First Annual Love Fest SF Celebrates a Thriving Community

Former Mayor Willie Brown did the honors at a ribbon cutting marking the inaugural outing of Love Fest SF, a music and arts event highlighting small business recovery in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. At the ceremony, Brown dismissed the national media’s obsession with the city’s so-called “doom loop” as a misrepresentation. Love Fest SF organizers Rene Colorado of the Tenderloin Merchants Association, and Value Culture founder Adam

Swig aimed to help small businesses succeed and get out from under the doom loop cloud.

Thousands of people turned up to enjoy the all-day festival, including area notables like State Senator Scott Wiener, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Tenderloin community leader Del Seymour. Merchants along Larkin Street in Little Saigon, where the festival was centered, were delighted at the strong turnout. Every business on the street reported more customers than usual thanks to the festival’s draw.

Love Fest SF is a part of San Francisco’s fabulous summer of 2024, which has featured an array of free civic activities like the South of Market Neighborhoods First Thursdays, Bhangra and Beats in the Financial District, the Chinatown and Sunset Night Markets and the Tenderloin Art Walk. City residents have also enjoyed a series of free concerts including Crucial Reggae Sundays in Golden Gate Park, the Fred Again and Skrillex concert at San Francisco Civic Center and Another Planet Dirtybird rave on the Embarcadero.  Love Fest SF is a grassroots civic activation that proves the city is growing, thriving and giving the gift of arts and culture to residents and visitors alike.