The annual Goat Festival thrown by Ferry Plaza farmers' market organizers CUESA became the stuff of viral sharing insanity this year, and what's typically a very small event geared at kids now sounds likely to draw thousands of extra hipsters and other goat enthusiasts.
It was seriously trending over the past few weeks, and the hashtag #Goatchella has been as well. To be clear: No one at CUESA has ever suggested this event was called Goatchella. But yes, this is the second weekend of Coachella. The madness may have begun after The Bold Italic posted this way back on March 31.
The facts of the matter: From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, during the farmers' market, there will be a small goat petting zoo over near the Sur La Table entrance on the south driveway of the Ferry Building "with adorable baby goats from the San Francisco School and Toluma Farms." The original invitation specifically says "bring the kids" for this part, but now that 17,000 people have RSVP'd to the Facebook invite, you can expect the line to pet the goats will include many, many adults.
There's also a ticketed goat cheese tasting class, which obviously you won't be going to because it's long-ago sold out.
And, in stark contrast to the petting of adorable baby goats, there will then be a goat cooking demo at noon. But they do note that "no goats will be harmed" at the festival.
Here's the official event page. CUESA's Marcy Coburn tells Hoodline, "We were are surprised as everyone else that pretty much overnight, [the Facebook RSVPs] went from 100 people who had joined the group to over 2,000." She adds, "We put out a call for people to BYOG bring your own goat because we thought we wouldn’t have enough goats."
Saturday attendance at the Ferry Building farmers' market around this time of year can top 10,000 even without a goat festival going on, so it's highly likely to be a shitshow down there. Coburn says she "hopes" that all 17,000 people don't actually show up to try to pet the goats. But they might.