Tag Archives: sf

Sep 17 2014

Economic Costs of Burning Man in SF

Fortune magazine has shared some data from local San Francisco merchants who use Square. It looks like Burning Man had a substantial negative impact on businesses in SOMA, the Mission, the Marina, Noe Valley, Haight Ashbury, and even The Tenderloin. The absence of Burners was good for business in Pac Heights, Richmond and the Outer Sunset.

From Fortune:

The annual desert celebration is an economic force, but that means something’s got to give elsewhere—namely, San Francisco…

Big events such as concerts, football games, and festivals typically bring a surge of economic activity around their venues. Burning Man, the annual art-nature-tech celebration that drew some 70,000 people to northern Nevada last month, is no different. How big is that impact? According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the festival last year brought $55 million to the local economy.

That surge in spending came at the expense of some other place, of course. “Burners” hail from all over the country and world, but San Francisco, where the festival was born, is home to the largest concentration. The city is famously empty during that week, and the pilgrimage to the “playa” affects some neighborhoods disproportionately.

Data from Square, the mobile credit card processing company, suggests merchants in the South of Market neighborhood saw as much as a 20% drop in business the week of Burning Man compared to a typical week. The Mission, Noe Valley, Castro, Haight Ashbury, and Cole Valley all saw drops of between 9% and 11%. Potrero Hill was not far behind, with a 7.8% drop. Bucking the trend, commerce was up sharply in the Richmond, a neighborhood popular with families, perhaps due to increased shopping during a the Labor Day weekend.

What do all the neighborhoods that saw drops have in common? They’re on the south side of the city and are home to the majority of tech workers in the Bay Area. No surprise there. Now if someone could only measure the drop in tech productivity that week. Lines of code not written? Deadlines blown?

Sep 3 2014

San Francisco Parties Into The Next Weekend

opulent temple 2014

Burning Man’s official Decompression is not until October 12, but for those who still have the beats of the Playa ringing in their ears and wish they were back there, there’s plenty of good stuff going on this weekend in San Francisco. Playawear is encouraged.

Got another Burner gig? Post it in the Comments.

 

Friday

Opulent Temple are off the Playa and straight back into it, bringing Stanton Warriors to Public Works this Friday night.

Friday, September 5th

Opulent Temple & Public Works presents ‘Dust Off’

While the playa glow is still fresh and because we’re gluttons for punishment, before we’ve even unpacked we’re getting back together to swap stories and smiles at Public Works with the kings of jack!

THE STANTON WARRIORS (stantonwarriors.com / UK)
+
SYD GRIS (Opulent Temple / Opel)
MATT KRAMER (Distrikt)
BILLY SEAL (Opulent Temple)
ELiKi (Opulent Temple)
TAMO (Space Cowboys / Angels of Bass) Vs
VIAJAY (Angels of Bass)
DJ DANE (Dusty Rhino)

& more TBA

Visuals by FulMelt

A 100% benefit to help OT get out of what is looking like some inevitable debt from this year’s (soon to be) epic camp.

Presale tickets available now HERE:
http://www.ticketfly.com/event/636547-stanton-warriors-uk-san-francisco/

If we get enough pre-sale we’ll look at adding a silent disco outside so commit early 😛

9:30pm-3:00am+,
Both floors of Public Works.
161 Erie St @ Mission.
21+

Dress funky!

Both the boyz are in town for this one (and neither are at Burning Man), and we’ll have OT residents and playa staples joining us to dust it up some more! Save some mojo, this party has always kinda totally rocked.

www.opulenttemple.org

Saturday

Space Cowboys will be rocking it at Monarch.

A Space Cowboy knows that reentry is always harder than takeoff. It’s all the work in reverse but minus the energy and enthusiasm. So coast into home with us at our Space Port of choice: Monarch. We’ll shake off the last of the dust and help spin new memories into epic legends as our DJs do their best to piece it all back together. You can wash those costumes next weekend, you won’t need um till Decom anyway.

8Ball
ShOOey
DJ Deckard
Kapt’n Kirk
Tamo
Special Guest tba

On Saturday September 6th, Mighty presents “DUST-BUSTER #6”, a Post-Playa bash featuring some of the most talented DJs representing Burning Man’s top sound camps. Open bar 9-10!

Syd Gris (Opulent Temple)
Anthony Mansfield (Disco Knights)
Ben Seagren DISTRIKT)
Josh Vincent (Heart Phoenix)
Alvaro Bravo (Dusty Rhino)
Derek Hena Pink Mammoth)

Photos and videos from this year’s Burning Man will be projected on the Mighty screens throughout the night, so if you had FOMO from not making it to the Playa, or want to relive the experience, come on in! Playawear encouraged, the dustier the better! Otherwise just come as you are.

