Sideshows, the dangerous, impromptu car-spinning gatherings that were once the purview of East Bay communities alone, have been moving across the bridge in the last couple of years, especially on warm weekends.

Still, the San Francisco sideshows we've seen have stuck mostly to areas near the freeways, with a few exceptions — like that one that popped up at Market and Castro last March.

Never in SFist's memory has there been a sideshow all the way on the west side of town, but that changed on Saturday night — technically 12:45 am Sunday — when a sideshow took shape at the intersection of 42nd Avenue and Lawton Street, in the typically quiet Outer Sunset. As KTVU reports, neighbors in the area were "startled" by the sound of screeching tires after many of them were likely asleep in bed, and to some, the entire concept of a sideshow was likely brand new.

Neighbor Abe Lee was one of those who sounds like he's never watched the local news, read a local publication on the internet, or even seen a sideshow on video.

"I'm truly shocked no one got killed because they were literally jumping in front of the cars as the cars were doing their donuts," Lee tells KTVU. "So, I'm shocked and amazed that it exists at all."

The video above shows the intersection well streaked with burnt-rubber donuts, and neighbors tell KTVU that the sideshow lasted about 20 minutes before SFPD officers arrived and broke it up. Lee tells the station he's "kind of surprised how long it took for them to get out here."

Of course, sideshows aren't much of a high priority for police, though they occasionally make a show of making arrests or car seizures, either on the scene or after the fact. And, reportedly, the SFPD was busy Saturday night with other emergencies.

After a sideshow took up an intersection on busy Van Ness Avenue last June, and then another roving sideshow ended with a car in flames on the Embarcadero the following weekend, the SFPD tracked down and impounded several vehicles a couple months later.

But the sideshows still crop up all over, and the season for them has only just begun. Roving sideshows that began on one or the other side of the Bay managed to block the eastbound lanes of the Bay Bridge on at least four occasions in the last year, including once in February. One massive sideshow on the bridge in September 2024 involving around 100 vehicles led to the CHP seizing 16 vehicles after the fact based on surveillance video.

Supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents SF's Sunset District, expressed his alarm about Saturday night's event, joining the chorus of city leaders around the Bay calling for stricter law enforcement, or at least some of those "donut speed bumps" that have been installed in certain intersections known for attracting sideshows. (But unless you install them in every intersection, the sideshow organizers will probably manage to just find a new intersection to spin donuts in.)

Speaking to KTVU, Engardio calls the sideshow activity "Unacceptable behavior," and says, "It endangers lives, it upset the residents and pets, and it makes the city come and clean up the streets. So, it's just unacceptable and we can't have this in the Sunset or San Francisco."

Previously: Supervisor Sauter Has Had It With These Dirt Bike Gangs, Looks to Beef Up Enforcement Laws