A banana, a cow, a glittery fish and an astronaut made their way through the northern Mission Tuesday night as part of a group of 300 or so people celebrating Halloween with a mobile dance party.
The costumed dancers gathered at 16th and Mission streets sometime after 8 p.m., as they have done annually since 2011, when Eda Altiok and 30 members of her frisbee team started the party.
From the plaza, the dancers made their way to 17th and Capp streets, where they moved to the music emanating from large speakers pulled on hand carts. A few climbed on top of a U-Haul truck parked in the intersection.
With music still bumping from the mobile speakers, the group made its way to 17th Street and South Van Ness Avenue, with a quick stop at a gas station.
Soon they numbered around 300, making their way back along 17th Street to Capp Street.
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Just before 10 p.m., the party was still going strong. Ultimately, the plan was to head to Mission Playground before disbanding, but the tunes kept playing.
At one point, revelers set off a few fireworks and police cars were quickly on the scene.
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Soon, with the crowd diffused along 17th and Mission streets, the volume dropped. The more subdued dancers gathered in Sycamore Alley to a quieter beat.
But it didn’t take long for the crowd to thicken and the music to turn back up.
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By 10:15, the Sycamore crowd was bursting out onto Valencia Street. They made their way along Valencia to Mission Playground, still numbering in the hundreds.
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At the playground, a man twirled a fiery hula hoop. As the clock neared 11, the dancers chanted for “one more song!” But slowly, the number of people in colorful costumes began to dwindle — Halloween was coming to a close.
Go Mission District!