Bad Bunny took the world by storm during his Super Bowl Halftime Show, and so did the 400 mostly local performers in the now-famous “grass bunny” costumes who are sharing their experiences all over the internet, with one performer listing the prized costume on eBay for $5,000.

National outlets published a variety of “a day in the life” type interviews all week highlighting the ins-and-outs that the estimated 400 sugarcane-grass performers experienced during their epic two weeks of rehearsals for Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, culminating in the show of a lifetime Super Bowl Sunday.

Andrew Athias of Philadelphia, one of the few non-local performers in the group, wrote a first-hand account for the Business Insider. Athias said he found out about the gig through the Backlit job listing, which entailed strict height and build requirements, as SFist reported in January. Athias writes that the performers weren’t told what their roles would be until rehearsals, and they all signed strict NDAs not to provide any details until after the performance. In an interview with CNN, Athias said about 40 performers were fired for violating the terms of their agreements.

@cnn

Andrew Athias performed in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as a bush, a job that is rumored to have had over 40,000 applicants. Athias shares his experience with CNN.

♬ original sound - CNN

In his BI piece, Athias writes that the performers wore the costumes, which he said weighed around 40 pounds, for eight rehearsals — six or seven hours straight for the first five rehearsals and 12 hours for the final three. In his CNN interview, he said the costumes consisted of a headpiece, backpack, and tunic.

“The suits were heavy and uncomfortable,” writes Athias in the BI. “Every now and again, you'll have a blade of plastic grass going places where grass should not go. Fortunately, we were given some protective goggles.”

Nevertheless, Athias writes in BI that although he got paid for the gig ($18.70 an hour), he would've performed in the show for free.

Likewise, up until 2022, many background Super Bowl performers used to be required to perform for free. As Entertainment Weekly reports, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, spurred by the advocacy of dancer Taja Riley, found that while some performers received payment during the halftime show, others were required to work for free. Per EW, Super Bowl dancers and background performers now earn a guaranteed minimum wage through a union contract, amounting to roughly $1,300 a week, per the site CapitalXtra.

Despite being heavy, the “grass bunny” costumes were reportedly pretty comfortable. UC Berkeley student Nikolai Petukhov told People magazine, “It was very well-designed and it was comfortable, actually," he said. "So many people assumed that maybe it was hot, but no. It was chill. It was cool."

Petukhov went on to explain that their roles as bush performers were pretty straightforward. “I wouldn't say it was choreography,” he told People. “We were just standing still.”

The designer who dressed the performers, Ashton Legadoé, posted a behind-the-scenes reel congratulating costume designer Monique L. Peters who created the costumes, along with fellow designer Fern Legadoé and their costume team of over 60 workers. Per Legadoé, Jones Specialty Softgoods, a custom sewing shop in Georgia, constructed the costumes.

Not surprisingly, one of the grass bunny costumes  made it onto eBay within two hours of the final Super Bowl score, as People reports. The item, which is listed at $5,000, has yet to sell. Per the seller, the listing includes the balaclava and shoulder harness from the costume, as well as the in-ear radio, sweat suit, and gloves worn during rehearsal.

Naturally, many suspect the grass bunny costume will be the dominant costume of 2026, with a Bad Bunny-centric Spirit Halloween meme sweeping social media. Additionally, SF Travel anticipates many grass bunny ensembles proliferating Bay to Breakers in May.

Previously: Bad Bunny Disappoints Short Fans With Height Requirement for Super Bowl Show Staff

Here’s one costume that goes paleo for Halloween, and the entire year, as the fifteen-foot-long glowing LED dinosaur “Doloresaurus” roars, plays music, and tricera-tops all the other costumes in town.

There will be 41 car-free streets in San Francisco this evening for the Halloween trick-or-treat festivities. The one you choose just might get a visit from the famed lit-up aqua-green LED dinosaur Doloresaurus, who just received a ‘glowing’ profile on KPIX seen below, where we meet the man behind (actually, inside) the dinosaur suit, SF attorney Trevor Mead.

The “bones” of the Doloresaurus are made from laser-cut PVC, while the skin is foam with LED lights lining the inside. The contraption can glow for up to six hours, though the rawr suit structure takes up as much space as a car inside Mead’s garage. The Doloresaurus’s stomping grounds are primarily Dolores Park, though the beast has been spotted at events all over the Bay Area.

