A first-ever Castro Night Market will be happening on Friday, October 18, following the success of recent neighborhood night markets in Chinatown and the Sunset.

Night markets have been a component of San Francisco's strategy for reviving the energy of the city's streets, especially downtown, since the pandemic. A night market helped kick off the city's Vacant to Vibrant program last fall, and subsequently there have been very well-attended night markets in Chinatown, the Inner Sunset, and there was one last Saturday near Taraval on the Great Highway.

The Castro Night Market is the work of the Castro Merchants Association with help from the Civic Joy Fund, which earlier told the Bay Area Reporter that the group is "trying to make San Francisco the night market city."

Planning for this first event, which will happen on 18th Street between Hartford and Collingwood streets, on Friday, October 18, was a primary topic of discussion earlier this month at the Castro Merchants Association meeting, as the BAR reported. The event will happen from 5 pm to 9 pm, and Castro Street will remain open for traffic.

The night market will close down 18th Street, however, between Hartford and Castro, and between Castro and Collingwood.

It's unclear what the mix of vendors will be, but expect to see a number of food vendors from the neighborhood as well as food trucks and retail vendors.

"This is all about getting the merchants involved and getting people out into the neighborhood," said organizer and CG Events co-founder Chris Carrington at the meeting. "We want to see vendors who are already in neighborhood life. We want as many people involved from the Castro as possible — merchants members will have priority in the market."

Interested vendors and entertainers can inquire about booth pricing, etc., via the website.

CG Events is also the organizer behind the family-friendly, Noe Street Halloween Block Party, which is happening during the day on Sunday, October 27 as it has the past few Halloweens. It's not clear whether the Civic Joy Fund will be repeating its own nighttime Halloween activation in the Castro, as it did last year on Halloween night.

With the Sunset Night Markets drawing an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people, this could potentially be the largest permitted nighttime gathering in the Castro since the demise of Pink Saturday and the erstwhile Halloween parties in the neighborhood.

The Castro Night Market will be occurring two weeks after the Castro Street Fair, which is having its 50th anniversary edition on Sunday, October 6.

Photo: Maria Jesus Erraruiz