The Hard French Winter Ball is rapidly approaching, and while there’s still a few tickets available, the deadline to nominate your 2013 Hard French King and Queen is tonight at 6pm:

We’re looking for extraordinary folks from our community who are smart, sweet, artsy, crafty, committed, bold, big-hearted, and of course, self-identifiably sexy and know how to shake their tail feathers!  Ultimately, it’s a chance to honor the folks who tend to put in more than they get back, to say thank you for being part of what makes our community so great!

Wait, you don’t even know what the Hard French Winter Ball is all about?  Well, just imagine 1000 folks from SF going down to Santa Cruz to party on the boardwalk at the Coconut Grove Grand Ballroom!  Check out all the details here, get your tickets here, and don’t forget to nominate those beautiful friends, lovers, crushes, and all-around heroes here!

Now that daylight savings is about to kick in and the sun in starting to set on our glorious Indian summer, that also means that the best daytime party in the Mission will be bidding farewell for the season, but not before one last blowout bash!  It’s all going down this Saturday, Nov 3, with festivities starting as they normally would on the El Rio patio before transitioning to Public Works at 10pm for a glorious afterparty featuring our pals Midnight Magic all the way from the clutches of Sandy in NYC.  And don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes, because these folks will MAKE YOU DANCE!

And the best part is that we’re offering two (2) free tickets to whomever can submit the best photo or story in the comments that embodies just how rad Hard French really is.  Or just post your rad Halloween costumes!  The contest ends promptly at 6pm on Thursday (tomorrow), so you better get cracking!  Also, don’t forget to check out all the details as well as RSVP and invite your friends here.

Oh, and did I mention that these folks will make you dance:

Just in case you’re unable to get all that deviance out of your system at the Folsom Street Fair this weekend, the afterparty is going down at Public Works this Sunday starting at 3pm and they’re closing down Erie Street to make it a danceteria block party featuring a collaboration of three of San Francisco’s most notorious underground queer collectives: Honey Soundsystem, Hard French, and Some Thing!

However, leave that ball-gag at home because this afterparty also comes complete with a goddamn FOOD COURT!  The fare speaks to either your naughty or nice side:

Good Cop:

Mr. Nice, up and coming environmentally sustainable gourmet food truck, will be providing the lighter side of things. 10 flavors of Three Twins Organic Ice Cream and its sausage and hot dogs made exclusively for Mr. Nice by Compass Star Catering. If you’ve been a good boy, maybe you will get one of the limited edition Folsom Frankfurters Mr. Nice is cooking up just for our event!

Bad Cop:

Angry Man Eats is taking all this S&M real serious for its part in the Folsom Deviants Food Court. Armed and ready with its signature ass-kicking Chicken and Waffles. Alongside the regular menu, patrons might need a safe word if they order the “Corporal Punishment Chocolate Waffle.” An Angry Man Liege Waffle on a stick dipped in rich chocolate with black and blue sprinkles on top.

Check out all of the details like DJ sets and other stuff here!

Congratulations to Cyd for this epic photo that pretty perfectly sums up the Hard French experience and serves as the winner of our free ticket photo contest!  We’re sure you and your friend will have a similarly magnificent time this Sunday, because Pride is finally upon us this weekend and Hard French is ready to celebrate like never before with a whole lineup of DJs and other fun stuff in additon to special guest Erase Errata!

And for the rest of you who might not remember all the details, check them out here!

I’ve expressed my love for Hard French in the past and have been exhorting you all to see what the fun is all about for some time, and now you have the perfect opportunity:  The Hard French 2011 Pride Party at Public Works on Sunday, June 26th!  They folks behind this weekly afternoon party are kicking it up a notch for Pride with DJs and live performances by some of the fiercest acts in the Bay Area.

The best part is that we’re giving away two free tickets to whichever MM readers post the raddest Hard French photo in the comments below!  Include a link to the photo (and a caption if you’re clever) and we will announce the winner at the beginning of next week!  If you have a Facebook photo, be sure that it’s set to “public” so everyone can see it, or just post it on Flickr or something.

Oh my.  I almost forgot to mention that the special guest will be Erase Errata!  Check out the full press release after the jump:

[Photo by Keep Drowning]

What’s this, Hard French is hosting a debut party at Pride?

Hard French has got some serious soul, but for Pride we’re going to kick our offerings up a notch and bring you live music, DJ’s & performances that cross boundaries, transcend genres and break down all sonic barriers.  On our main stage get ready to sweat to performances by the electrifying Big Freedia, the “Queen Diva” of New Orleans bounce music, HOTTUB, dirty disco rappers from Oakland, a rare performance by Bay Area Post-Riot Grrrl legends Erase Errata, Nick Waterhouse and the Tarots, a rough n’ ready group of guys and gals playing old-school r&b music and other special surprises.   Upstairs in the Oddjob Room strap in for a wild ride with 6 clubs in 6 hours bringing you sets by some of the hottest queer DJ’s from San Francisco and beyond and in addition to the ‘next level’ drag of the Queen of Nasty, Christeene Vale.  Of course, we would never leave you craving for the sweet soul music and special touches that keeps you coming back to our parties month after month so plan on sweating it out to hours upon hours of your favorite 45’s from our house DJ’s  Brown Amy & Carnita as well as our special guest, the legendary DJ Beyonda and don’t miss our smoking-hot Hard French Jiggalicious Dance Babes and notorious Photo Booth which will be benefiting a local queer non-profit.   Our goal this year was to create a Pride Party with something for everyone: Hard Cruising, Hard Dancing & Hard Frenching – it just got better.

