SF ZineFest – Tomorrow!

I had my comic event radar in the off position for a few months, so I’ve lost the habit of turning it on each morning. When I saw the Alternative Press Expo announcement it reminded me that San Francisco Zine Festzinefest must be coming up soon. Indeed it is! Tomorrow in fact.

SF Zine Fest returns to Golden Gate Park’s County Fair Building on September 6 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Yes, Zine Fest is only one-day this year due to various reasons, most notably financial constraints brought on by San Francisco’s art crushing high rents. The organizers do a great job laying out all of the changes and constants on the front page of the Zine Fest website.

One day will likely be helpful for creators this year due to the additional constraints brought on by the Labor Day weekend long BART closure between West Oakland and Embarcacdero. That’s one less day for exhibitors who typically depend on public transit  needing to use more expensive routes of travel. The BART closure was unexpected and happened after the venue was already secured (seriously, BART should be required to give at least one-year notice for big disruptions like this).

There are numerous alternative routes to get to Zine Fest. All of the local transit authorities are teaming up to run shuttles across the Bay Bridge from the 19th Street station. There’s always the relaxing cross-bay ferry.

Jesse Russell

Before Oakland, there was Madison, Wisconsin. In Madison, the hours that weren’t filled up by my day job were typically devoured by event planning and running the city’s popular arts and politics news site, Dane101. Some of the events I organized include an annual two-night cabaret/carnival/masquerade party called the Fire Ball Masquerade, Madison's biggest non-city sponsored Halloween party, the geek culture focused MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, and the first Whedonesque Burlesque in the country. Having successfully reshaped the reality of Madison, Wisconsin I packed up and moved to the Bay Area in February of 2013. In addition to comics, I enjoy imbibing cocktails and beer, exploring foreign cities, consuming food of various temperatures, hearing music performed live, losing at board and card games, and getting caught in the rain.