By Patricia Decker
The Public Press
While thousands of revelers were dancing in the streets at Sunday’s Gay Pride celebration, a group of swing dancers in Golden Gate Park was told to beat it.
Lindy in the Park has been putting on its free weekly public dance event for almost 13 years, but park security shut them down this weekend, citing a need for a sound permit, according to a statement by the group’s organizer on their Web site.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department said that they are working with the dance group to issue a permit, although it is unclear who decided the dancing was a disturbance. Other outdoor dance parties have been relatively uninterrupted, like the Michael Jackson flashdance party that rolled into the Ferry Plaza on Thursday night and thrilled the crowd until they were finally asked to leave around midnight.
To allow for amplified sound at their events, the swing gatherings require a special events permit, which requires a $50 nonrefundable fee to start the review process. The permit itself costs a minimum of $500.
In light of recent crackdowns in San Francisco — by the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control on some of the city’s iconic all-age venues and the limitations imposed on this year’s Bay to Breakers event — this is just another example of how expensive it can be to have fun in the city by the bay.
LINKS:
Lindy in the Park: http://www.lindyinthepark.com/
Department of Recreation and Parks: http://www.parks.sfgov.org
Special event application: http://www.parks.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=101651
Flashdance: http://flashdance.org/FlashDance/Home.html
Chronicle article on ABC’s all-ages venues crackdown: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/11/MNK217038L.DTL
Photo by bweisner via Flickr.
