On Sunday, SoMa's Dore Alley turned up the heat for their annual sex fetish festival, the Up Your Alley Fair. Described as a smaller Folsom Street Fair, but for adults (let's face it, the Folsom Street Fair, while still loads of summertime fun, sees more baby strollers and feather boas than it does chaps and poppers), attendees drank beer, met other like-minded folks with similar fetishes, and even played a game of semi-naked Twister... more ›

Sunday was the annual How Weird Street Faire, which took place on Howard Street (get it?), and it was just as colorful and lively as ever. Although no one showed up wearing a new Hermes suit with a sharp updo - which would have been truly weird, at least for this raucous crowd - a good time, it seems, was had by all. more ›

As noted in SFist This Weekend, the How Weird Street Faire, which is Bollywood themed this year, is happening on Sunday afternoon. Apparently, the fair organizers are gunning to win the record for the World's Largest Bollywood Dance. The current record is "under 1,111" participants, and the fair is expected to have ten times that amount in attendance this year. more ›

Although we have yet to confirm this, Oakland is not just a city full of crime, poverty, and unbearable heat. Oakland is, in fact, a lot of fun. Or so we're told. You see, over in the Uptown District -- "Oakland’s burgeoning downtown arts and entertainment scene" -- the city presented a free arts festival on Thursday. It featured local music, art exhibits, vendors, and tours of the renovated Fox and the Paramount theaters. And, damnit all to heck if it didn't like more fun than any (increasingly oppressive) street festival in San Francisco. more ›

On Sunday, the annual How Weird Street Fair took place on Howard Street (get it?), with many residents showing up for the organized fun festivities wearing very bright colors. Described as a way to "rewire our way of thinking towards peace, by rebooting the motherboard," the zany fair was filled with Burners, furries, transgressive types, self-described weirdos, and other people who had bad experiences with "organized religion" and/or mean parents who believed in some sort of structure. more ›

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OMFG there totally just a street fair in the Haight! Did you know it was coming? Muni apparently did not, as the bus arrangement were decidedly last-minute. (Either that, or Muni simply didn't care/wasn't capable of doing any better ... but that couldn't be the case, could it?) Check out the above video of the 33, taken in the evening when things were winding down. A couple things of note: more ›

May's Asian-American Heritage Month, so of course there's an accompanying street fair to emphasize the fun! Stop by Howard Street between 5th and 7th any time between 11 a.m. and 6 for food, music, community awareness booths, and fun across all the Asian ethnic groups. more ›

Looks like the Haight Street Fair is going to be a booze-free event as negotiations to try and reach some sort of happy medium between fair organizers and whiny neighbors didn't pan out. more ›

You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. more ›

With the sun finally appearing, it's time to think about our favorite springtime city activities. Like street fairs. Our favorite street fair? The North Beach Festival. Nothing we love more than hanging out in Washington Square Park, downing some brews, then drunkenly stumbling into the maelstrom for more food, booze, and White Boy Blues. Man, what fun. Oh wait, there's going to be no booze allowed this year? Nevermind. more ›

Boy, have we got some bad Cow Hollow ideas for you! Have you guys been following the whole "turning Fillmore Street into a ski slope" thing? So Icer Event Management has decided to shave enough ice (12,000 cubic feet of it) on Aug 27 to turn Fillmore Street from Broadway to Green Street (and Vallejo from Steiner and Webster) into ski jumps. (A 14 foot lane will be left open for emergency vehicles and for people who live there to get home.) This is all for Jonny Mosely's 30th birthday, and to film footage for a video game. Hilarious! But wait -- it gets even better! Wait until you hear how everyone's reacting! There's a Hindu temple on that stretch of Fillmore -- and right outside their meditation room, the event planners are setting up the apres-ski lounge, sponsored by Otis. What's more: the monks don't drink. The Pac Heights neighborhood association isn't very happy either, especially because the weekend right after the skiing one, the Grand Prix is coming into town next. "People are incredibly disrespectful of private property at these events. It's a real intrusion. We view this in the same class as street fairs," fumes the neighborhood associate president. (Aw, come on, everyone loves a street fair!) They've tried protesting to (hottest supervisor") Michela Alioto-Pier, but she's told them there's nothing she can do, because the ski people have already gotten all the necessary permits. The ski people are slightly confused by the reaction. "We really, really do not want to upset the neighborhood," the organizer told the Chron. "This thing is going to be done well and in a first-class way." And -- here's our absolute favorite part -- "We want to show San Francisco as an exciting place to visit, as opposed to a place with a lot of homeless." What goes on up there North of Market??? more ›

Well, if you're at all gay (and we all are, at least a little, according to that big queen Kinsey) then you have absolutely no excuse to be bored this weekend. SFist urges you to go forth and make out with strangers! And remember, don't forget to , by which, of course, we mean to let them revel in God's creation of rainbow hotpants and house music, too! more ›

If you aren't checking out Frameline, seeing some music (Stern Grove on Sunday!) or peeing your pants at the Purple Onion, how about... more ›

Thanks to Friend of SFist Min Jung Kim (who wrote an awesome essay on blogging recently), we had ringside seats for the Carnaval Parade. We gorged ourselves on photographs, and even busted out the cellphone to record some of the great bands. There were representatives from, oh, five or six continents on hand, all tied together by a spirit of celebration. The nearly nude (and in one case completely nude save for some creative work with acrylic paints) dancers certainly didn't hurt. That said, this was actually the least nudity we'd ever seen at a San Francisco street fair of this magnitude. But Frank Chu was there, so you know it was hott. more ›

Hey photobloggers! Since you're bringing the digital camera downtown on Saturday anyways, don't forget to stop by and get some shots of the Chinese New Year Parade too! The parade starts at 5:30 at Second and Market, rain or shine, and goes until about 8. Lots of cute kids dressed up as emperors, dancing lions, the Centipede-like multi-man 201-foot dragon, and Miss Chinatown 2005 -- plenty of good material for your flickr account! They recommend getting to Chinatown no later than 5, but you can check out the street fair if you're there early. And just a friendly plug: we here at SFist love to show your work -- thanks again to Lackadaisical for the great shots of the Chinese Moon Festival he let us use last year -- so we welcome any and all pictures you want to send from your day! more ›