tradition of tolerating (or tacitly championing) quasi-legal events and underground culture, from the first few Burning Man celebrations on Baker Beach to guerrilla street actions like Critical Mass. The spigot of dynamism and creativity doesn\u2019t flow only on City Hall\u2019s say-so, and sometimes the powers that be prove unable to turn it off, even when they desperately want to \u2014 as in the case of illegal stunt-car sideshows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A skater bombs down Church Street. The skaters moved there after SFPD dissuaded them from riding on nearby Dolores Street. | Source:Aaron Levy-Wolins for The Standard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deafening, dangerous and flamboyantly law-defying, sideshows have no shortage of haters, and with ample cause. But looked at another way, they\u2019re an expression of youthful energy and a loud rebuttal to the notion that the exorbitantly priced city has been emptied of street culture. Venture out to witness one up close <\/a>\u2014 or, a safer bet, watch it go off<\/a> from a balcony above \u2014 and you will witness a true primal scream, like live graffiti with pyrotechnics thrown in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only slightly less polarizing is the Dolores Hill Bomb, with which the San Francisco Police Department seems to have made a tentative peace after botching 2023\u2019s event with mass arrests that led to a class-action lawsuit<\/a>. Prior to this year\u2019s July 6 hill bomb, the cops warned everyone not to even think about it, so the skaters moved across Dolores Park to Church Street. A much-smaller deployment of officers turned a blind eye to the event, nobody got handcuffed, and the kids came off looking clever and defiant in the face of slow-footed authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not all rosy, of course. Homicides may be down<\/a>, but violence is a constant, lurking presence \u2014 most horrifically in the case of a hotel worker who died in July<\/a> after allegedly being pushed by a homeless man into the path of a BART train at the Powell Street station. Commercial vacancies remain stubbornly high<\/a>, some blighted areas remain blighted<\/a>, and the restaurant and nightlife industries\u2019 post-pandemic recoveries remain uneven at best<\/a>. Yet for the first time in a long time, I find myself on my phone hope-scrolling instead of doom-scrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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San Franciscans rally in support of Kamala Harris\u2019 presidential run. | Source:T\u00e2m V\u0169\/The Standard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To some extent, we can predict what\u2019s coming. Now that Bay Area-born Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to be the Democratic Party\u2019s nominee for president, San Francisco is in for another round of sustained bashing at the national level. And if Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, we will be his administration\u2019s political foil once again. We know that right-wing commentators will seize on anything they can to tarnish our reputation, even when \u2014 as in the case of this month\u2019s supposed attack on a visiting Australian executive<\/a> \u2014 it turns out to be false. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it almost doesn\u2019t matter. The trend lines are palpable<\/a>, and, if you\u2019re out on the streets, so is the energy. Even the woebegone Tenderloin is getting in on the action. As Rene Colorado, executive director of the Tenderloin Merchants said, \u201cYou measure the city by its weakest link, and that\u2019s us in the Tenderloin.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colorado recently partnered with Adam Swig, executive director of nonprofit Value Culture, to produce LoveFest SF, a free, all-day block party<\/a> Aug. 3 where the vendors will be hyperlocal and the performers will include more than a dozen artists who\u2019ve been on the San Francisco party scene for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LoveFest is where the pernicious narrative about San Francisco\u2019s decline will be broken for good, its creators say. \u201cWe\u2019re ending the doom loop, on Larkin Street on Aug. 3,\u201d Swig said. \u201cWe\u2019re having a ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction: A photo caption incorrectly misidentified DJ Steve Fabus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astrid Kane can be reached at astrid@sfstandard.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Astrid Kane Updated\u00a0Jul. 28, 2024 \u2022 (SFStandard.com) In an era when vibes often overpower facts, San Francisco is beginning to feel as if the vibes and the facts are on the same side.\u00a0 Rainbow laser cannons illuminating Market Street, monthly festivals taking over downtown, impromptu raves on the waterfront, impromptu… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35211"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35212,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35211\/revisions\/35212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}