Anyone who lives in the city occasionally has those “only in SF” moments where you come across something that is odd and unusual but at the same time, seems perfectly at home here.
That was my reaction the first time I learned about Debardchery, the Medieval Archery & Bardic event that takes place at the archery range in Golden Gate Park near Fulton and 47th Avenue, and is hosted by the the San Francisco Chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism.
They describe it as their “annual celebration of mirth, merriment, archery and the bardic arts” and the free event includes an archery competition, a Bardic tournament (poetry, song, music, skit), and a potluck lunch. Attendees are encouraged to dress in medieval or Renaissance fare garb, which they do, in spades (loaner tunics are also on hand for the wardrobe challenged). Typically they have 50 to 100 attendees, and the free event is open to the public.
Only in SF, right?
So I was saddened to hear that after 30 years of holding Debardchery in Golden Gate Park, organizers had decided to move the venue to an archery range in Pacifica.
The reason? Increased fees for their Rec & Park event permit.
Last year’s fees were $350 ($250 plus a $50 application fee and a $50 insurance waiver fee) but when they inquired about their fee for 2014, they were told there would be an additional $200 “park impact fee”. When they asked what that was for, they got no explanation from Rec & Park.
Lucien Canton, one of the event’s organizers, said they also received push back on some of the things their event has always included.
“[Rec & Park] was also requiring food handler certificates for the potluck lunch our members bring or we could not serve food. They would also not allow us to erect sunshades using stakes as we have always done in the past with the head gardener’s blessing,” Canton told us.
Canton says they did not even apply for their permit after getting the fee estimate, and instead sought another location for their event. The San Francisco Archers Range in Pacifica welcomed Debardchery with open arms, charging them $200 to host their event.
While an event fee of $550 (or more depending on the additional requirements) doesn’t sound cost prohibitive, it can be just that for small, local groups that use the park for events.
“The sums involved aren’t enormous in the great scheme of things,” Canton said. “However, our event only raises between $500-$600, mostly through donations. We use the money to purchase things like loaner equipment for our martial arts program and craft materials for our classes and to subsidize smaller events throughout the year.”
He says they’ve considered charging admission and have even tried it in the past, but it only limited attendance and hurt the spirit of Debardchery.
Canton says there are no hard feelings, just disappointment at having to leave the Golden Gate Park Archery Range after 30 years.
“We’re not looking to pick a fight with Rec & Park. It’s just unfortunate that they seem to have a “one-size-fits-all” mentality and don’t seem to make any concessions to small, local groups.”
Or ones that have been using Golden Gate Park for 30 years.
If you are interested in attending Debardchery at its new location, it takes place this Saturday (tomorrow!) at 10am at the San Francisco Archery Range in Pacifica, CA. As always, admission is free and dressing up is highly encouraged!
While we’re on this topic, I wonder if the SF Archery range has room for a few hundred vintage cars that are looking for a new home…
The SF Recreation & Parks Department was contacted for comment but did not get back to us in time for publication.
Sarah B.
Lol …. Impact fee. The Rec and Parks department are a disgrace. How much impact would these guys have? The Outside Lands will impact the park for months, how is this small event going to impact something that is already impacted. It’s stuff like this that really sucks about the stupid red tape in SF politics and the lazy sups who let it go on (yes, that’s you Mr Mar)!!
This is sad but not surprising. 50-100 folks having a gathering is too much of an “impact” but Outsidelands and AstroTurf and stadium lighting along Ocean Beach gets the green light. Stand up to Park and Rec’s pay-to-play culture! Vote yes on H and no on I!!!
The paperwork for a potluck lunch is stupid. However I’m not surprised by this. Park & Rec and Eric Marr are pro profit. So how much money did the Outside Lands organizers grease your trough?
What is GGPark for then? We had 10 1st graders from school together to play soccer at Speedway Meadows (Hellman Hollow) after school and got kicked out by the Gardeners – we had a couple parents “coaching”. Meanwhile, drug addicts and bums nest in the surrounding bushes and woods, making it nearly impossible to let kids explore and enjoy the Park. Disgraceful, infuriating, disgusting, and stupid.
@R – That’s odd. What reason did the gardeners give you for why you were not permitted to play there?
Sarah B.
What’s next to befall the axe, Comedy Day?
“Soccer is not allowed at Hellman Meadows, it ruins the grass. You’ll have to find somewhere else.”
@R – You were nice to just move on, I think I would have finished out the activity 🙂 I’ve run into a few power-tripping gardeners in the park, objecting to activities that are what parks are meant for.