Party Details:

Public Works

161 Erie Street at Mission

Sunday, June 26, 2011, 2pm – 10pm

$15 Limited VIP Presale, $20 At the Door

Presale tickets now onsale at http://hardfrenchpride.eventbrite.com/

“Is Hard French the country’s best gay party?

– Zack Rosen, The New Gay

“A raucous party filling the weekend void with BBQ animals on the grill, marinated animals on the patio and dance floor, and DJ Carnita and Brown Amy on the tables.”

–Marke B, San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Nearly a full city block from the doors of the El Rio I could hear the crowd, and I experienced my first reaction to the best damn party in the city: ‘Man, where have I been all this time?’”

–Jonathan Hirsch, Asterisk San Francisco Magazine

On the Mainstage:

As always:

DJ Carnita & DJ Brown Amy
playing the 60s girl groups, early ’70s soulful funk, boogaloo, garage & Northern Soul stompers

Special Guest DJ Beyonda (PDX)

the legendary Pacific Northwest DJ who founded Portland’s famous Hole in My Soul party

Live Performances by:
Big Freedia (NoLa)
The undisputed “Queen Diva” of Bounce Music

HOTTUB (Oakland)

Dirty Disco Rap

Erase Errata (SF)

Post-Riot Grrrl, Post-Feminist, Post-Punk legends

Nick Waterhouse & The Tarots (SF)
Playing R&B music like it’s new again – raw and rhythmic and vital

In the Oddjob Room:
Six Parties in Six Hours!

Stay Gold with DJs Rapid Fire & Pink Lightning

White hottt cruising and hella gay dance jams
Ships In The Night with DJs Bunnystyle & Black

A Radical, Trans-Bay, Queer Dance Party
OH! with DJ Taco Tuesday

The Party for the Dirty Gentleman
Dial-Up with DJs Robert Jeffrey and Dr. Sleep

The Call of the Wild(est) Party in Town
PARTYHOLE!!!!!!!! with DJs Booty Klap & Jiggles

Nasty Jams for Nasty Follks
Blow Pony with DJs Airick X & Kinetic (PDX)

Queerupted with Class

Live performance by Christeene (Austin, TX)
Filthy, funny and freaky and often accused of sexual terrorism and drag de-evolution

What is Hard French?

As San Francisco’s favorite daytime soul music dance party, Hard French sets out to bring a diverse group of folks together to modernize, takeover, revamp, trick out, revive, and do up the dance party experience.  Their crew consists of two DJs (Brown Amy and Carnita) and four producers (Devon Devine, Tina Faggotina, Jorge P., and Amos G) and brings a fresh perspective to the SF party scene – focusing on a genuine experience through creativity, magic and the value of dancing your heart out to your favorite song.  Hard French hit the road in 2010, throwing successful parties at The East River Bar in Brooklyn, the Augusta House in Toronto, ON and their most ambitious event to date- the First Annual Hard French Winter Ball which drew over 400 attendees to the Historic Brookdale Lodge – a haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Hard French has been featured in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, SFist.com, SF Weekly, Asterisk Magazine, The Village Voice (NYC), MissionMission, Butt Magazine Online and more.

Hard Dancing. Hard Cruising. Hard Homos.

CONTACT:

hardfrenchsf@gmail.com

www.hardfrench.com

http://www.facebook.com/hardfrench

Hard French Video Trailer by Jason Whalen

If you’ve never experienced the magic that is Hard French, the wildly irreverent courtyard party thrown at El Rio on Saturdays, then you clearly aren’t doing this whole “livin’ in the Mission” thing right.  Luckily, this Saturday is your big chance to ameliorate that transgression, as Hard French is teaming up with Stay Gold and Mango to throw the most hella gay dance party afternoon of the year (so far) from 3-8pm.  Not only will there be rad jams and most likely a glitter kiddie pool, but your admission ($7-500 sliding scale) will help save the Dyke March which is in danger of being cancelled this year (and possibly forever) due to serious financial difficulties.  Check out all the deets here.

You’ve been warned, so don’t screw it up this time.

[Photo by Primo]

Jorge P. sent us a note about the inaugural event for a cool dance/BBQ party he’s throwing at El Rio:

The idea behind the event is that we want to modernize, takeover, revamp, trick out, revive, do up, the Outdoor Afternoon Dance Party Scene in the Mission… We want a party for everyone, a party, where drag queens mingle with lesbians, leather daddy’s soul dance with cholas, sharps share hot dogs with activists, jocks make out with twinks, brown meets white meets purple meets gay guy meets ladies meets q and everyone leaves with excited feelings for the next party.

The party is being Dj’d by Resident DJ newcomers and soul music wizards Dj Carnitas and DJ Brown Amy. They along with the rest of the Hard French crew are our music curators and throughout the summer, promise to bring it! with live bands, guest dj’s, performers and the like. All in the spirit of the maximum that is Mission SOUL Afternoon Dance and Food.

BBQ and Soul music! A bunch of subcultures which I’m not familiar with!! Sounds like a cool way to spend a Saturday. See the flyer for details.

Only thing is, I don’t know what the French have to do with it. Some say that the term “barbecue” comes from the French “barbe à queue, meaning “beard to tail” which sounds like how you would grill a hipster furry. That’s right, I made a crack about cannibalism, hipsters, and furries! If you were offended by all three simultaneously, we’d like to hear from you.