“This is how I deal with my day, with my life choices that led me to become a lawyer,” Mead joked to Mission Local in a profile they ran of him in March of this year.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sergio Garcia (@iampowersurge)

Not surprisingly, the Doloresaurus has also been at Burning Man the last couple of years, and the outfit has existed for the last three years, though Mead had modified it several times. The costume is based on a design by Dutch artist Esmée Kramer, though Mead cites that one of his primary inspirations is our dear old friend Robot Dance Party.

And as seen in the video above, Doloresaurus also plays music, and can produce a number of amusing sounds.

“Kids above a certain height, it was their favorite thing ever. Below a certain height, they were terrified of it. Just terrified,” Mead said to Mission Local, explaining why he added to sound capacities. “In addition to roaring, it talks, meows, burps, farts, sings.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DFT (@dftsanfrancisco)

As for Mead’s future plans for the Doloresaurus, KPIX says he hopes to “build a whole herd” of these for group outings that could involve multiple LED disco dinosaurs.

Related: Video: Animatronic Muppet Singing Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles' Rolls Down Valencia Street [SFist]

Image: Palo Alto Public Art Program via Facebook

• The slow-moving Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to become a major hurricane centered over the northern part of the Caribbean Sunday. Experts anticipate multiple days of heavy rain — between 25 and 35 inches in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, resulting in life-threatening flash flooding and landslides. [Associated Press]
• A large-scale investigation spearheaded by the Mountain View Police Department resulted in the capture of Franklin Enrique Sarceño Orla, 35, who’s suspected of drugging and raping over 60 men in the South Bay dating back to 2018. Sarceño is scheduled to appear in court Monday on 43 felony sexual assault charges after being brought back to Santa Clara from Guatemala where he fled. [KGO]

• A professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, Daniel Palanker, has created a device that has successfully helped about 30 people with advanced age-related macular degeneration gain their ability to read again during a clinical trial. [SFGate]
• Newsom signed a bill on October 13 that requires the launch of a state commission on the inclusion of trans youth in sports, following backlash over his podcast with Charlie Kirk in March discussing the “unfairness” of allowing trans athlete AB Hernandez to compete in the state track and field competition. [KQED]
• Experts think Prop 50, which would temporarily redraw California’s US Congressional districts before the 2026 midterm election, is sure to win, as Democrats supporting the measure have out-spent opponents, one of whom single-handedly donated $30 million to squash it. [Bay Area News Group]
• Halloween Lovers and Television News Enthusiasts: Now’s your chance to get on the big screen — send pics of your costumes to KRON4 by October 29 to be featured on next Saturday’s broadcast. [KRON4]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The San Francisco Sunday morning tradition of Bay to Breakers reared its drunken head again for the 113th annual running of the race, with Dune, Barbie, and Tesla Cybertruck-themed costumed ridiculousness packing the streets.

A Magnificent May morning greeted the runners, drinkers, and hooligans of Sunday’s Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. KTVU estimates that “​​more than 20,000 runners” turned out for the seven-plus mile footrace from the Embarcadero to Ocean Beach.

While it was a largely intoxicated crowd, we are not yet seeing any reports of arrests at press time Monday morning. Compare that to ten years ago, when there were 24 arrests at Bay to Breakers, including a guy who ran naked into Golden Gate Park’s bison field.

The day’s most memorable group costume may have been this giant Dune sandworm, which really spiced things up on a Sunday morning.

A gang of Tesla Cybertrucks had license plates like “DUSHBG” and “CMPNS8,” and they even earned themselves an SFGate profile of their costumes. “We built these yesterday, but we’ve been talking about this for six months,” alleged Cybertruck costume ringleader Anh Nguyen told SFGate (there were actually nine people in this consumed group). But sigh, it turns out that two of them are actual Tesla owners.

Should you care, KGO reports on the actual race winners. San Francisco resident Colin Bennie won the men’s category for the second year in a row with a time of 37:02, Julia Vasquez-Giguere took top honors in the women’s category with a 43:49 finishing time, SF’s Cal Calamia won the nonbinary category for the third year in a row with a time of 44:26.

But the costumes and whimsy are the real story here. Those runners who managed to make it over Hayes Hill were treated to a full “Statler and Waldorf” show.

There was of course a disproportionate number of cows and Mario/Nintendo-themed outfits.