I don’t know the rules about where soccer is or isn’t allowed in the park, but it seems silly to not allow small pickup games (esp. when you think of the beating Hellman takes at the various concerts throughout the year). Some of these gardeners are very protective about their turf. I guess if I felt people were messing up my garden, I might be too. Sorry you had such a poor experience 🙁
Sarah B.
These folks have a stellar reputation for leaving a rented site in pristine condition, too — no trash, no cigarette butts, etc. Curious what the “impact” is supposed to be.
I stopped by the event some years back. I am an archer. I also went to Jimmy’s picnic.
This is but a short list of events that have been priced or regulated out of GG Park. I wonder how many other events the good folks of this blog can come up with?
I am getting disgusted enough with P&R to consider spending some time and money to change the way that P&R is overseen and managed.
JD.
Sad! I wish them the best of luck and also miss the Car Show (though I understand the reasons very well for it ending). I agree with JD.
OUTSIDE LANDS and DOPE DAY are fine, but this we lose. They sounded and looked like stellar people, sorry I missed it.
“Some of these gardeners are very protective about their turf.” Literally!
“They would also not allow us to erect sunshades using stakes as we have always done in the past with the head gardener’s blessing,” So what is the difference between that and a gardener aerating the lawn?
Truly disgusting. But see, Outside Lands, which completely takes over the West Side of the City for 3 days, and takes over parts of the park for two weeks–with thousands of people who trample and trash everything in sight and do NOTHING to contribute to the park itself (quite the contrary)–Outside Lands will be here for eternity. And while this little archery group of revelers, who are NOT disturbing people four miles away, NOT destroying the park, and NOT preventing anyone else who wants to use the park for something else that day from doing so…well, no dice. Just like Jimmy’s car show. Another local event most attended by local people bites the dust. Every member of Rec & Park should be fired, and their charter should be reviewed and rewritten–and then approved by VOTERS (let’s see if annual OL cheerleader’s enthusiasm about the few days of “a little inconvenience” is shared by the majority of voters here). That, of course, will not happen because the politicos and R&P birds of a feather. Oily feathers. I’m sorry we won’t have them in our backyard now, but they’ve chosen a good place to relocate. Pacifica is not money grubbing.
Meant to write “…let’s see if annual OL cheerleader J’s enthusiasm about the few days of “a little inconvenience” is shared by the majority of voters here…”
I am sorry that your event had to relocate. We need these down home events like yours to continue. You don’t make millions of dollars for the RP so your event doesn’t count. Like you are damaging the park compared to Outside Land and Blue Grass. I hope in the future we will have leaders to help keep the small home grown events around. The leader Eric Mar doesn’t care about us. Get out and vote.
This is so disheartening. What else can this city do to make it more unfriendly to family and ordinary people? I wanted to throw a party for my 8 year old and nine friends on one of the fields, and when I called to get a permit – yes, a permit for a little party – they asked me what I wanted to the field for. Stupidly I told them the truth: hamster balls which my daughter had asked for. They calmly told me no way, no hamster balls on ANY Rec and Park fields as it destroys the turf. I almost laughed as I hung up, and thought about Outside Lands and all THAT wrecked turf. Oh well … guess we are just well on our way to becoming an anti-family city that does everything it can to run out the Have Nots. Eric Mar, you have a lot to answer for.
More of the same, as San Francisco loses site of GGPark’s *scale*. The rush to “buy into” and “leverage” San Francisco – including GGPark – is in full gear.
One-by-one, little-by-little, small group events like this will get aced out and the Park will become strictly a big venue draw. Given the current trajectory, can we even begin to imagine what the GGPark’s fate is 20 years hence?
Does anyone imagine that the money that Parks and Rec claims (still not proven, or shown via an audit) to make from these big events is not going to act as a huge incentive to court even *more* outsized events, and greedball promoters who promise the moon (again, without delivering a shred of proof re: those claims)? I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I wonder what is on the backroom proposition table as we debate this issue.
And, who is going to protest the creeping gentrification of GGPark? Busy citizens? Citizens without deep pockets? What is most frustrating about this is that the wheels of change re: GGPark have been greased and are getting a hard push from public servants who appear to be serving themselves.
No toxic soccer complex,for profit in G,G, Park!
