All Shook Up

San Francisco Celebrates Earthquake

Partying and preparedness for the Big Rumble.

Earthquake party? The San Francisco mayor’s office is sponsoring a week’s worth of city-wide festivities in remembrance of the 6.9 Loma Prieta quake that hit the San Andreas fault in 1989 and killed 63 people (and injured thousands more) in the Bay Area. The festivities, which the city has dubbed the “Big Rumble” kicks off Saturday, and will include 20 neighborhood block parties rife with barbeque and potato salad, martial arts demonstrations, drum circles, break dancers, and electro-pop dance groups such as “My First Earthquake.” The city will also, appropriately, run panels on emergency management and conferences on structural engineering. The Big Rumble, which is also held near the anniversary of the 1906 quake that killed 3,000 people, is meant to “reinvigorate our commitment, not just to earthquake preparedness but to any type of hazard,” said a spokesperson. And, apparently, to have a really big excuse to party.