S.F. Civic Center Plaza concert elicits raves, some boos from nearby businesses
SAN FRANCISCO -- Saturday night's sold-out concert and rave at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza that featured Fred Again and Skrillex drew 25,000 attendees, which meant many nearby businesses got a welcome boost.
That includes nearby liquor stores and a doughnut shop, where workers told CBS Bay Area they saw a constant flow of customers.
That did not include Gyro King, according to Umit Senar who operates the mediterranean restaurant with his wife. It's located on Grove Street, about a block from Civic Center Plaza.
Senar said fencing was put up on the sidewalks and around the streets, allowing only one way into his restaurant from the corner of Hyde and Market streets.
"When you're expecting more (customers) and you don't get that more, that's kind-of heartbreaking for us," Senar said. "It is really bad to watch people passing by and nobody's coming in."
Senar said he called in more cooks and prepped enough food "for at least thousands." He also said he had 30 to 40 more customers than he usually would but it fell far short of his expectations.
"I want to tell the city to please be considerate about (all) the businesses," he said. "Give us some help."
What happened to Gyro King "was an outlier," according to Mary Conde, the senior vice-president of Another Planet Entertainment (APE), the concert production company that put on the show.
"We worked really sincerely to make sure the neighboring businesses could benefit from this coming to the neighborhood," Conde said. "We did have a fencing plan and that was reviewed by the city and we work very closely with them. We made sure to keep access open for all of the neighboring businesses."
Conde mentioned nearby taco stands and liquor stores that saw "lines out the door."
"It was great walking out after the show, watching so many people in downtown San Francisco go around and have more fun," she said.
Conde also spoke about the 10 p.m. curfew, which is when the music stopped according to several concertgoers at Saturday night's show.
"We worked really closely with Fred Again's team and Skrillex and they understood what an honor it was to be in the middle of San Francisco. They had no problems with the 10 p.m. curfew," Conde said. "It was like, 'Hey, we're here. We're glad to be here and we're happy to abide by the 10 o'clock curfew."
In a statement, Mayor London Breed said APE "did a great job organizing this event and bringing these artists to our city," adding the city was thrilled to work with APE on the event.
"The ability to work with private partners like APE further shows that San Francisco knows how to host major events that are well organized, safe and fun," Breed also said.
