Things remain in the planning and approval stages, but there is an effort afoot to move the monthly Castro Night Market to Halloween night this October, which would allow the already sanctioned market to expand a bit and become the neighborhood's first official outdoor Halloween celebration in nearly 20 years.
Not since 2006, when a tragic shooting occurred toward the end of the celebration, has there been a big Halloween block party in the Castro neighborhood with closed streets. The last couple of years have seen some subdued attempts at celebration involving indoor events and "activations," but the city has been wary of bringing back the multi-block parties of yore, given the violence of the past. (Similar shooting events shut down the Pride Weekend Pink Saturday parties a few years after the Halloween events stopped.)
But now that the city regularly sees big, crowded night markets in multiple neighborhoods, none of which have attracted the ne'er-do-well elements who spoiled the party in the Castro, maybe the time has come for Castro Halloween to make a real comeback.
That's the hope of the Castro Merchants group, anyway, as President Nate Bourg announced in a July 31 email blast. While the Castro Night Market is scheduled to go on as planned on the third Friday of the month in August and September, the October event is being tenatively moved to October 31, which is a Friday.
"Expect a spectacularly spooky Castro Night Market, and rest assured we’re working closely with partners to ensure it’s festive, safe, and seamless," Bourg wrote.
Today, the Chronicle reports that the plan is moving forward, though permitting is still being worked on. This special Halloween event would reportedly include live entertainment stages, in addition to the vendors and food trucks and Walgreens parking lot dance area.
The night markets to date have featured limited street closures on a couple of blocks of 18th Street on either side of Castro Street, but no closure of Castro Street as used to occur during the Halloween festivities of decades past. A spokesperson for the Castro Merchants tells the Chronicle that, pending permitting approvals, the hope would be to expand the footprint somewhat along 18th.
The Castro's first night market happened last October, following the success of night markets in the Sunset and Chinatown.
The Civic Joy Fund, led in part by Manny's cafe owner Manny Yekutiel, has spearheaded the last two years of Halloween festivities in the Castro, which have been small and not hugely attended — though movie screenings and a costume contest at the Castro Theatre in 2023 drew several hundred people.
Top image: An undated photo from Halloween in the Castro. Photo by Frederic Neema/Sygma via Getty Images