I too have been thrown out of Speedway Meadows for having 10 U10 children playing soccer together. The rec person, who rode his motorcycle on to the grass, told us that they were damaging the grass with their shoes and that it was against the rules – wonder if they also throw out the cross-country runners who use the field? None of the activities I’ve done with the kids are prohibited in the park code (no doubt they’ll amend that) and I thought the idea of having a park was to have a place for people to be away from their video games, homes, being healthy in the outdoors… Apparently 50lbs children do more damage than the multitudes that come to the park for Outside Lands or Strictly Hardly; or the damned moles who can be watched digging and digging. And the homeless. Obviously it’s about money not about the community the park is supposed to serve, or the people who the rec&park actually work for. How many times a year is the park closed off from the public? The city should own it in our names for our benefit, not as revenue generation for their salaries or some other numb-nutted city schemes.
Wow first the car picnic and now this. Apparently free events are a no-no! How can any gardener, park and rec representative or Eric Mar’s office say, with a straight face, that this event or kids playing soccer damage the park when they let OSL, HSB and 420 trample everything in sight and leave behind mountains of trash, not to mention the homeless camping in the bushes. What a disgrace!
I would have stayed there and had them arrest all of us, kids included. That would have made a nice story on the evening news. Maybe that’s the only way to effect a change.
“Parks & Recreation” should be re-named to just “Parks”
I volunteered to help organize Jimmy’s picnic and the amount of red tape they put us through was astounding.
Why is rec & park so against the community it’s supposed to serve?
The specialized recreation areas are what make the park so magical.
People freak out over the google bus – but because this isn’t flavor of the week issue by new comers it goes unnoticed by most of the city.
Eric Mar needs to stop wasting time on soda tax BS and focus on the district that voted him into his position.
All these people who complain about Eric Mar endlessly here, did you ever consider voting for the other guy? I remember some guy who ran against Mar the last time and people on this blog were saying this guy is a “carpet bagger” or they didn’t know anything about it. So everyone threw their vote in with Mar and you get pretty much the same old same old. Only now, faux attorney Mar (he has a law degree people but have never practiced = failed attorney) is busy encroaching on your civil liberties (your right tobuy soda).
Sad all around. He doesn’t speak for us. He’s keeping his eye on his next political promotion. If voters were smart (I sometimes wonder about this as well), they would deny him of a promotion. Let him live off the city retirement pkg. Don’t encourage him to run for state or federal position. He would demand that you don’t buy your kids cake for their birthdays. Really, if you think they can tax your soda, they will also tax everything else. Soda isn’t the only thing that make people fat.
You are so right SFResident. Hopefully District 1 remembers how little Mar served us and makes sure they pick a candidate who will have our issues in mind and not trying to set themselves up for higher offices.
And mayor Lee is concerned about families with kids fleeing the city.
Facepalm.
Can’t wait to see Mar’s aid says to this….. it’s an ARCHERY Field for gosh sakes! And I agree… the city lets the homeless continue to trash the park, 24 hours a day, with zero reaction, but is determined to not allow people who are paying taxes and not destroying the park to use the park for actual recreation!
Lease the clubhouses, rent the fields to soccer camps and soccer leagues, secure contracts for Vendors who support your political candidates, double the park rangers so you get your own political base, raise fees to ensure that only those with money can utilize the resources (try and have a rally in a park), get into bed with the Parks Alliance so that any unused cash becomes your own slush fund, and fire anyone who’s intelligent enough to ask the right questions….
Rec and Park needs a real outside AUDIT. Sorry Harvey Rose has been bought and sold a thousand times over….
I agree with Phil: we’re experiencing yet another gold rush, except this time, the resource being extracted isn’t gold, it’s the beauty, grace, environments, experiences and good will of San Francisco, much of which was created by actual San Franciscans, who have been willing to pay taxes over the long term to their city, and to volunteer extensive time and effort on her behalf.
And, more and more, those very same people are being shut out, not only from the beauty, grace, and environments she provides, but from the very ability to contribute to them. The loss of the medieval Debardchery archery – bardic event is just but one example.* Golden Gate Park, once the beloved backyard of San Franciscans and their guests, is now a cash cow for the Park & Rec Service, and the profiteers who want simply to make money.
The Ferenghi** have arrived, and the rules of acquisition and profit are overwhelming the pursuit of beauty and grace and good will.
* Disclaimer: I am a member of the group who organized Debardchery
** “Ferhengi” is a Star Trek reference to an alien species who prize profit and pursuit of profit above all else.
Cynthia, love the “Ferhengi” reference. Sadly, that is exactly how the Rec/Park & City operate, and they don’t reinvest for the residents of the city’s benefit.
Well Mar, what sayeth you?
@cynthia I want to fight to get y’all back – what do you advise? Is there a letter writing campaign?