San Francisco’s efforts to energize the city’s downtown neighborhoods continue Friday with the first Front Street entertainment zone event and a free concert in Civic Center Plaza.
The Oktoberfest celebration that kicks off Friday afternoon on Front Street marks the inaugural event for the city’s first entertainment zone in the Financial District that Mayor London Breed and city officials first proposed back in May.
California Senate Bill 76, which went into effect in January, allows cities and counties to authorize consumption of alcoholic beverages on public streets, sidewalks, or public rights-of-way during special events.
The entertainment zone will allow people to enjoy and carry their beer and drinks to-go within the designated area on Front Street between California and Sacramento Streets during the event. City officials announced the Oktoberfest event earlier this month.
The free event will showcase three Front Street businesses, German beer hall Schroeder’s, Harrington’s Bar and Grill, and Royal Exchange. Each will be able to sell alcohol to go as attendees enjoy the festivities. The Oktoberfest celebration will include live music, axe throwing by Split the Wood and a “pretzel” toss as well as “beer hall” games such as stein holding and beer chugging (with non-alcoholic beer) and other activities. The party commences at 2 p.m. and will run until 10 p.m.
The free concert at the Civic Center Plaza will be headlined by popular indie-rock band Portugal. The Man. Originally formed in Alaska two decades ago, the now Portland, OR-based group has risen to become one of the most popular American rock bands and a featured act at music festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and Outside Lands and BottleRock Napa Valley in the Bay Area.
The group scored a massive critical and commercial success with their platinum-selling 2017 album Woodstock with the ubiquitous hit song “Feel It Still.” Most recently released its latest effort Chris Black Changed My Life last year. Also performing will be horn-powered, Philadelphia funk-rock outfit SNACKTIME and San Francisco club institution DJ Omar (Popscene, Leisure). While the concert is free, attendees are required to RSVP via the Another Planet Entertainment website.
The concert is the latest of several free events being presented by concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment as part of the agreement city officials came to with the promoter. The agreement gave the promoter permission to hold additional ticketed concerts in Golden Gate Park using the main Lands End stage and other festival infrastructure set up for the Outside Lands festival in early August.
The agreement was approved a year ago by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and allowed for the additional Golden Gate Park concert headlined by System of a Down and Deftones last month that sold out in under two hours.
Back in July, Another Planet presented a free daytime rave with EDM collective Dirtybird at the Embarcadero. The promoter also held a surprise outdoor rave that took over Civic Center Plaza in early June featuring Fred Again and Skrillex. That paid event drew tens of thousands of people to the Civic Center, leading to increased foot traffic for some area businesses and a few complaints from some locals.
San Francisco has hosted a flurry of free live concerts this summer as part of the city’s SF Live program. The concerts have included performances at McLaren Park, the Golden Gate Park Bandshell, and China Basin Park. The events continue into next month with additional concerts announced in recent days including a Union Square electronic dance party with Goldfish, Mykki Blanco and Bag Raiders on Saturday and an international psychedelic rock blowout with Babe Rainbow, LA LOM, Minami Deutsch, Boogarins and Thee Heart Tones on Oct. 12, another Golden Gate Park concert presented by Noise Pop featuring jazz/soul bassist Thundercat and R&B singer Lee Fields on Oct. 20 and a Halloween punk rock show presented by the Bottom of the Hill at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater with Die Spitz, Nobody’s Baby and more on Oct. 26.
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Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He began his role with CBS Bay Area in 2015.
