Due to complaints about all the drunken mayhem often associated with the fair, fair organizers had hoped to make the neighbors happy by installing beer gardens where drinking would be allowed. It didn't work out. Fair organizers tried to spin it as a decision based on it being the Haight, man. Said Robert Leon, the fair’s executive director:

" We have always prided ourselves in producing a street fair that celebrates the free spirit of the community. Restricting free movement … and compromising the personal decisions of our attendees are contrary to the nature of this community celebration."

More likely, however, fair organizers realized they couldn't afford it and that probably had more to do with it than trying to recreate the Summer of Love except with Budweiser instead of drugs and garlic frees instead of veggie organic burritos.

What all of this means is that if you want to drink at the fair, try and find somebody who lives near the Haight and try and talk them into throwing a party.

Picture from the Examiner