San Francisco Halloween 2009

Like many people I used to love going to the Castro for Halloween. My friends and I would go in costume and take a few drums and percussion instruments. We would set up somewhere and spend the entire evening playing music. We'd have 200+ people all dancing and enjoying the music - a sea of beautiful faces.

The last time I went there we were having a fantastic time as usual. Then I went to the bathroom and saw no less then 3 fights break out while walking less then half a block. It was quite obvious the event wouldn't be happening too much longer with this much mayhem. The next day I read that somewhere around 20-30 people were hospitalized.

It's no surprise they've announced they won't be having any big Halloween event at all in the city this year. Read about the death of San Francisco Halloween on the SF Weekly blog.

"City officials have announced that, come Oct. 31, there will be no large-scale organized parties on All Hallow's Eve -- neither the famed Castro District street happening nor anything along the lines of last year's poorly attended, tightly supervised AT&T Park re-enactment of lame High School dances. This Halloween, you're on your own."

Check out SF Station's Halloween 2009 San Francisco guide if you're looking for something to do this year.