The night markets that have been such a hit in the Sunset, Castro, and Chinatown are now coming to Valencia Street, with a new series of monthly “second Thursday” parties where bars will be able to sell to-go cocktails.

Valencia Street is no stranger to having car-free parties where people revel in the streets, particularly because of the car-free weekend parties the street was having through some of the more difficult periods of the pandemic. And since boozy “entertainment zone” parties and night markets are all the rage in San Francisco right now, Valencia Street merchants and organizers are planning to combine the two concepts.

Mission Local reports that Valencia Street is getting a once-a-month night market starting in May, but this one will be jazzed up with the entertainment zone privileges where bars can sell to-go alcoholic beverages, and revelers can wander the streets with those high-octane drinks.

This is apparently a done deal and has all of its approvals, as the night markets called “Valencia LIVE!” are already being promoted as happening on the second Thursday of each month between May and October of 2025. (The first of these will be Thursday, May 8). Valencia Street will be shut down to cars between 16th and 19th streets from 5-10 pm on those second Thursdays, and there is much additional revelry and other boozy plans for the three blocks.

“Foot traffic has drastically reduced in recent years,” Manny’s owner Manny Yekutiel told Mission Local. (His Civic Joy Fund is co-organizing this night market along with the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association, Mission Merchants Association, and Into the Streets). "We need to come up with a way to bring people back."

There will apparently be three stages, one on each closed block: one being run by the bar Blondie’s, another one Carnaval-themed, plus an “indigenous artisans’ market,” likely in the lot at 18th  and Mission.

This comes on the heels of to-go cocktail serving new entertainment zones on Front Street, near the Chase Center, and in Cole Valley. The Castro and Union Street are also pursuing their own entertainment zone plans for those street-fair occasions when streets are closed to cars for permitted events.

Related: Supervisor Sherrill Proposes Another Boozy ‘Entertainment Zone,’ This Time on Union Street [SFist]

Image: Shane S. via Yelp