An iconic image from BYOBW 2006 on Lombard. Shout out to JRad!
Can you believe this crazy, fun and crazy fun event has been happening for 20 years? According to legend, 2000 was the year the first handful of dorks rolled down Lombard street. Thanks to the reckless abandon of Jon Brumit, the perseverance of the BYOBW Crews of past and present, and the support, donations and most importantly participation from YOU awesome fun loving creatures, we’ve weathered the rough seas. Incredibly rough seas that San Francisco’s weirdo culture makers and keepers have been subjected to since the first dang dot com boom and bust in the early 00s when music, art and fun began being unceremoniously shoved out of its home.
Long story short: We made it to 2020! We are still here! You will still be able to laugh yourself silly another year! From an old SF Chronicle article from the mid 00s: “This race may seem ridiculous, but it transcends ridiculousness,” said veteran competitor Luke Powell. “This is about something else.”
Nostalgia whinging aside, it truly is inspiring to continue to help make this goofy thing happen. The street closure permit hearing was in December and I’m proud to say it was another very quick presentation and approval for the event. The Rec and Park permit has also been approved and payment for their officers already sent off (we have to pay for Rec and Park officers as well as SFPD to be on site). The horse rescue organization wants our hay again after the event so I’ll be ordering a slightly more expensive hay that they can put to good use. Portopotties have been ordered and all the other general planning is in full swing for the April 12, 2020 event. As usual we are still a few thousand short of being able to pay for everything pre-event so throw us some dough and DONATE if you are able.
This year’s info! Note: START AND END TIME ARE CHANGING!
When: April 12, 2020
Time: EARLIER START TIME! Kids Only 2pm-3pm, Adult Children 3pm-5pm
Where: Vermont St at 20th in beautiful Potrero Hill
Rules: Plastic Wheels Only, Tape up your metal spokes / pegs. And it would be lovely if ya’ll could leave the rolling trash cans and office chairs at home.
Read: Our Code of Conduct and Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions: Email!
Online registration should be open in a few weeks before the event but you can always just show up day of and sign up. Here’s that DONATE link again. Also, if you love rolling in the hay and want to volunteer, shoot us an email with Volunteer in the subject line.
About costs: donations were very low pre-event last year and it was scary budget-wise for a bit but there were some massive individual donors who really made a huge difference. A lot of happy riders kicked in on the day of the event so I wasn’t in debt for too long. This year Gabor was our first donation for 2020, and they slipped us a nice chuck of change! Thank you!
