Pink Party, Dyke March Shift to Earlier Start

Next month's Pink Party in the Castro will run from 3 to 8 p.m. and Dyke March organizers are working to move up the time of their event, which typically ends in the gay neighborhood.

People involved with the Saturday, June 27 street party, formerly known as Pink Saturday, are hoping to avoid the violence that's marred recent years by starting and ending the festival much earlier. Last year's event went from 5 to 10:30 p.m.

The shift in times at Pink Party will also impact the Dyke March, the annual trek from Dolores Park to the Castro that had served as the beginning of the Pink Saturday event.

Dyke March's Elizabeth Lanyon said in an email exchange that the march would also begin and end earlier this year, although exact times have yet to be worked out.

Pink Party organizers last week shared some of their other plans, including street closures, at a meeting with neighborhood merchants that sometimes grew testy.

Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, told the Castro Merchants business group at their monthly meeting Thursday, May 7 that she and other planners are trying to make the party "safe and fun for all involved" while also making it a "stronger LGBT community event."

Many feel that the festival has devolved from a celebration of LGBT rights into an excuse for people with little concern for gay history to get drunk and cause trouble.

There's a general belief that the crowd gets rowdier as the evening progresses. Stephen Powell, 19, was shot to death around the time the festival ended in 2010, and there have been numerous assaults and other incidents connected with the event since then.

Citing concerns about violence, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which owns the Pink Saturday name and had coordinated the event for decades, announced in February that they wouldn t produce this year s festival.

In April, the Sisters announced they had voted not to allow the community center and its production team to use the Pink Saturday name. The center recently announced the Pink Party moniker.

Rolfe said there's "been a feeling" that Pink Saturday had become "more of a street party and less of an LGBT community event," and she and others are "trying to shift that back."

There will be a "dispersal plan" in place so that people actually leave the area at 8, Rolfe said. Few details have been determined, but Ruth McFarlane, the community center's programs director, has said organizers plan to steer people toward other events after the party that night.

Street Closures

Thursday's meeting grew tense after Billy Picture, who's with E. Cee Productions, which is producing the party, presented plans for street closures. The Castro's streets are blocked off every year for the event, with the festival largely centered around 18th and Castro streets to the south and Market and Castro streets to the north.

Picture said that this year, tow truck drivers will start taking out cars at 11 a.m., and "the area will be free of vehicles" by noon so that workers have time to bring in portable toilets and other equipment before the festival starts.

Former Castro Merchants President Terry Asten Bennett, whose family owns Cliff's Variety shop at 479 Castro, quickly expressed her unhappiness with the timing of street closures.

"That's my entire day," Bennett said, calling the last Saturday in June "one of the busiest days of the year."

Rolfe said organizers were open to doing a media campaign to encourage people to support businesses in the Castro on another Saturday.

But Bennett said, "You're obliterating retail business" and "taking away a complete day" for merchants.

Picture pointed out the sidewalks would still be open, and parking would be the main thing being affected that day.

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro, noted that Muni transit would still be running close to the neighborhood.

Patrick Batt, who owns the AutoErotica adult entertainment shop at 4077-A 18th Street and the Eureka cafe at 451 Castro, echoed Bennett's remarks.

Batt, another former president of the merchants group, wanted the streets closed later, and said, "The biggest Saturday of the year is now taken away. ... This is the most absurd idea in the world." He added that the pre-LGBT Pride parade festival "should have been stopped."

One man said, however, that if events like the Pink Party are eliminated "it's not the biggest day of the year anymore."

Dan Glazer, who owns Hot Cookie, at 407 Castro, agreed, "Saturday would not be the same in the Castro if Pink Saturday didn't exist."

The preliminary map shows three entrance points - at Castro and Market; 16th, Noe, and Market; and Noe and 18th streets. Other streets with barricades are exit-only and will not allow access to the festival area.

Few Other Details

Aside from the opening and closing times, few other Pink Party details have been determined.

The festival will continue to be all ages with no alcohol allowed in the footprint. Admission is free but there will be a suggested gate donation of $10. Proceeds will help fund nonprofits.

Rolfe said planners are looking to have "more entertainment sprinkled throughout the event." Entertainers haven't been selected, but a preliminary map of the party shows four stages.

Picture said police presence and private security would be "markedly increased." Exact numbers haven't been decided.

Mission police station Captain Dan Perea, who oversees the Castro and other neighborhoods, said in a recent email that he's met with Wiener, Rolfe, and executive event producer Eliote Durham, also from E. Cee Productions, and they continue to talk.

Perea said Rolfe and Durham "have absolutely hit the ground running in top gear to organize a successful event."

Hundreds of thousands of people are drawn to San Francisco's streets during Pride weekend each year, and even more people are expected to attend events this year, as Perea noted. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to announce in June whether same-sex marriage should be legal nationally.

Police "will continue working closely with Supervisor Wiener and event organizers to have the appropriate amount of officers present" at the Pink Party, Perea said.

The budget also hasn't been finalized.

McFarlane has said the city will be funding a "substantial" portion of the party, but it's not clear how much that will be. The 2014 festival cost the Sisters $80,000, though expenses for this year's celebration are expected to increase.

She said recently that organizers would likely know what their budget is by the end of this month.