A night market on Thursday night hosted by Sucka Flea, and a bunch of individual parties at the pop-up businesses in the program, are celebrating the launch of SF's Vacant to Vibrant program, with the hope of breathing some new life into downtown.
A pastry-themed drag show, an art show opening, a doughnut party, and a night market are all part of this week's launch of the Vacant to Vibrant program.
The program hopes to bring more foot traffic and, with it, vibrancy to the woefully empty downtown area, and it launched with both city and private funding in April. The city put out a request for applications, and in August we learned what the first round of 17 pop-ups would be. These include local radio station KALW, the Mission's Sucka Flea, Whack Donuts!, art curators GCS Agency, and two bakeries, Rosalind Bakery and Devil's Teeth Bakery.
Sucka Flea is hosting a night market Thursday starting at 6 p.m. outside their space at 332 Pine Street, along with two of the other program participants, Luminous Waveforms and The Mellow. There will be art, music, and vendors including Sazon Libre, Sheesh Records, Tasty Tings, Outta Sight Pizza, Jewels de la Soul, Lotta International, Jankzine, Swap Film, Beija Flor, Off Top, KPxSF, PillowfightSF, Sake One, Tigerbunny Studios, Mag Dre, and Yucci Outlet.
The success of that Sunset Night Market last month suggest there's an appetite for these things, and with today's super-warm weather, this thing could get busy! Get there early, but it runs until 10 p.m.
Also tonight, KALW is doing an opening celebration and art show at their space at 220 Montgomery Street.
Tomorrow, Friday, October 6, Whack Donuts! launches with a celebration starting 8 a.m., and contemporary African cuisine pop-up Teranga is doing a menu-tasting event starting at 4 p.m.
Then, at 7 p.m. Friday, there's a free "pastry-themed drag show" and party at Devil's Teeth Baking Company. They are opening a downtown pop-up at One Embarcadero Center (Suite R1113).
Also don't miss the opening celebration at Holy Stitch's new factory and school at 100 California Street, starting at 7:30 p.m.
And at 6 p.m., GCS Agency is hosting "Relish: SF Bay Area", a reunion of artists that they brought together for a group show in 2017, all displaying new work.
Check out all these and more upcoming Vacant to Vibrant events here, and there are regular operating hours for all the pop-ups at that link as well.
Previously: Meet the First 17 Pop-Ups That the City Will Pay to Live Rent-Free Downtown In Revitalization Effort