Recently, a big apple fell on the heads of a bunch of us neighbors in SF's Inner Sunset neighborhood and we experienced an epiphany: It's time to radically redefine people's experience of community. With all the Facebooks, Twitters, and smartphones in the world, we looked outside and saw that everybody is still sitting lonely in their houses. We got together, brainstormed intensely, and formulated a new vision.

To kick it off, we've decided to have a big event, the Inner Sunset Street Fair, happening Sunday October 16th 2011. We're calling it a street fair, but it's more a giant block party mixed with Burning Man.

Our agenda: Instead of being the usual “buy more stuff” schlockfest (eg. Haight Street Fair), we're building community – make people excited to live here, get them comfortable opening up to their neighbors, and reclaim the streets as gathering spaces.

How are we going to do it? By lots of fun, eclectic features created by local people – a little like Burning Man but purely focused on community-building.

Some of our favorite ideas include:-

• Name Tag-Making Booth (using shrinky-dinks)

• Choose Your Ceremony chapel - Choice of wedding (2 or more anythings can marry), funeral (celebrate your life while still alive), and award (receive/give whatever award you want)

• Box Mountain – Dozens and dozens of boxes for kids to stack, arrange, make forts, wear, etc.

• Baby Disco – Unite parents through groovy 4 year olds

• Chris C's Tea Party Living Room – Reclaiming “tea party” for its original use

There's a lot more happening besides the above. Rock bands with 10 year olds, every local community organization we know of, outdoor dining, neighborhood-specific historical presentations, squishy human brains from our local medical university, and so much more.

We hope this event will catalyze a profound change in the Inner Sunset to a place where neighbors on every block know one another, where children can play in the streets, and where life is much richer than the Work and Consume life that's all too common today.

People are already buzzing about this event - and we've not told them that we're a little short on funds to make it happen. Awesome Foundation... can you help us make this dream come true?!