By Macey Wurm

The Outer Sunset was still asleep on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 19 – except for the vendors setting up their tents along the Great Highway. Within the hour, the aroma of street food wafted through the air, the first band took the stage and the street crowded with Sunset locals perusing the strip of the Great Highway and Taraval Street filled with art, music, food and their neighbors.

The first-ever TideFest, a free community block party, was organized by The Riptide Bar in collaboration with ArtyHood S.F. ArtyHood is a non-profit focused on supporting and activating communities by promoting local artists – notably working on 2023’s Outer Sunset Halloween Block Party. Their collaboration with The Riptide was rooted in a shared ethos, explained Lauro González-Arias, who founded ArtyHood in 2021.

“One of the things about working with them is that we really have the same values– we love community, we love music and the commitment they have, so it all emerged together.”

The pair worked together to secure funding for TideFest through Live Music Society’s Live Music in Action grant, through which they were awarded $30,000. The rest of the costs were covered by The Riptide. González-Arias was confident in their grant application, citing The Riptide’s reputation and iconography as a music venue. The bar, located a block from the ocean on Taraval Street, has been home to countless local musicians for the last two decades.

“I think it’s very major,” González-Arias said. “For the community, not everyone has, I don’t know, $3,000 to go to Disneyland to have some sort of amusement, or be exposed to art.”

There was no shortage of artistic expression at TideFest, with 22 art vendors and 30 live musical performances throughout the afternoon. Among these artists was Solange Bonilla, a local to the Sunset District for more than 15 years.

Her booth, Soluna Threads, took a creative twist on a typical handbag pop-up. Each piece was a culmination of repurposed jeans, fabric, scraps from a local store and occasionally vibrant paint splatters or bleached denim. More than selling her art, though, Bonilla was excited to be a vendor in her own community.

“I have two kids… always biking,” Bonilla said with a smile. She explained that she, her 10-and-13-year-old children hang out at Sunset Dunes all the time, as they live just two blocks away.

“This is what community means, right?”

Perched upon a hillside overlooking the festival and main stage were an array of festival-goers stopping to enjoy the scene and the music below. Among these was a group of friends and Sunset neighbors who expressed the same sentiment.

“I think it’s nice to get out and see your neighbors,” said Mike Gills, an Outer Sunset resident.

“Right,” his friend added. “A little vibing instead of staying inside your house.”

Gills said that both the Outer Sunset Block Party and the Noriega Street Fair (now called the Ocean Beach Music + Arts Festival) feel resemblant of TideFest.

Hill-dwellers and block-strollers alike trickled towards the stage as one band opened up their set with a fast-paced, soul-infused tune.

“This Train Don’t Stop,” a band whose members come from all over San Francisco, described their style as “garage soul,” taking inspiration from ’60s-era soul and garage rock.

“I’ve always wanted to perform at The Riptide, and believe it or not, I never have, so this is the closest I’m getting” said Lydia Walker, the lead singer of “This Train Don’t Stop.”

The group came out of a former band called “The Wicked Mercies.” During the transition they picked up KC Kozak, the current drummer. He has been playing the drums in San Francisco since 1999 when he moved to the City.

Kozak noted they would be playing one of his favorite covers that afternoon – a rendition of Ike and Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.”

As the group drummed on, the crowd bobbed their heads, and even cyclists passing by opted to linger at the stagefront for a couple songs.

The festivities carried on late into the night, with Bayonics – a reggae-Latin fusion group closing out TideFest around 9 p.m.

González-Arias hopes the festival will become an annual event.