Join 5,000 skateboarders (and some pedestrians and bicyclists) for a five mile ride down the sidewalks of San Francisco culminating in a Free BBQ near Third and Cesar Chavez. Due to permitting issues, details of this event might change at the last minute please check emericawildinthestreets.com for the most up-to-date info.

Taking its cues from a diverse history of “organized coincidences” and happenings such as motorcycle rallies, Reclaim the Streets festivals, and Critical Mass bicycle rides, Emerica’s Wild in the Streets is an unconventional skateboarding event born on the streets of New York City in 2004, and continued in Philadelphia in 2005 and Chicago in 2006.

Pedestrian jaws dropped at the sight of hundreds of skateboarders invading these downtown districts en masse. The premise was simple: meet up with the Emerica team at a local skate shop and go street skating, literally, throughout the cities, eventually ending up at a block party barbecue, where the skating continued.

As for the 2007 version of this event in San Francisco, Johnny has found out that the event is supposed to start at noon at the end of Market Street (near Steuart St.) and the skateboarding will head down to a great skating spot at the end of Indiana Street, just off Cesar Chavez and two blocks from 3rd. There will be a free BBQ at a yet-to-be-disclosed location.

But please be advised, the sponsors of this event are very disorganized and have not posted the final details on their website as of 9:30am on July 4th. It’s entirely likely that the event will take place “underground without an announcement and equally likely this event will not take place at all and that emerica is not even organized enough to announce the cancellation. This is the nature of these types of events in San Francico

from the sfgate article, “Event rep Brian Jones tells us the 5-mile ride through downtown will largely take place on sidewalks before ending with a free barbecue at an undisclosed location. He promised full details will be announced in the next day or two.”