Event fee policy threatens How Weird and other festivals
The How Weird Street Faire has become a popular event, particularly with the Guardian staff, including (from left) Associate Art Director Ben Hopfer, Culture Editor Molly Freedenberg, City Editor Steven T. Jones, and Art Director Mirissa Neff.
By Steven T. Jones
The city’s budget crunch and stricter policies on making special events pay up front for all city services that they’re required to use are once again threatening the How Weird Street Faire, a popular dance festival now in its 10th year that seems to battle city bureaucracy every year. Now, the grassroots organizers are challenging policies that could leave San Francisco with only events sponsored by deep-pocketed corporations.
Organizers say they can’t come up with the almost $10,000 that the San Francisco Police Department is requiring them to pay up front, a tab needed to pay for cops that do little except stand around at an event that would rather be allowed to police itself. The May 10 event is scheduled to take place around Howard and 2nd streets after city officials made them move from their previous spot 10 blocks away.
“The SFPD is demanding we pay them nearly $10K up front for police services, which was not discussed at the ISCOTT [the city body that issues street closure permits] hearing and is twice the amount of 2007. We simply do not have the money for this and they are threatening now to not plan for our police services. I have a bad feeling they will not sign off on our ABC license [needed for beer sales],” lead organizer Brad Olsen recently wrote in an appeal to City Hall for help.
SFPD Lt. Nicole Greely told the Guardian that she’s simply following the city’s administrative code. “All the street faires are like this. All the events pay up front,” she said.
Actually, that isn’t totally true. Longstanding events such as the Haight-Ashbury Street Faire aren’t even required to pay for police officers assigned to the event, and the North Beach Faire only had to hire officers (known as 10B officers, which are the cops that promoters have to pay for) when they expanded into Washington Square Park, Greely said..
And the insistence on paying in advance is also fairly new. In previous years, How Weird organizers were allowed to pay their fees on the day of the event, which is when organizers take in most of their money. Because the event is on a public street, promoters can't sell pre-sales tickets and may only ask attendees for a donation at the gates ($5 in costume, $10 not, which gets you a sticker that discounts your drinks).
Greely said the SFPD has been having a hard time collecting from some events when they wait until after the fact, citing the Exotic Erotic Ball as a difficult case. “With these events, we don’t know who’s going to come,” she said, noting that flops can mean the city gets stiffed.
“It’s not a crackdown, but the city can’t pay for it anymore,” she said. “We can’t afford it.”
Olsen makes the same point, telling noting how their city fees have doubled in the last two years, and how last year they were hit with an unexpected additional police overtime charge after the event. “It just never ends with these guys,” he said in frustration. He said city policies could doom community-organized events like How Weird.
As the Guardian has reported regularly in recent years, escalating city fees, NIMBY party-poopers, and heightened concerns about public drinking and the assembly of large crowds have been threatening the existence of events that make San Francisco such a fun and vibrant city.
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Comments (1)
Damn!
I recall the first time I walked into the Guardian and saw the plethora of T&A and my first question to Redmond was: "Do you provide plastic surgery and implants with your employment plan?". He thought I was kidding.
Seriously, do a 'Girls and Guys at the Guardian' calendar shot by Luke Thomas and you'll clean up.
h.
Posted by h. brown | March 30, 2009 01:21 PM