The light goes out for ‘Saber Battle SF’ host
A man dressed in a Royal Naboo Guard costume stood in line for a dessert crepe from a food truck as hundreds gathered atop an AstroTurf field behind him. They wielded “Star Wars”-inspired plastic lightsabers and howled with laughter as the lights of downtown San Francisco twinkled to the south. It was almost 9 o’clock on Saturday night and folks were ready to battle — that is, once they’d finished their crepes.
Kevin Bracken, 31, is one of the founders of Newmindspace, an event-planning outfit that organizes “urban playground” meet-ups. Bracken wore up-styled hair, a black leather jacket and a very laid-back attitude as the host of “Saber Battle SF 2017” at Spark Social SF, a permanent food truck, sangria and beer garden in the emerging Mission Bay neighborhood.
“We’ve tried to find anything that’s really cheap that you can invite 1,000 people to,” Bracken said of his events, which also include pillow fights and soap bubble battles. “Let’s take your favorite childhood activity, take it out of a suburban setting, put it in a downtown setting and invite 1,000 people.”
Just after 9 p.m. Bracken strolled into the center of the field behind Spark Social SF, divided the participants into self-styled sides of good and evil, and by the glow of 1,000 plastic lightsabers that he’d sold them for $10, and gave the signal. With that, hundreds of “Star Wars” enthusiasts raced toward each other in a nighttime battle scene far more reminiscent of “Braveheart” than anything we’d seen in a galaxy far, far away.
For the past three years, Bracken and Newmindspace have produced the annual “Saber Battle” in San Francisco, usually around the time a new “Star Wars” movie is released. Lightsaber battles take place all over the world, and Bracken is quick to mention that he runs just one of them. Bracken’s battles, however, are especially designed to be accessible to anyone. That’s why there’s no entry cost for a battle and break-even fee for a plastic saber.
“In order to get a real diverse crowd,” Bracken explained as he happily exchanged a broken saber for a working one, “you can’t rely on people bringing their own lightsaber. Then it’s only white guys in their 20s who show up.”
Bracken’s philosophy is about more than just his love of “Star Wars” movies. He regards “lightsaber battling en masse” as a right protected by the United States Constitution and believes a communal gathering of like-minded strangers is “a playful element of the larger public space movement.”
Which is to say that for Bracken, a lightsaber battle is a form of public art work. He regards events like his as just as important to urban planning as sidewalk widths and Muni routes. To his disappointment, not everyone agrees.
In 2015, Bracken organized the largest (earthly) lightsaber battle in recorded history, complete with 9,951 participants in four different cities, including San Francisco. Immediately afterward, he received a $10,000 bill from the city and a cease-and-desist letter from Disney, which owns Lucasfilm, and thus “Star Wars.” As a result, Bracken was embroiled in three months of out-of-court settlement negotiations with the major entertainment studio and not only had to change several components of his saberbased events, but emerged disheartened with the “Star Wars” franchise.
“My heart just isn’t in it anymore,” Bracken confessed, in addition to revealing that he never paid the $10,000 bill.
Saturday night was Bracken and Newmindspace’s last “Saber Battle SF.” He’s hoping to find someone to take over hosting lightsaber battles in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, but for Bracken, it’s time to move on to his fulltime project, touring with his 30-foot fire-breathing dragon stage. “Events are an art form,” he said, “and this is my expression.”
By 9:30, about a third of the participants had left, either for home or for a cold beer and a warm bowl of food truck noodles around one of Spark Social’s communal fire pits. The rest had broken off into small battles. Laughter, backed by a “Star Wars” soundtrack pumped in through speakers, floated over the quiet neighborhood.
Bracken looked a little sad as he scanned the battlefield. “This is who I am. Events are my life.” He handed off another lightsaber to a happy guest and said, “to bring people this joy — I find it the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.”
“We’ve tried to find anything that’s really cheap that you can invite 1,000 people to.” Kevin Bracken, Newmindspace