SAN FRANCISCO – Saturday night’s sold-out concert and rave at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, featuring Fred Again and Skrillex, drew 25,000 attendees, meaning many area businesses got a welcome boost.
That includes nearby liquor stores and a donut shop, where employees told CBS Bay Area they saw a steady stream of customers.
That did not include Gyro King, according to Umit Senar, who operates the Mediterranean restaurant with his wife. It is located on Grove Street, about a block from Civic Center Plaza.
Senar said fencing had been installed on the sidewalks and around the streets, allowing only one entrance to his restaurant from the corner of Hyde and Market streets.
“When you expect more customers and you don’t get them anymore, it’s a little heartbreaking for us,” Senar said. “It’s really bad to see people passing by and no one comes in.”
Senar said he had brought in more chefs and prepared enough food “for at least thousands.” He also said he had 30 to 40 more customers than usual, but this fell well short of his expectations.
“I would ask the city to take (all) businesses into consideration,” he said. “Give us some help.”
What happened to Gyro King “was an outlier,” said Mary Conde, the senior vice president of Another Planet Entertainment (APE), the concert production company that staged the show.
“We worked very sincerely to ensure that the neighboring businesses could benefit from this coming to the neighborhood,” Conde said. “We had a fencing plan in place and it was reviewed by the city and we are working closely with them. We made sure that access remained open to all adjacent businesses.”
Conde mentioned nearby taco stands and liquor stores that had “lines out the door.”
“It was great to walk out after the show and see so many people walking around downtown San Francisco and having even more fun,” she said.
Conde also addressed the 10 p.m. curfew, when the music stopped during Saturday night’s show, according to several concertgoers.
“We worked very closely with the team at Fred Again and Skrillex and they understood what an honor it was to be in the middle of San Francisco. They had no problem with the 10 p.m. curfew,” Conde said. “It was like, ‘Hey, we’re here. We’re happy to be here and we’re happy to adhere to the 10 o’clock curfew.’
Mayor London Breed said in a statement that APE “did a great job organizing this event and bringing these artists to our city,” adding that the city was thrilled to partner with APE on the event.
“The ability to work with private partners like APE further demonstrates that San Francisco knows how to deliver major events that are well-organized, safe and fun,” Breed also said.
