The Castro Street Fair, about to celebrate its 41st anniversary, will be held on Sunday, October 5, 2014 in San Francisco’s Castro District.
The fair is yet another example on how LGBTs helped shape not just the neighborhood but the City of San Francisco.
Before Harvey Milk was a San Francisco Supervisor, before he ever ran for political office, he was a small businessman, owner of Castro Camera at 575 Castro Street. When the Eureka Valley Merchants Association (EVMA) proved hostile gay-owned businesses, trying to keep some from being able to get business licenses, Milk founded the Castro Village Association (CVA), a more progressive organization of local business owners.
Milk and the CVA created the first Castro Street Fair in 1974. It drew 5,000 people to the neighborhood and some EVMA grudgingly conceded they did more business that day than any other day that year.
The Castro Street Fair was reportedly the very first annual neighborhood street fair in San Francisco and has inspired dozens of others to spring up throughout the City. For neighborhood street fairs (excluding other special events that aren’t street fair like San Francisco Pride, Pink Saturday, and the city’s numerous parades), it is the third largest behind the Folsom Street Fair and the Union Street Festival. It is always held on the first Sunday in October, which for many years made it the last annual street fair in San Francisco for the calendar year. (A few newer street fairs are now held in mid-October.)
This year’s fair will have five stages or special areas, including the Main Stage on Market and Castro, the Legends Stage at 18th and Collingwood, Dance Alley in the parking lot behind Magnet, Castro Alley in the parking lot behind the Castro Theatre, and Milky Way on 18th between Noe and Sanchez.
