We all know billionaires love extravagant private parties. What you don\u2019t hear about as often are the parties the 1% throw for the rest of us.<\/p>\n
After two successful years, Downtown First Thursdays \u2014 the free, monthly block party that brought hundreds of thousands to see acts like Toro Y Moi<\/a> and proved a boon to local businesses<\/a> \u2014 will return in 2026, according to its organizers, the nonprofit Civic Joy Fund<\/a> and the for-profit production studio Into the Streets<\/a>. More than 300,000 people have attended the events, which have generated an estimated $27.9 million in economic impact, the organizers say.<\/p>\n The monthly parties are funded with support from the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, which is backed by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, Gap scions Bob and Randi Fisher, and the philanthropic arm of Salesforce. Larsen and the Fishers have committed at least $2 million, or twice as much as in 2025, for next year\u2019s events.\u00a0<\/p>\n The festivities will again take over Second Street between Market and Howard the first Thursday of every month from 5 to 10 p.m., starting Jan. 1. \u201cWhen you bring thousands of people back to the heart of the city and put artists and entrepreneurs at the center, you\u2019re not just throwing a party \u2014 you\u2019re revving up an economic engine,\u201d said Larsen.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 2026 season will layer in new collaborations \u2014 the mellow, family-friendly New Year\u2019s Day event will feature Jazz Mafia, and the Black Joy Parade \u2014 alongside returning partners like Another Planet Entertainment, Carnaval SF, and Peaches Christ.<\/p>\n SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Museum of the African Diaspora will offer free gallery hours as part of the monthly celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We all know billionaires love extravagant private parties. What you don\u2019t hear about as often are the parties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[32135,6093,21399,818,2311,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-68231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-boom-loop","9":"tag-chris-larsen","10":"tag-civic-center","11":"tag-downtown","12":"tag-museums","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}