Oakland’s new First Fridays safety plan began last month. Late-night crime still spiked.
Street closures and stepped-up city presence did appear to help reduce the unsanctioned after-hours street takeovers in front of the Fox Theater that routinely follow the official festival.
PART TWO OF A SERIES
Oakland Report examines the data behind the headlines. In our first installment in this series, we found that late-night crime in the immediate area of First Friday festivals increases an average 44% on festival nights compared to non-festival Fridays. In this installment, we tested whether the city’s new safety plan had a measurable effect at last month’s festival. We also reviewed late-night crime data for comparable evening street festivals in other cities.
The city stepped up its safety efforts after First Friday festivals — with partial success
Days before last month’s First Friday festival was held on June 5, the city of Oakland announced its most visible response yet to the late-night street takeovers and crime that have followed the festival for years.
As Oakland Report reported last month, the late-night crime and street takeovers have been focused in the area around the Fox Theater, a prominent landmark located a few blocks away and within sight of the First Fridays official event footprint.
The city of Oakland has long struggled to contain these unsanctioned gatherings, and in early June, before last month’s festival, announced a new plan to curb them.1
The city’s new safety plan included additional street closures around the Fox Theater, increased police and city staff presence across Downtown, Uptown, and Koreatown-Northgate, more code and vendor enforcement, and post-event cleanup.
The city’s plan did not include any benchmarks for measuring whether or not the city’s efforts are successful.
Oakland Report reviewed crime data from the night of the June 5 festival — the first test of the city’s new safety plan — and compared it across 19 years of crime data using the same methodology from our first installment in this series.2
Key findings
Crime during and after the June 5 First Friday festival remained significantly higher compared to other, non-festival Friday nights. Within a quarter-mile of the Fox Theater, from 5 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday, June 5, there were six reported crimes — triple the crime levels of the previous and following non-festival Friday nights, and about 60 percent higher than the average non-festival Friday night.3
The June 5 crime increase also was slightly above average for First Friday festival nights in June. The six crimes reported in the immediate area of the festival on the night of June 5, 2026 was higher than the average 4.25 crimes reported on other June First Friday festival nights.
The June 5 reported crimes again skewed violent. They included two after-midnight assaults — one involving a “caustic chemical” (such as pepper spray), and one with a gun.
However, the street takeovers in front of the Fox Theater on festival nights were noticeably reduced on June 5. The city’s new effort to close streets and show a strong city presence out front of the Fox Theater appeared to have some success at reducing the chaotic late-night street takeovers in that location.
Oakland’s post-festival, late-night crime increases are larger than most other festivals we studied. Most comparable evening street festivals show a milder increase. Only San Francisco’s Valencia Live! event, which serves and allows open containers of alcohol in the street, matches Oakland’s increase.
Crime on the June 5 festival night remained significantly higher than on non-festival Friday nights
On the night of June 5, from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday 6 a.m., six crimes were reported within a quarter-mile of the Fox Theater.
That is roughly 60 percent higher than a typical non-festival Friday, which averaged about 3.7 crime incidents per night in the same area.
The June 5 crime increase, relative to non-festival Fridays, was somewhat higher than the average crime increase on the nights of First Friday festivals held in June of previous years, which averaged 4.25 incidents per night.
The six reported crimes on the festival night of June 5 were a decrease from the seven crimes reported the festival nights in May 1 and the twelve crimes reported the festival night of April 3. The March 6 festival night saw six reported crimes, the same as June 5.
Chaotic street takeovers in front of the Fox Theater were noticeably reduced on June 5
Based on multiple eyewitness reports, the city’s new effort to prevent large, unsanctioned gatherings from taking over the street in front of the Fox Theater appears to have been somewhat effective.
On typical First Friday festival nights, especially in recent years, thousands of people and cars routinely filled the street in front of the theater for several hours.
