Saturday's 25th annual How Weird Street Fair will not be held on Saturday, as organizers suddenly blame a bad weekend weather forecast, and will “postpone” the event until maybe June.

There has just been a stunning, last-minute postponement of the 25th annual How Weird Street Faire, which was scheduled for Saturday, May 4 (tomorrow!). In an announcement made just before 5 pm Thursday, a mere 43 hours before the gates were set to open at 12 noon Saturday, the street fair’s organizers announced they had “postponed” the event, which was all set to fill more than 15 blocks of Howard, Natoma, Minna, and Second streets with art, DJ’s, raves, food trucks, a vendor marketplace, and nine stages of performers.

“How Weird St. Faire on Saturday, May 4th, is postponed due to severe weather,” the event’s organizers said in a Thursday Facebook post. “There is an over a half-inch of rain in the forecast and 38 mph wind gusts for Saturday afternoon, which creates public safety hazards. Out of an abundance of caution, we have to regretfully postpone. We have a target date of June 22nd (pending city approval) for the 25th annual How Weird.  We will keep everyone updated as we are able to confirm. Thank you all for your patience.”

The organization had been posting promotions for the event just one day before the postponement announcement. Since the fair was scheduled for May 4, this year it had a Star Wars theme, aping on the popular “May the Fourth be With You” meme.

And yes, from the most current weather reports, we do see a 100% chance of rain for Saturday. Though forecasters seem to agree that “Most of the rain is going to fall before noon Saturday,” and this event was scheduled to start at noon. Wind gust predictions do not appear as severe as organizers stated, and other outdoor events scheduled for Saturday are still full steam ahead. It may be fair to speculate that there’s some reason other than weather for this postponement.

But is this June 22nd rescheduling even a realistic possibility, just seven weeks away? It might be. According to the How Weird Street Faire Eventbrite ticket page, “Given the decision to either roll the dice and soldier on (in the wind + cold) -- or make a quick pivot to a summertime date within the next month, HW Organizers have petitioned SF Mayor's Office and City Officials to push for a quick reschedule and pending city approval, will confirm our planned June 22nd date, next week on May 9th.”

And the Mayor's Office is very keen to see events activating the downtown area, so it is possible that Breed's office would pull some strings at City Hall to make sure the rescheduled event happens.

Are ticket buyers going to get refunds for this event? That’s not clear, and it seems organizers would prefer you just graciously hold on to that ticket until a theoretical June 22 event. The How Weird Eventbrite page says that “All Sales Are Final. All Purchases are NON-REFUNDABLE unless the Event is Cancelled or Postponed.” Obviously, it was postponed.

Ironically, that same Eventbrite page adds that “The Event is Rain or Shine.”

How Weird Street Faire had traditionally been one of the first street fairs of the summer, happening in early May. It switched to an autumn event after the worst of COVID passed, and was held in October as recently as last year.

The sudden, out-of-the-blue postponement recalls the 2022 postponing of the Haight Street Fair, which was announced just ten days before the event. That fair did get back on its feet. But the same cannot be said for the notorious crash and burn of the Exotic Erotic Ball, which was canceled the very day before the event in 2010, and would never happen again.

Related: 20th Annual How Weird Street Faire Keeps It Weird In SoMa [SFist]

Image: How Weird Street Faire