Even though it’s been falling apart for decades now, Treasure Island is still a really fun place to explore. This is what the future is going to look like once the zombies take over and there aren’t any city workers or DHARMA Initiative left to maintain all of our monuments to excess.
In just a few years Treasure Island is going to look radically different. What a great excuse for San Francisco to go spend the day on this pocket of earth that is out of step with time right before it gets an urban facelift.
I took the Transported SF bus to Stafford Lake again and I think I’m committed to this relationship.
As long as this bus is going to Sunset I will be on it.
It was really interesting to be part of a dance floor experience that traveled down Mission St at golf cart speeds to confused looks from the locals, take flight down the open highway, and then come down for a landing in the outskirts of Novato to one of the greatest free massives the West Coast has to offer.
We touched down at 2PM and there was easily more than a thousand people already there with hundreds more marching in over the horizon like an invading army. It was epic.
There’s already several videos online but I like this one courtesy of chrislrosa because I think it’s great that we live in an era where less than 24 hours after any major event you can find video footage of yourself online filmed by a stranger. Watch out for those flying elbows, Mike.
It’s interesting to think of life in the underground as a neverending adventure. Everyone has a different story to tell and there are certain events that are chaos magnets, they pull thousands of different stories to one place in time and weave hundreds of loose ends together to form the background of your story, which in turn is just the background to someone else’s story, all sharing the same soundtrack to that day.
Everyday in the underground is like a new episode of LOST.
Living in and surrounded by concrete & road rage, human beings need a place to balance that energy out. A place without cars and where there’s still some nature that we haven’t managed to destroy just yet. Everyone in San Francisco has access to this amazing multi-billion dollar backyard and I never have to worry about mowing the lawn. I don’t care if I sound like a crusty hippy, but Man. I love Golden Gate Park.
The Bandshell is a pretty interesting part of the park. You have The California Academy of Sciences to the south and you have De Young Museum & The Japanese Tea Gardens to the North. It’s very much a tourist magnet because of those structures but it’s kind of interesting to spend the day having a picnic at the Bandshell and overhearing conversations in several different languages. This place really is a magnet that attracts people from all over the world.
And it’s also where the local natives have had some amazing free park parties over the years. I think you could do an entire coffee table book on the free outdoor park party scene in the Bay Area. It’s a very unique and visually interesting not-so-secret club. I remember coming to my first party in the park when I moved here 14 years ago. I was living at the dorms at SF State and found myself surrounded by all these interesting, older, and experienced urban locals. I remember thinking to myself, “This is where I want to be.”
Parties like this used to happen all the time with nowhere near the level of online marketing machines that exists today. There were days that I would be riding my bike through the park and hear beats coming from the Bandshell and think “That sounds like House. Let me go investigate” And then I would spend the rest of the day dancing my ass off in the park. Here are just a few of the flyers that I saved over the years.
The Bandshell has beautiful architecture.
(The old) Funky Tekno Tribe used to dominate with their Organics in the Park.
I distinctly remember they had one to promote their upcoming Halloween Massive. It was Jeno and DJ Dan in the park and Dan spun this remixed version of Aretha Franklin’s Respect. And what’s amazing is that it was on the exact same day as Sunset’s last park party of the year at Berkley Marina. Not only did free park parties like this used to happen all the time, but sometimes you would even have different ones happening on the exact same day.
To my knowledge, this is the only time the 4 of these guys have gotten together to do a Wicked in the park.
That alone would make this party unique, but the day that it happened to fall on also cements it as a very unique gathering.
This was a really infamous party. The “special guest” was suppose to be Supastar DJ Keoki. Some big 1015 type of club had flown him out from New York and paid him suitcases full of cash to spin at their club, but when he got out here he was so annihilated on drugs he was unable to perform and unable to do the surprise park party the next day. Legend has it, someone was walking around selling a box of mixtapes at the park party (This is how old this story is, we were all listing to cassette tapes back then) when this spun-out kid rushed the mixtape seller and asked “Do you have any Keoki tapes?”
And the guy responded, “Keoki’s ego couldn’t fit into my cassette tape box.”
And then the kid looked depressed, stared at the ground, and was all “I’m Keoki”
Sunset has since taken on the tradition of parties in the bandshell. This is a really well put together video by Jayson Yagi I love how he captures the feeling of walking back from the bathrooms, through those midget trees, and into the party. You can see the cranes to the south that were building the California Academy of Sciences during this period. That was a glorious day in the park.
This day was a bit more overcast. But, hey. Welcome to San Francisco.
I love this video by Mr. Holehead because it does a great job of showing the constantly changing characters and energy right by the DJ booth that’s spinning New York Techno in Golden Gate Park.
The free parties at the Bandshell in Golden Gate Park used to happen all the time but lately they have become an endangered species. I find myself feeling very lucky to have been a part of that history and grateful that I live in a city where people will spend hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars to make free events like this happen.
Thank you, San Francisco.
UPDATE # 1
8 minutes of video from DJ Apollo 2K of yesterdays Sunset party, the last Sunset park party of 2009, at the Bandshell in Golden Gate Park.
Like most Navy housing units, the architecture is 50 years outdated and it feels like a pocket of earth that is out of step with time.
There are also several abandoned units; they look exactly like any kind of dorm you would see on any California college campus.
Eucalyptus trees grow like weeds and have consumed some patio areas or have fallen down dead and untouched on sidewalks. Amazing that there’s all this abandoned property on multi-million dollar real estate that also has a priceless view of the San Francisco skyline.
Perfect location for a Sunset party.
Hopefully we’ll be able to do this again next year.
Matty B passed away earlier this year. I didn’t know him very well but I used to see him all the time when he worked at Housewares. He was always super fucking cool to me, especially considering I never bought any records at Housewares but was in there once a week because I collect flyers. We were also both extras in that corny raver movie, Groove. Sunset had an alter for him on Sunday.
I remember when these parties used to happen all the time at Richmond ’s Point Molate or Berkley Marina. We’ve long since worn out our welcome in those locations so it’s kind of amazing that a decade later we’ve been able to hold onto Stafford Lake, a hidden gem just 30 minutes north of San Francisco. Before youtube and before all the social networking sites that exists today, 800- 1,000 people would descend on this tiny suburb based on just word of mouth and a phone number for the first Sunset park party of the year. And we would rock the fuck out on their lake!
This was one of the first Sunset videos to go viral. It’s a great 8-minute static shot that does a perfect job of capturing all the insanity that goes on right by the decks. Yo! Waldo! I found your future ex-wife at 6:25. She’s smoking hot.
Here’s another great static shot video from 2007.
It does a perfect job of showing just how large Stafford Lake is. You can trek out to the bathrooms and by the time you’re ready to head back there’s a small army of people and their gear between you and your camp. You can spend the entire day bugging out and making a spectacle of yourself and still not cross paths with half the people there. It’s pretty epic.
Here’s another 2007 video from luxvibes. I like his work
The opening shot from across the lake at the party’s peak was an excellent idea. I can’t believe I never thought of that before. And the closing shot with the Come-Unity sign made me smile. Sunset parties at Stafford Lake are pretty unique and special. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this party going a while longer.
The Outer Sunset 
