This year's official Halloween in the Castro promised "Good Music, Good Times, Good Behavior," with "NO Booze, NO Drugs, and NO Bashing." Halloween in the Castro 2004 was held on Sunday, October 31st, from 7pm to midnight. Halloween in the Castro used to be the place for hundreds of thousands to party in the streets in costume, dancing, drinking (or not), and having a great time independent of regulation by the City, but one year, something was all wrong...

The Castro's raucous Halloween 2002 street party resulted in dozens of arrests for public drunkenness, and five people were stabbed. In 2003 police banned alcohol from the street celebration and set up checkpoints around the party's perimeter to prevent alcohol consumption. The event was relatively, um, uneventful.

Prior to this year's event, the Halloween in the Castro website said, the "team has been working hard to ensure that this year, our neighborhood celebration will be a safe and fun event for everyone. As you arrive at the event, you will pass through gates where you'll be checked for alcohol and/or weapons and volunteers from one of our community partners will be collecting donations." Attendees were asked to "bring $3 to help support this event and community organizations." Report

The event was organized by such local corporate sponsors as Wild 94.9, KMEL, Kron 4, ClearChannel Outdoor, San Francisco Pride, Walgreens, and others.
Indybay Story about Halloween 2003
Additional Halloween 2004 events in SF.