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Rainy Day Fun in SF

Need rain or shine fun today? iPhone scavenger hunts, freaky beer festivals and giant book fairs on Sunday!
By - posted 10/17/2010 No Comment

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

We all knew that the 80 degree weather and sunshine we’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks  had to end sometime – but this soon?

Rain is predicted all weekend with temperatures not expected to rise above 60 degrees.  Welcome back, nasty, rainy and cold San Francisco weather!

Outdoor Blues
Sure, that means it’s probably not going to be a great weekend to go to Golden Gate Park for the Art & Drumming Festival on Saturday or the Wooden Boats on Parade Festival or 2010 Pet Pride Day on Sunday.

And who’s going to risk  driving out to the Outer Richmond for Free Car Wash Day just to have all that hard work washed away by cruel Mother Nature?

What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy day in San Francisco? Leave a comment below!

Indoor Fun
But don’t let all this meh ruin your weekend – there’s plenty of fun stuff for you do to that allows you to escape the great outdoors.

Whether you like spooky ghost stories, saucy burlesque dancers, an alcohol-fueled roller disco disaster, $5 movie ticketsfree Peet’s Coffee or even watching robots playing soccer because it’s too rainy for you pansy humans to play it outside – there’s plenty going on to keep you busy.

Indoor Events & Fun Things to Do in San Francisco
October 22-24, 2010

Come Out & Play Festival 2010 (Rain or Shine) | SF
Participate in fun and silly street games like iPhone scavenger hunts, monster twitter games, a pigeon pinata pummel, a strange combination of yoga and football, techy ninja games, and drinking games – all free, rain or shine, taking place around Panhandle, Golden Gate Park and the Upper Haight.
– FREE / Fri, Sat, Sun – Oct 22-24 Noon to 7pm / Giant Robot HQ in Upper Haight (618 Shrader)

Freaktoberfest Boutique Beer Festival
Head to Oakland for this freaky boutique beer festival. Free admission, live music, burlesque from the Can-Cannibals and $2 beer tasting tickets from Speakeasy, Black Diamond Brewing, Firestone Walker and the Shmaltz Brewing Company with a blood red beer with 6.66% alohol.
– FREE / Sunday, October 24th 1pm to 6pm / Beer Revolution 464 3rd St. Oakland

Free Peet’s Coffee & Live Tango Music
The public spaces at the de Young Museum are open to the public on Friday night with a ton of free activities. Listen to live Tango music, attend a free lecture Gauguin, participate in free art making activities and from 6pm to 8:30pm enjoy a sampling of select signature Peet’s coffees & teas.
– FREE / Friday, Oct. 22nd – 5pm to 8:45pm / de Young Museum – Golden Gate Park

Red Hots Burlesque Show
Need to get warmed up on a cold rainy night? The saucy vixens of Red Hots Burlesque will bump, grind and giggle for you in El Rio’s back room. Also watch an array filthy and freaky film footage. To prep yourself for jiggles, arrive early for the happy hour the SF Weekly called “Best of the Bay.”
– $5 to $10 Sliding Scale / Friday, Oct. 22nd – 7:30pm / El Rio – Mission District

$5 Movie Tickets at AMC Metreon
This is the perfect weekend to stay indoors and stuff yourself with popcorn – Weekly Cinema is a movie club (like Netflix, but for movie theaters) where you can buy $5 movie tickets each month good for the AMC Metreon, AMC Van Ness 1000, Landmark Embarcadero and almost every other screen in the Bay Area. [Click for Details]
– $19.99 for 4 movie tickets a month – redeemable for any theater in Bay Area serviced by Fandango or MovieTickets.com (which is most of them)

Roller Disco Costume Party
SF IndieFest presents their annual wild and crazy Roller Disco Costume Party in the Mission. Skate rentals and tunes provided by Black Rock Roller Disco who put on huge roller discos at Burningman each year.
– Free with any DocFest Ticket Stub, or $5 in costume, $10 otherwise / Saturday, Oct. 23rd – 8pm / CellSpace – Mission District

Golden Gate Park Book Fair
Book vendors from all over Northern California are coming to Hal Lutsky’s great one day book sale. Come hunt for used, vintage, rare, and collectible Books and ephemera you want… and autographs too.
– Free / Sunday, Oct. 24th – 10am to 5pm / County Fair Bldg. – Golden Gate Park

Art Gallery Opening with DJs & Free Cocktails
The Barber Lounge hosts their annual Fall Art Opeing for 15 different local emerging artists with a DJ, a live visual art performance and free cocktails and drinks thanks to Blue Angel Vodka, Firestone Brewery and Barber Cellars Wine.
– Free / Saturday, Oct. 23rd – 7pm to 10pm / The Barber Lounge – Folsom btwn. 4th & 5th – SoMa

The Halloween Horror Show
Horror writers John Shirley, Ray Garton, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Rain Graves will scare you good and proper with some short readings, followed by a free film screening of  with a screening of the creepy 1981  haunted house movie,  The Changeling. Free popcorn, too!
– Free / Saturday, Oct. 23rd – 6:30pm to 10pm / The Hobart Bldg. – Market and Montgomery – Financial District

Robot Soccer Tournament
Here’s one road trip tip – Watch full-sized robots playing soccer! The two-day WRRF CalGames 2010 tournament features robots (weighing up to 140 lbs and are capable of going over 15 feet per second) trying  to score goals with soccer balls while maneuvering over bumps and through tunnels. Good, geeky indoor fun!
– Free / Friday, Oct. 22nd 6:30pm; Saturday, October 23rd 8:30am to 6pm / Lynbrook High School – San Jose

Main Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk and his amazing shots of San Francisco

What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy day in San Francisco? Leave a comment below!