These unsanctioned gatherings then routinely devolved into chaos as people fought and took videos of the street fights, drank open containers of alcohol, vandalized property, and clashed with police attempting to clear the street and restore order.
Video clip 1: Warning: graphic content. Compilation of unsanctioned after-hours party scenes in the streets near the official First Friday event. (Source: Instagram / various accounts)
On June 5, the city’s street closures and strong on-street presence of city personnel appeared to have some success at preventing a critical mass of people from taking over the street in front of the Fox Theater.
According to eyewitness reports, the size of the crowds congregating in the area after the festival was noticeably lower than usual — by some estimates around 1,000 people instead of the typical 3,000 or so people — and vehicles were prevented from parking in and blocking the street.
Late-night crime at comparable evening street festivals in other cities
Crime tends to increase around festivals, which is not uncommon when large crowds of people gather in the streets.
What sets Oakland’s crime increases apart from comparable evening street festivals in other cities is the scale, severity, and consistency of the crime increase.
We examined recurring evening street festivals that resemble First Fridays’ format and timing in San Francisco and San Jose — cities that also publish detailed crime data going back many years.45
Oakland’s late-night crime increase after First Friday festivals — about 44 percent on average over 19 years of data — sits well above that of other, comparable evening street festivals like San Jose’s South First Fridays festival, with one exception.
San Francisco’s Chinatown Night Market, a family-oriented event that closes at 9 p.m., had a more modest late-night crime increase, about 17 percent on average.
San Jose’s recurring South First Fridays festival nights had a similarly modest late-night crime increase, around 16 percent.
San Francisco’s recurring Valencia Live festival night had a much higher late-night crime increase of approximately 56 percent, similar to the crime increase on Oakland’s First Friday festival nights.
Notably, San Francisco’s Valencia Live street festival allows alcohol and open-container drinking in the street, which likely contributes to its relatively higher crime increase.
Oakland’s First Fridays festivals, in their earliest years, also allowed and prominently featured alcohol consumption. Back then, the festival included official beer gardens, and bars in the area reported double their usual business on festival nights.
A February 2013 fatal shooting prompted a brief pause in the festival, which returned with a new ban on open containers of alcohol that remains in effect.67
Daytime mega-festivals: larger scale, more crime
We also examined massive daytime mega-festivals including Carnaval San Francisco, with its estimated 400,000 attendees, and the Folsom Street Fair, estimated at 250,000 attendees. Crime increased significantly around those mega-festivals, even higher than it did around Oakland’s First Friday festivals.
However, there are several key differences between those mega-festivals and Oakland’s First Fridays.
The mega-festivals were held in the daytime, prominently featured alcohol consumption, and drew crowds ten to twenty times larger than First Fridays’ estimated 15,000 to 30,000 attendees.
Correlation is not causation
While the increased late-night crime in the immediate area is clearly correlated to Oakland’s First Friday festivals, no causal link is established by the data itself.
As we emphasized in our previous analysis, there are likely other factors at play, aside from the festivals, that contribute to the statistical increases shown in the crime data.
A single night of crime increasing, in isolation of the data over a longer period of time, is not indicative of a trend. The spike in late-night crime that followed the June 5 festival does not, in and of itself, mean that the city’s safety plan had no effect.
As noted above, the city’s efforts did appear to have an immediate effect at reducing the street takeovers in front of the Fox Theater.
Time – and consistency — will tell if the city’s efforts prove successful
Oakland’s First Fridays is a cherished event that celebrates Oakland’s vibrant culture, art, and business communities, and introduces thousands of people across the Bay Area region to the extraordinary and unique city of Oakland.
This author, like many Oaklanders, appreciates and enjoys street festivals like First Fridays and wants well-run festivals like it — and the many positive benefits they bring to the city — to be successful and continue.
The first test of the city of Oakland’s new First Fridays safety plan showed partial success upon its first implementation at last month’s festival.
