San Francisco's official Halloween block party draws thousands, boosts businesses
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Thousands of people turned out for Halloween festivities all across the city of San Francisco Thursday night. One of the biggest events -- a free city-sanctioned Halloween block party in San Francisco's "entertainment zone" on Front Street.
It was fun. It was frightening. It was festive.
The zone allows bars and restaurants to serve alcohol outside.
"I can't believe how many people we have here tonight," said Jan Wiginton, co-owner of Schroeder's, one of the participating businesses.
"I think we're giving people a venue to come down drink outside in this beautiful October weather," said Wiginton.
People were thrilled for a party in downtown San Francisco.
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"Oh, I love it. It's really great to bring everybody together and have a good time. Music is good Halloween is fun. Let's keep going," said San Francisco resident Edwin Lozano.
For more Halloween fun, we headed to the Castro. In the Castro, you can be whatever or whoever.
"It took me about four hours to do the makeup," said "Bubba Ganooj," a San Francisco resident. "I decided I wanted to kind of punk girl, goth girl, dead goth girl."
It took Freddy Roman seven hours to transform into part vampire, part devil.
Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without the cute costumes and all the kids.
Eight-year-old Iliana visited a few different stores and businesses in the Mission District where community groups created a "safe zone" for Halloween.
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Susana Rojas with Calle 24 Latino Cultural District welcomed families and joined in on the fun.
"Today is a day where we can all be kids where we can enjoy dressing up," said Rojas. "I have to have my custom black and white shoes and day custom black and white glasses because even though I'm a cow, you've got to be stylish."
Back to downtown San Francisco...
"Nightmare on Front Street" was the second free event in the city's new entertainment zone.
It comes on the heels of Oktoberfest last month which drew nearly 10,000 people.
Supporters hope there's more to come.
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"Events like this are a game-changer for us. It is awesome," said Wiginton.
While business owners say they're not quite to pre-pandemic levels of service yet, President and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Rodney Fong says the data shows events like these are bringing people back to San Francisco.
"The Chamber of Commerce has a data dashboard on sfchamber.com which actually shows you open table reservations spiking and pedestrian traffic on sidewalks rising, so there's certainly indications that things are getting much better," he said.
The next "entertainment zone" event is already set for December 13.
It will be another all-day block party to celebrate "Let's Glow SF."
That's the largest projection mapping event in the country coming back to the city for another year.