 

FRI, SEP 5

to

SAT, SEP 6

STANTON WARRIORS (UK)

Syd Gris (Opel / Opulent Temple), Matt Kramer (Distrikt), Billy Seal (Opulent Temple), DJ Brian Williams (Opulent Temple), Tamo (Space Cowboys), DJ Dane (Dusty Rhino)

Public Works

161 Erie Street
San Francisco, CA, 94103

 

Doors 9:00 PM

This event is 21 and over

STANTON WARRIORS (UK)

Stanton Warriors (UK)

Since bursting onto the scene with their multi award-winning compilation “The Stanton Sessions” back in 2001, the Stanton Warriors’ irresistible and inimitable sound has consistently remained the soundtrack to some of the world’s biggest and best parties over the past thirteen years; from East London warehouses, Miami boat parties and illegal Detroit raves, to the stages of Glastonbury, Exit, Burning Man, Ultra and Coachella, selling out global tours and topping DJ lists along the way.

In the studio, Bristol’s Mark Yardley and Dominic Butler have honed a trademark, uncategorisable sound that is at once all their own, but also utterly indefinable, leading to high-profile releases on XL Records, Fabric, Cheap Thrills, Central Station and Universal, alongside official remixes for everyone from Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim, to MIA and Gorillaz. This phenomenal output and remarkable longevity has ensured the Stanton Warriors legendary status amongst not only their fans, but also their peers, as they remain fresh, original and relevant; obstinately dancing to beat of their own drum and helping to pave the way for new talent.

In 2013 alone, the Stanton Warriors topped the Beatport charts (again), inspired Disclosure’s Grammy-nominated album Settle, got Annie Mac dancing on her living room carpet, opened London’s 3k capacity Building Six club, saw their podcast shoot to No. 3 in the iTunes chart and smashed the stages of Coachella, Ultra and Glastonbury.

In 2014, the Stanton Warriors typically show no sign of slowing down, with sold-out Stanton Sessions tours across the USA and UK, collaborations with Claude Von Stroke’s Dirtybird-signed Cause & Affect, a re-release of their smash Bring Me Down, main stage slots at London’s SW4 and Miami’s Ultra festivals and a slew of exciting releases on their own tastemaker label Punks.

“Stanton Warriors’ Bring Me Down is pretty much the perfect garage beat. Everything about that song – the vocal line, the chords, the melody – is totally original.” DISCLOSURE

“Oh my Gosh, SO good! This is the kind of music that makes you literally want to go mental on the nearest dancefloor. As tried and tested on my living room carpet!” ANNIE MAC, BBC RADIO 1

“Stanton Warriors make bass music; intentionally vague, un-pigeonholeable, brilliant bass music.” NOISEY, VICE

“Their relevance and influence has grown with every year and their Stanton Sessions parties simply reaffirm their position atop the pedestal.” MTV

“Stanton Warriors always deliver, this latest track just takes it to a whole other level.” ZANE LOWE, BBC RADIO 1

 

Aug 31 2014

San Francisco Breathes Sigh of Relief: NYT

The New York Times feels its readers need to be informed about how San Francisco is for a week without Burners. Mellower and more peaceful, it seems.

SAN FRANCISCO — As the annual Burning Man festival wrapped up over the holiday weekend, thousands of weary festivalgoers were somewhere in Nevada packing up yurts, washing off body paint and dreading their eventual re-entry to the real world. Here, particularly in the city’s rapidly gentrifying Mission District, their neighbors were dreading something else: the moment the “Burners” come home.

Pride festival, 2012

Pride festival, 2012

Over the last few years, Burning Man — the mass camping trip/rave that participants have deemed indescribable to anyone who hasn’t attended –- has become a veritable staycation for San Franciscans who don’t attend. They say restaurants have more tables, parking spots are plentiful and yoga classes are extra chill.

…”I have no scientific proof that reservations go down, but it’s pop wisdom in San Francisco that anything is easier this week: The bars are less crowded, it’s easier to park.”

Sadly, it’s not clear if there actually is scientific proof to support the Burning Man exodus. The event is big –- it has attracted as many as 70,000 people –- but even if half of those came from San Francisco (which seems unlikely), that would be a tiny portion of the city’s 837,000 residents.

At The New York Times’s request, data scientists from the reservation service OpenTable played with reams of San Francisco reservation data to see if there was a Burning Man lull, but couldn’t find much.

But people in the Mission swear their neighborhood cleared out for the week. The Mission is heavily populated with young tech workers. On weekday mornings, fleets of private tech buses makes non-tech residents feel as if they live next to a high-end Greyhound station.

“Last night I drove down Valencia and did not have any bikers almost side swipe the car as they tried to own the road. After, we dropped into a restaurant…and got a seat. This morning, I made it across the city in half the time as usual. It just seems mellower and more peaceful in this city; it seems like it used to in the olden days. Thank you Burning Man, for giving me this week to enjoy the city I fell in love with decades ago.”

…“With Burning Man we kind of see a mass exodus of a lot of regulars from the Mission area and we’ll get a little bit of a lull, but then all of a sudden we have these people we’ve never seen. Almost half the business we’ve had this week are people who have never been in before,” said Adam Dulye, the chef/owner of the Monk’s Kettle and the nearby Abbot’s Cellar. “People will walk into the bar and order a martini or a Manhattan and it’s like ‘Uhh, we have beer.’”

… “We should do like a Burning Man beer that’s not at Burning Man, just to drive business. ‘Didn’t go to Burning Man? Come get this beer.’”

Read the full story here.

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