DJ Kristian Nairn, the actor who plays Hodor on Game of Thrones, spins with the spot lights on to show the crowd at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco, Calif., on December, 4, 2014. 1015 Folsom, the South of Market nightclub long run by Ira Sandler, became a cornerstone of San Francisco nightlife. Sandler has died at 73.
Daniel E. Porter/The Chronicle
Ira Sandler, the longtime nightclub owner who helped make 1015 Folsom one of San Francisco’s defining dance music venues, has died. He was 73, according to public records.
The club announced his death Friday, May 29, in a Facebook post, calling Sandler “our beloved friend, brother and impresario.” Yolanda Edwards, founder of Yolo Journal and a longtime friend of Sandler’s, wrote in an Instagram remembrance that she was told Sandler died after a heart attack.
For decades, Sandler ran 1015 Folsom, the sprawling South of Market club that became a home for electronic music fans, queer nightlife, touring DJs, live acts and generations of San Franciscans looking for a place to dance late into the night.
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Sandler bought the venue in 1989 and helped turn the 20,000-square-foot club, with five rooms across three levels, into a center of San Francisco’s 1990s rave scene. At a time when electronic dance music was still emerging outside New York and Chicago, 1015 became one of the Bay Area rooms where DJs, promoters and audiences helped build a culture around it.
People fill the dance floor as Zeemuffin performs at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco, on Aug. 30, 2024. 1015 Folsom, the South of Market nightclub long run by Ira Sandler, became a cornerstone of San Francisco nightlife. Sandler has died at 73.
Estefany Gonzalez/Special to the Chronicle
“San Francisco has always been a city defined by dreamers, outsiders, creators, and innovators. Ira embodied that spirit. He helped preserve and cultivate a community that made this city unique, vibrant, and alive,” Noah Bennett Dials, who booked the club, wrote in a Facebook post Friday. “He gave opportunities to artists before anyone else believed in them. He supported locals, nurtured creative communities, and welcomed people from every walk of life. He dedicated his life to creating spaces where people could thrive and be themselves.”
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The club, in its own announcement, described Sandler as “the heart and soul” of 1015 Folsom.
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“There are very few people who leave a permanent mark on a city’s culture,” the post said. “Ira was one of them.”
Sandler’s influence came through the kind of nightlife that has become harder to sustain in San Francisco: loud, crowded, experimental and deeply local.
At 1015, the calendar could move from house and techno to live shows, salsa nights, benefit events and large-scale parties. Its 1990s weeklies included Spundae and Release, and the venue helped introduce electronic music to West Coast audiences as the genre grew.
Madonna, Doc Martin, Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, Dave Chappelle, Carl Cox, Tiësto, Paul van Dyk and Fatboy Slim are among the artists and figures who have appeared there.
Edwards offered a more personal portrait of Sandler. She wrote that she first met him in 1990 at Ten 15, as the club was then known, and later came to see him as family.
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“He was not the stereotypical nightclub owner — he was an artist at heart,” Edwards wrote.
The private lounge area of 1015 Folsom in 2007. 1015 Folsom, the South of Market nightclub long run by Ira Sandler, became a cornerstone of San Francisco nightlife. Sandler has died at 73.
Mike Kepka/SFC
Before he became a nightlife figure, Edwards wrote, Sandler studied fine art photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. She described him as generous, emotionally open and more focused on the club than on his own comfort.
“He was a dear soul who always looked out for and had a soft spot for the underdog,” Edwards wrote.
Sandler’s long run at 1015 also included public disputes with police, alcohol regulators and neighbors as SoMa nightlife boomed and San Francisco wrestled with late-night crowds, noise, drug use and public safety.
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In 1999, the Chronicle reported that Sandler faced a police administrative hearing that could have affected the club’s entertainment, dance hall and after-hours permits. Police alleged at the time that the club had “facilitated an environment” linked to arrests, robberies, drug activity, fights and overdoses. Sandler’s attorney disputed the allegations, saying police were unfairly targeting the venue.
In 2003, the Chronicle reported that the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control had moved to revoke the club’s liquor license after a five-month undercover investigation into alleged drug activity. An attorney for the club owners said many of the allegations were “just dead wrong” and argued that 1015 was being singled out because of its size.
Thousands of people pack on to the main floor as Aluna Francis performs at a1015 Folsom in San Francisco, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
Estefany Gonzalez/Special to the Chronicle
The club endured through those battles and through broader changes that reshaped San Francisco nightlife. Many clubs closed, changed hands or lost their place in the city’s cultural map. 1015 Folsom remained, still drawing crowds to a stretch of SoMa where late-night culture has repeatedly had to fight for space.
A celebration of Sandler’s life is being planned, according to the Facebook announcements. Details have not been released.
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For many people who passed through 1015 Folsom, Sandler’s legacy is tied not only to a business, but to the survival of a place where San Francisco’s late-night culture could keep reinventing itself.
“The impact of his work can be measured in millions of the countless people who have and will walk through the doors of 1015 Folsom,” the club’s post said. “But his true legacy lives in the stories those people carry with them.”