Day of the Dead - Follow up

The day of the dead was absolutely awesome. I was part of a group that spent the entire time playing drums and singing. It was an incredible night of music, wonderful percussionists and singers.

Thanks everyone that came out. You're what makes this one of the best events of the year!

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.

Day of the Dead - San Francisco - Monday Nov. 2nd, 2009

The Day of the Dead is coming next Monday, Nov. 2nd.

This is a fantastic event. They have a very nice parade with numerous contingents of percussion players, people with candles, dressing up as the dead and honoring them with this parade. At the end of the parade Garfield Park is set up with a lot of alters and the various musicians gather in different areas to entertain everyone.

From the San Francisco Day of the Dead offical web site.

"Please join us for the annual procession lead by Rescue Culture Collective on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 7pm at 24th & Bryant Streets, in the Mission District of San Francisco.

The procession will end in Garfield Park at the Festival of Altars at 8:30pm at 26th & Harrison Streets."

Hope to see lots of people out there, it's a fantastic event that I try to attend every opportunity possible.