Downtown Hoedown brings country fans to Financial District

By Astrid KanePublished May 02, 2025 • 12:59pm

At San Francisco’s first-ever Downtown Hoedown on Thursday evening, denim-clad wannabe cowboys and cowgirls hooted and hollered as they rode the mechanical bull. Most fell on their butts after about 30 seconds and got up grinning. Yeehaw!

Country had come to the Financial District. A spinoff of Downtown First Thursdays, the hoedown took place in the year-old alcohol-friendly Front Street Entertainment Zone, a centerpiece of the city’s efforts to breathe new life into the Financial District.

Local LGBTQ+ nightlife fixture Wild West hosted the event, bringing the giant fiberglass “disco bison” that propelled him to victory at the annual Hunky Jesus contest on Easter in Dolores Park.

A person in a white outfit with fringe and a cowboy hat stands confidently in front of a shiny, mirrored bison statue, on a bed of hay.

A person wearing a black hat and red outfit holds a toy horse on a stick, gazing upwards. They stand in an urban area with tall buildings around.

“San Francisco got the message: Country is cool again,” West said in his pronounced Tennessee drawl.

As patrons walked out of Harrington’s Bar & Grill to play a game of horseshoes with $17 “Modeloritas” in hand, musicians Jose Canchola and Sofia Claire performed alt-country sets interspersed with drag performances by Curveball and Mahlae Balenciaga. A number of contestants entered the cowboy hat contest, and Harrington’s co-owner Lucia Camarda won it with a boost from her cowboy boot earrings. (She’d bought the hat earlier in the day at Polk Street thrift shop Out of the Closet.)

“We know there’s a gigantic country-western, bluegrass element in San Francisco that is just dying for options,” said Harrington’s co-owner Ben Bleiman, dressed for the occasion in a Stetson, leather vest, and bolo tie.

Three people are leaning over a wooden railing decorated with small flowers. They wear hats and bandanas, smiling confidently in the sunlight.

A man in a cowboy hat and sleeveless vest stands in an alley. He wears jeans and boots, with signs displaying beer, wine, and cocktail options in the background.

A person in a cowboy hat and white tank top stands confidently, with tattoos visible on their arms. They hold the hat brim, wearing jeans and ornate jewelry.

These days, country is definitely cool — a cultural shift that last year’s country-heavy Outside Lands lineup proved. And yet the crowd at the inaugural hoedown was notably smaller than at other First Thursday events, which have at times been visited by tens of thousands. Manny Yekutiel of the Civic Joy Fund, which co-produced the event with Katy Birnbaum of cultural production studio Into the Streets, said 8,000 people had registered to attend.

The drop in expected attendance was likely due to the fact that the hoedown was happening six blocks from the Downtown First Thursdays’ main event. Several hoedown attendees told The Standard they’d gone to the other event first by mistake. More than one assumed both events were the same.

Alexa Treviño for the Standard

A man in a cowboy hat plays an electric guitar on an outdoor stage, while a woman sings beside him. They are in front of a brick building with large windows.

A person wearing a cowboy hat rides a mechanical bull in an urban setting, surrounded by tall buildings. They appear to be waving with one hand.

Five more hoedowns are planned for the next five months. The broader First Thursdays project is set to expand further, with events like a symposium at Salesforce Park. Yekutiel and Birnbaum see this as part of a larger vision to turn every public space in and around downtown — from Front Street to the Ferry Building — into one big party. Preferably with lots of dancing.

Country music is “everybody’s music,” she said. Everybody gets to dance together.”