Late-night crime increased 46% during unsanctioned street gatherings after the First Friday festivals

Updated September 3, 2026

Oakland Report analyzed Oakland Police Department (OPD) crime data to test whether crime increases during the unsanctioned late-night street gatherings that routinely occur a few blocks south of the official First Friday festivals. Our analysis found consistent, significant spikes in crime during these unofficial after-hours gatherings concentrated just south of the official festival event area.

The landmark Fox Theater at 1807 Telegraph Avenue is located a few blocks south of the official First Fridays festival area, and appears to be the (unofficial, unwilling) focal point of the unsanctioned after-hours street gatherings. Oakland Report analyzed every crime incident recorded within a quarter-mile radius of the Fox Theater between 5:00 p.m. Fridays and 6:00 a.m. Saturdays from January 2007 through August 2026.

We compared crime incidents on the first Fridays of each month and the Fridays one week before and one week after, regardless of whether a First Friday festival was held. We then focused on just the 153 dates when official First Friday festivals took place, excluding the years before the festival came into being in 2012, and periods when the festival was on hiatus.

Key findings (as of Sept. 3, 2026):

• Late-night crime incidents increased an average 46% during unsanctioned street parties a few blocks away and shortly after First Friday festivals. On the nights of First Friday festivals, the quarter-mile radius area around the Fox Theater averaged 5.7 crime incidents a night, as opposed to 3.9 crime incidents on the Friday nights in the previous and following weeks. The crime increases occurred almost entirely in the late hours past 9:30 p.m.
• Crime was higher during the late-night hours after the official festivals ended. Festival nights averaged 3.7 incidents after 9:30 p.m., compared to 2.1 incidents on non-festival Fridays. Meanwhile, the earlier evening hours of 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. showed a much smaller difference.
• Crime in the study area a few blocks south of the festival was consistently lower on the first Fridays of the month when there were no festivals. The first Fridays of the month when no festivals were held experienced roughly the same baseline rate of crime as other non-festival Fridays (around 3 to 4 incidents per non-festival Friday night).
• Crime incidents skewed more violent in the late-night hours after First Friday festivals. Assaults, robberies, weapons, and threats made up around 33% of festival-night crime incidents, compared to approximately 21% of crime incidents on non-festival Fridays.