It’s the silver anniversary faire la fête of the French discotheque Bardot A Go Go’s annual Bastille Day Party this Saturday, and its co-founder looks back on 25 years of crepes, cigarettes, and 1960s period apparel.
San Francisco has no shortage of French dressing-up opportunities for those who celebrate this weekend’s Bastille Day festivities: the block party on Belden Street is Friday at Happy Hour time, the rather fancy Bastille Day Festival is Saturday at the SF Design Center Galleria, and that new Market Street comedy club/cocktail lounge The Function is having “French Wine Connection" wine parties throughout the month of July.
But the real French tickler of the bunch may be the long-running French pop dance party Bardot A Go Go, whose Bardot A Go Go Bastille Day Party celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Rickshaw Stop Saturday night.
Bardot A Go Go started in 1998, the combined brainchild of DJs Brother Grimm (Dan Strachota), Pink Frankenstein (Johnnie Lieske), and Cali Kid (Alan Parowski). And its famed Bastille Day parties have now go-go-gone on for 25 years, celebrating all things Brigitte Bardot, Serge Gainsbourg, and Francoise Hardy.
“As for why it's still popular, I'm as shocked as anyone!” Strachota, who’s now head of operations at Rickshaw Stop, tells SFist. “But I guess it's really not like any other party in SF these days. It's far removed from tribute parties to Shrek and Taylor [Swift], and no one even reps the 60s stuff like they used to. Back in the 90s/00s, there were tons of like-minded events and even the Werepad, which was like an actual 60s club.
“Plus the music is just so fun and people get to dress up sexy and goofy at the same time.”
Saturday will not be the 25th anniversary of Bardot A Go Go itself, as the dance party started, not on Bastille Day, but in October 1998 at the old Club Cocodrie, and the event threw its 25th anniversary party last year for Bastille Day. But Saturday is the 25th anniversary of the first Bardot A Go Go Bastille Day Dance Party at Cocodrie in July 1999. Bardot A Go Go then became a weekly party and moved to the old 330 Ritch in the early 2000s, and moved to the Rickshaw Stop when that venue opened in 2004.
Longtime fans will remember that the event would have hairstylists cutting hair in the club, performances by the Devil-Ettes, and even crepes being prepared and served on-site.
“Someone ran off with our life-sized Bardot placard early on, teaching me the valuable lesson of never leaving the best art near the door,” Strachota says. “There was a pretty funny juxtaposition at an early Cocodrie party when we were on right after an all-ages afternoon death metal show. We used to have actual paid go-go dancers — one French lady who would sing along, another who'd discovered us after her Lusty Lady shift was over.”
Bardot A Go Go is no longer a weekly party, and eventually scaled back to just doing Bastille Day, and birthday party events for Bardot, Gainsbourg, and Francoise Hardy. Now it’s just the Bastille Day event, as Strachota says that “doing it only once a year makes it especially special.”
Bardot A Go Go’s 25th Annual Bastille Day Party is Saturday, July 13 at 9 pm at the Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell Street). $10, Tickets here
Related: SFist Asks a French Expatriate What France Does for Bastille Day? [SFist]
Image via Bardot A Go Go
