The How Weird Street Faire, the West Coast’s longest–running electronic music street festival, will not return in 2025, organizers announced Wednesday.
Rising production costs and financial risk have ended the downtown festival’s 25-year run, according to founder Brad Olsen.
“We created one of the most anticipated and beloved street fairs in San Francisco, but the personal financial risk going forward does not pencil out,” Olsen said in a statement.
Like other high-profile events in the city, including the Bay to Breakers race and Folsom Street Fair, How Weird has been a major draw for attendees in audacious attire.
The festival began in 2000 as a small block party at Howard and 12th streets, charging a $2 suggested donation for costumed attendees. It later moved to Howard and Second streets as attendance grew. “How Weird” is a riff on the connection to Howard Street.
How Weird’s demise was precipitated by a pandemic-related cancellation in 2020 and a freak rainstorm in May 2024 that forced the first-ever rescheduling of the annual event. Both setbacks cost organizers thousands of dollars; a virtual 2020 event lost about $10,000, Olsen estimated.
“There was our rainy-day fun!” Olsen told The Standard in an interview Thursday. “We actually had, pre-Covid, close to a quarter-million dollars saved up for such events, and they both came within five years.”
Some people have complained on social media that they did not get refunds for the postponed 2024 event, though Olsen said tickets for the original May date were honored when the fair was held in September, and there were opportunities for customers to get their money back.
Olsen and co-founder Michael O’Rourke, who both live outside of California, were rejected on applications for Covid relief funds and arts-related grants. That, combined with a scarcity of sponsors who fit with the event’s values, left them with no way to continue, Olsen said.
Public interest in How Weird remained high through this year. The September event drew thousands of costumed revelers, but Olsen said producing independent outdoor events without sponsorship or grants has become too risky.
“The people that came our events, they really make the fair. All the costumes, people bringing out bubble machines and doing little side shows on their own. We had the art alley for many, many years just showcasing the different sides of San Francisco, the different colors, flavors, and costumes that people would come out,” he said. “It’s just always amazed me.”
He expressed hope that a production company with more resources might take over the festival while “keeping it weird.”
Olsen was amused this year when vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz popularized “weird” as an insult to Republicans.
“For us, it’s always been a positive word. In San Francisco, everybody’s a little bit different, right?” Olsen said. “We all should celebrate the differences among us that are really a positive rather than a negative.”
