Annual Event Is One Of The Top Street Parties In San Francisco
Booths, bands and beer.
Oh, the beer.
Just two weeks after the crazy and whacky Bay to Breakes mobile party, the city of San Francisco hosts the Union Street Festival. Like Bay to Breakers, it’s a open invitation to cut loose and party in the city streets. This is one of the city’s many street festivals and, many argue, the best of the bunch.
The 2016 event is June 3-4.
Unlike Bay to Breakers, it does not move slowly through the city but instead is concentrated in a 10-block area of Union Street in the fashionable Pacific Heights/Cow Hollow area, from Gough to Steiner.
San Francisco’s Largest Free Festival
Billed as San Francisco’s largest free festival, it has food and crafts vendors, two stages with bands and tens of thousands of people in search of the real treasures – beer and other single people.
They find both in abundance.
Alcohol consumption is confined to three beer and wine gardens ($7-8 for a 24-ounce draft). But the real action is in the bars along Union Street. Many have lines all day (in particular the Bus Stop, Bar None and, at the end of the day, Left at Albuquerque). Another fun stop –mainly because of the people clowning it up on the steps leading to a balcony – is Luisa’s Italian Restaurant.
It’s readily apparent that the real attraction for San Francisco’s singles is not the fair itself but using the fair as an excuse to hit the bars in the daytime. In addition, there are house parties on and around Union Street, as well as at local businesses. Many of these are private and have doormen complete with a guest list. But in San Francisco, many people seem to know someone connected to one of these bashes so they, too, become desired destinations.
There are food booths and fun events, such as area waitresses i running down a hill with a tray full of beers.
The real crazy day is Saturday. People spill into the neighborhood bars making it a real scene. Sunday is a bit calmer – a lot calmer, by comparison – but it’s still a social paradise. On this day, the bars are crowded at the end of the festival. Saturday, people start lining up well before the event’s end at 6 p.m.
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