The Mission District is the go-to for Día de los Muertos in San Francisco, but another neighborhood is throwing its hat in the ring.
The Tenderloin, which has one of the highest concentrations of Latinos in San Francisco, has its own Día de los Muertos block party this week with live music, Mexican luchadores, street altars, and more. It’s held on Saturday, so as not to conflict with the Mission’s bigger, and more well-known celebration on Sunday. (In Mexico, the celebration often spans both days).
From its origins over a decade ago as a tiny gathering hosted by a community resource center, the Tenderloin’s Day of the Dead now spans three city blocks of Golden Gate Avenue between Jones and Larkin streets, with one block dedicated to kids’ activities, another to a night market and a Lucha libre ring, and a third for musical and cultural acts.
The Tenderloin Community Benefit District, which has put on the event for the past five years, is eager to draw in visitors from outside the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of night markets everywhere, we want to show that the Tenderloin can actually host a night market as well,” said Cyntia Salazar of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.
Seven bands will perform on two stages, with Lucha Libre (theatrical Mexican wrestling) fights every hour, on the hour. At a community altar, visitors can place a photo of their passed-on loved ones in a nicho, a small Mexican frame.
Salazar said there has been an increasing appetite for the neighborhood’s own take on the Day of the Dead. In recent years, the Tenderloin’s Día de los Muertos was held at Boedekker Park, La Cocina’s now-closed indoor marketplace, and Dodge Alley, before expanding onto the single-block Golden Gate Greenway last year. This year, it has tripled in size.
“It just kept growing, kept getting a lot of traction,” Salazar said. “We were hitting capacity — the community showed that they needed and wanted this celebration.”
Street concerts and fairs — always common in some neighborhoods — have sprouted up across the city in as part of an effort to bring more foot traffic to areas that see fewer visitors, from downtown First Thursdays to outdoor concerts at Civic Center Plaza.
District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, wants to make street fairs a regular occurrence here. Earlier this year, the neighborhood saw its first city-sponsored Eid Street Fair, and Mahmood said he hopes to see a new event to celebrate the area’s Southeast Asian community in the coming months.
“This celebration brings neighbors together in joy and remembrance, highlighting the culture and the spirit of our neighborhood,” Salazar said. “Now more than ever, it is important to show everyone here in the Tenderloin that we deserve the same love as the rest of the city.”
The Tenderloin Día de los Muertos will be held on Golden Gate Avenue between Jones and Larkin on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.