What: Castro St Fair
Where: San Francisco
When: October 5th, 2025 11-6
Cost: $650 (I think it was more like $400 if you didn’t get the main street and corner add ons)
I got to the street fair early (8:30 am) because I like to be able to take my time when I can. Which meant I was in the first 20% of people that showed up and I drove past my spot since no one else was there. 😅
So I pulled over and parked where I was, got a coffee, and started hauling everything to my spot - coffee in hand. There was a slight incline so lugging everything was difficult (the coffee in one hand probably didn’t help). Once everything was unloaded I parked half a mile away because I didn’t realize you could pay (!! - absolutely insane considering I’d already given them $650!!) for parking in advance. Oh and of course I had to park on a bonkers steep road (love you SF 🥲)!
Once I started setting up things were pretty chill. Setup took me my usual 2 hours and I was ready to go when the fair started at 11. The crowd got big fast, which is especially wild since there were hundreds of vendors on multiple streets! I barely had time to eat during the first two thirds of the event. It was so steady!
They opened the event with a marching band doing pop song covers and it was beautiful! As always I loved loved loved the people who stopped by Queer The Way! Everyone had such a joyous energy, it was infectious (it made me want to live in a gayborhood!). 🥰
Button ups were our best sellers and we ran out of a couple Cosmically Queer sizes. Stickers were popular too. Surprisingly we sold very few upcycled pieces and zero prints. 🤔
I was super thankful to be vending next to Spooky Haus (@thespookyhaus) throughout the event. Not only are they all wonderful people, I was working alone that day and it was beyond helpful / reassuring to have friends next to me. 🫶
We did just over 1k in sales and $650 of that was what we spent on fees to be at the Castro St Fair. 😳
I knew it probably wasn’t going to be worth it. At least, my subconscious knew but the eternal optimist in me said go for it. I don’t think we’ll be doing this event again anytime soon if ever. Folks were lovely but it seemed like most people were just there to hang out rather than shop, which is totally fine but doesn’t work for a small business like us when we paid $650 to be there for one day.