The Castro Theatre’s marquee and neon sign will be lit back up and fully restored next Wednesday night, as part of the Frameline Opening Night block party that will also feature a screening of the new Lil Nas X documentary, and you don’t even need tickets to this free community event.

It’s been years since all of the letters of the famed Castro Theatre neon sign and marquee have been lit up and fully functioning (and it didn’t help that some vandal climbed it and got naked in 2021). But the restoration of that giant vintage neon sign is part of Another Planet Entertainment’s Castro Theatre renovations, a renovation job that is expected to be completed sometime next year. And the neon sign has been concealed by scaffolding for months.

But what’s this? Apparently all of those letters were working and lit up the evening of June 3, in what appeared to be some sort of test run. And now Hoodline reports that the Castro Theatre neon sign will be fully restored and lit again next Wednesday, June 19, as part of the absolutely free Frameline Opening Night block party that will also feature a screening of the new documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.

Hoodline reported Monday that “At last week's Castro Merchants meeting, Frameline's David Warczak announced that the Castro Theatre sign and marquee will officially be turned back on for Frameline's kick-off on June 19.”

Hoodline adds that “Scaffolding around the Castro Theatre blade and marquee will come down on Wednesday” of this week.

The sign has not had all of the neon letters working at any point for the better part of the last ten years.

It will be a completely free and open to the public event to attend the block party next week, along with the official relighting of the Castro Theatre neon sign, and the outdoor screening the Ll Nas X documentary whose trailer is seen above. The pre-show starts at 7 pm. The film screening is scheduled for 8:20 pm, and according to Frameline, “There are no entrance gates and no tickets are required.”

Frameline adds that the pre-show will include “Drag performances from Reparations including, Nicki Jizz, Afrika America, and Mudd the Two Spirit, with live tunes from DJ Die Wies, festival remarks from Frameline and local community leaders. Plus, a surprise reveal presented by D’Arcy Drollinger!”

We have a pretty strong hunch that the “surprise reveal” will be the relighting of the Castro Theatre’s neon sign.

Related: Castro Theatre’s New Cocktail Bar Plans Coming Together, Supervisors OK Their Liquor License Request [SFist]

Image: Steven Bracco, Hoodline