While late-night crime in the immediate area on the night of June 5 still spiked compared to non-festival Fridays, the city’s efforts did appear to reduce the intensity of the street takeovers in front of the Fox Theater.
Time — and consistency — will tell if the city’s efforts are fully successful over the long term.
A look ahead
The next installment in this series will focus on the history and business operations of the Fox Theater and the central role it plays in the economic growth and vitality of the Uptown arts and entertainment district. Future installments will focus on other notable venues and businesses in the area as well.
We also will continue to follow the First Friday festivals, the unsanctioned after-hours street gatherings, and the city’s efforts to contain them throughout the summer, and will update our crime dashboard as new data arrives.
We also plan to take a closer look at the Oakland Arena, the city’s largest and arguably best-known sports and entertainment venue.
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Reinhart, Sean S. “Late-night crime spikes 44% on First Fridays. The city says it has a new plan to curb it.” Oakland Report, Jun. 5, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/late-night-crime-spikes-on-first-fridays
Citizens Oakland contributors. “First Fridays (festivals actually held) vs. control weekends — reported crime within ¼ mile of the Fox Theater (1807 Telegraph Ave).” Citizens Oakland, accessed Jul. 3, 2026. https://www.citizensoakland.org/first-fridays-incident-data
City of Oakland. “CrimeWatch Data.” Oakland Police Department open data portal, export updated Jun. 29, 2026. https://data.oaklandca.gov/Public-Safety/CrimeWatch-Data/ppgh-7dqv/about_data
City and County of San Francisco. "Police Department Incident Reports: 2018 to Present," DataSF, accessed Jun. 30, 2026. https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Safety/Police-Department-Incident-Reports-2018-to-Present/wg3w-h783
City of San Jose. “Police calls for service.” San Jose Police department crime data portal, accessed Jun. 30, 2026. https://data.sanjoseca.gov/dataset/police-calls-for-service
Cushing, Ellen. “Alcohol and First Fridays.” East Bay Express, Feb. 20, 2013. https://eastbayexpress.com/alcohol-and-first-fridays-1/
Griffin, Ashley and Vanessa Rancaño. “One month after deadly shooting, First Friday returns with a focus on peace.” Oakland North, Mar. 4, 2013. https://oaklandnorth.net/2013/03/04/one-month-after-deadly-shooting-first-friday-returns-with-a-focus-on-peace/
Everything that is wrong with Broakland can be seen in the misguided comments of its mayor Ms Lee. What our sad city faces is not a political issue but a safety issue. Broakland has lost control of its downtown and all the proof one needs can be seen in the shuttered storefronts and empty buildings that line either side of Broadway for blocks on end. Too bad; there used to be large department stores, elegant clothing shops and restaurants. Now its just a playground for young mobs and hooligans.
Batya— Thank you for your comment. People who are “elected to positions of great responsibility” are expected to accept criticism and blame when the city fails to do its job. The city and its elected officials exist to serve Oaklanders, not the other way around.
In the case of mayor Lee, she has not shied away from taking credit for things she had little to do with — such as recent drops in crime and homelessness statistics, to name just two examples out of many.
By the same token, the mayor also must accept responsibility for the reality that Oakland continues to have the highest crime rate of any major city in the state, and homelessness in this city is also far more severe than in other area cities, to use the same examples. These issues do immense harm to Oaklanders every day, to a far greater degree than in other cities.
This is neither an opinion nor a criticism— it is a simple fact, plainly evident.
This, however, is a criticism: many of Oakland’s elected officials and their supporters have repeatedly shown that they prefer not to confront these realities and speak forthrightly about them— instead, they seem to prefer to paint a rosier picture of Oakland’s challenges than Oaklanders see with their own eyes.
Furthermore, many Oakland leaders and their supporters routinely resort to personal attacks on critics, rather than debating issues on the merits. It is small wonder why Oaklanders express such broad dissatisfaction with the state of the city, as multiple surveys have shown.
Thank you again for you comment; the discussion is appreciated.