Want to dress up in your Halloween costume and join a bunch of other werewolves and sexy witches in the state’s first entertainment zone? You can do that next Thursday, Halloween, at the Nightmare on Front Street event.
Back in July, the Front Street Entertainment Zone was approved in a pilot program designed to retain office workers in the Financial District after hours for drinking, dining and socializing: the first city in California to adopt the New Orleans-like open container zone.
And it’s been successful, based on last month’s Oktoberfest on Front, which drew about 10,000 attendees as the first event in the new zone (participating businesses reported a 1,500% increase in sales, according to the mayor’s office). Now, the first-ever Nightmare on Front Street event will again open up the street to pedestrians (and closing it to cars) for dancing and carousing, with Halloween-themed hijinks, as reported by SF Funcheap.
Far from a nightmare, the October 31 event is a free block party happening from 2 to 10pm with DJs, live music, horror movie screenings, adult carnival games and costume contests. No need to go trick or treating: The three bars on this block, Schroeder’s, Harrington’s Bar & Grill and Royal Exchange, will each be decorated based on a different horror movie, and they’ll be serving Halloween-inspired cocktails. Make your way to Front Street between Sacramento and California streets for your afternoon-into-evening celebrations, and then walk an easy four minutes to Embarcadero station to catch a BART or Muni train home in a very sobering way.
If you’re a San Francisco business owner thinking about setting up your own entertainment zone, see the city’s guidelines here.
RECOMMENDED: Want to catch other Halloween events in San Francisco? We’ve got you covered (in a Charlie Brown-esque ghost sheet).