300,000 strong!

How crazy can any major city take Halloween? Well I have now seen the answer and it is amazing. 300,000 people showed up on Market street near the Castro for what became a massive block party. The police closed off all of market for roughly 8 city blocks and all of Castro street, another 4 blocks. In many ways the party was less crazy than Saturday and in other ways so much more so. On Saturday there was quite a bit more openness on the behalf of the gay community, and a general sense of open block party. Last night was more about being seen and more of a parade mentality. It was certainly crazy based on the sheer number of people, but less of a party than a bunch of people walking around looking at each other.

In terms of the costumes, there were certainly many creative costumes and there was more than a healthy share of the sexiest possible lingerie ever to be seen in public. With naughty nurses, maids, police officers, fire women, flight attendants, fairy tale characters all in attendance, not to mention a certain amount of ladies who just wanted to wear skimpy tight leather thongs. Keep in mind I am not complaining, however seeing Snow White in a mini-skirt with a thong and a low cut dress will I am sure give me nightmares. There was of course those that chose not to dress up but would rather just take pictures and ogle the ladies. There were the Japanese tourists with multiple cameras and then those individuals that frankly are simply identified as troublemaker gang members. The police presence was intense for this purpose but they certainly chose their fights carefully. Woman getting verbally harangued by drunk men certainly did not qualify, nor did the more than occasional slap or fell of the butt. I feel bad, on the other hand wearing a tiny thong and string bikini probably does open one up to a certain amount of at least verbal comments (not that I condone any of it!).

I did however see quite a few fights involving the police, but I fear that is to be expected with 300,000 people in a confined space. They did however do an excellent job of confining the fights and not letting it get out of control, at no time did I really feel unsafe. Unfortunately due to where I live, the sirens that were helping disband the crowd did keep me up until about 3am, but no complaints. It is part of living in the city and I love it.