A saxophonist who’s gained a massive following on social media for playing to crowds in public spaces drew hundreds of fans to San Francisco’s iconic Palace of Fine Arts — only for officers to swoop in and shut it down.
Nathanial Young, whose viral POV videos have gained him hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, announced Monday that he’d be playing a one-hour performance at the location the following night.
According to videos on social media, a huge crowd showed up at the pavilion to watch the performance, encircling him as he played. Some attendees reportedly climbed onto the side of buildings to watch.
Witnesses said that after 30 minutes, officers showed up and shut the concert down. Young said on Instagram that he saw a helicopter overhead and figured the jig was up.
“Even though we got shut down early, the Bay really took care of me,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’ll come thru again soon to run it back in the same spot. I think the biggest issue is that people were climbing the building so that just can’t happen next time.”
Locals expressed anger at police shutting down what they described as a beautiful moment.
“How can we support this desperately wanted depth of San Francisco’s culture? We have such beautiful spaces,” one local wrote in a message directed atSan Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. “We should let them sing and play.”
“Allow us to stumble upon something actually good in the streets,” another added.
Many used the incident to comment on San Francisco’s crime-ridden reputation, highlighting more serious acts like drug use that they claim would not see a police officer show up.
“Of all the laws being violated in San Francisco at the time, this surely was the worst and highest priority for the police to address. Thank you for keeping us safe SFPD!” one user sarcastically said.
The California Post contacted the San Francisco Police Department, which referred questions to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
“This was an unpermitted gathering with more than 100 people at the Palace of Fine Arts,” the department said in a statement. “Dozens were climbing the landmark structure — an activity that resulted in catastrophic injury in the past. With people engaging in unsafe activity, our ranger shut down the event.”
Young was classically trained at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. He had quit playing saxophone temporarily, he told GQ, but later started building an online following with his guerilla shows recorded by his Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
“A part of what I really like about playing free music in these spaces with an open invitation to the public is that there’s this feeling of reclaiming underutilized public space,” he said.
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