But even youngsters were able to get in on these games.

And as you would expect, there were a fair number of Barbies in the mix.

Yes, there were security guards right by Alamo Square Park again, catching people with booze and making them dump it out. This also brought out some recyclable gleaners, and that young lady in leopard print who’s giving those security guards the business about something or other.

But not far from those security guards, people were guzzling beer bongs and doing keg stands with impunity.  

The hot dog stands that kids are setting up along the fenced areas of Fell Street and getting more and more professional, calling into question the degree to which adults are helping the kids run these increasingly ambitious operations.

The “Mission(ary) burritos” stand seen below also got an SFGate writeup, and the Mormon missionary-themed burrito pop-up had Dalton Thomas, previously a chef at Michelin-starred restaurants, serving 24-hour marinated al pastor in the burritos. They were quite the hit, and those teens serving the burritos were kept so busy they did not have time to save any souls.

A few actual religious nuts showed up to tsk-tsk everyone that they will be going straight to hell. Yet the nudists seemed happy to hold court in their areas, further aggravating the Jesus freaks.

We also saw some good San Francisco homage costumes, like the wild parrots and the fog seen below.

And according to KTVU, a team of “structural engineers” made the Painted Ladies seen below, structures in which they did run the race wearing.

This lobster party was probably the largest theme-costume group, and treated themselves to a little rave in the park after their run.

The whole thing went quite smoothly, in large part because sponsor Zappos really put the effort into supplying enough porta-potties and water for race registrants and crashers alike. There may have been some Dixie Cups and tortillas left strewn on the streets for a bit, but it was a peaceful crowd that did not seem to trash anything. If you weren’t able to attend, or just want to relive Sunday’s nutty lunacy, there are a bunch more Bay to Breakers 2024 pictures below.

Related: Your Bay to Breakers 2024 Guide to Drinking and Partying Like a Champion [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

Boasting outfits ideal for hanging out at Bender's in the Mission or walking through the TL at 3AM, the San Francisco Opera will, for the fifth time in its history, sell costumes from noted opera productions. And you won't want to miss it. Because you look great in 18th century crinolines.

"This rare sale will offer hundreds of stylish and exotic items, including hats, masks, fabrics and shoes, as well as handmade costumes spanning a wide variety of styles and periods, for men, women and children," SF Opera boasts. "In addition to medieval, biblical, Renaissance, and 18th-century costumes, modern and vintage clothing previously worn in San Francisco Opera productions are also available, as well as conceptual and fantasy costumes that defy description."

I will need all of these.

Costumes from The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, 19th-century Eugene Onegin, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Don Giovanni will be on sale. There's even a piece in there that was created by Gianni Versace.

As for your wallet dent, expect items in the $1 to $750 range. All proceeds benefit the SF Opera. The sale happens this weekend from March 22 through March 23 in Dogpatch at the San Francisco Opera Costume Shop at 800 Indiana Street (between 20th and 22nd Streets).

For more information, visit sfopera.com.

It may not feel like it, but we've entered October, and that means Halloween is fast approaching. Halloween is a dark and spooky day when the souls of the dead rise up to startle schoolchildren, cliched "sexy" costumes are forgiven, and we delve deep into the fears and hopes of San Francisco's collective psyche. And what's scarier than the ghosts of San Francisco's year past? Here are our picks for topical costume ideas to haunt your Halloween dreams.

Costume: The rental market
Execution: Print out recent Craiglist apartment postings and pin them to your clothing, adopting a haggard expression (zombie makeup optional). Or just stand on the corner with your pockets turned out, looking forlorn.

Costume: London Breed on Twitter
Execution: Shout things like "if you pay my salary, I want a raise to listen to your bullshit!" "You started it," and "Ohhhh I'm scared," then duck down when people to try to figure out who said it.

Costume: The America's Cup
Execution: Options abound within this theme. Try a ruddy, goodnatured New Zealander turned vampire, a spooky dark-winged Oracle boat (we recommend black garbage bags for sails) or a terrifyingly smug Larry Ellison chugging champagne.

Costume: Craft cocktail bar
Execution: Craft cocktails becoming the scourge of your neighborhood? Scare your friends with a candy-striper-esque tray of artisanal bitters, balls of ice, mason jars and herbal infusions. Adopt a deathly serious air and some facial hair, dream up a cute name for your bar and buy some of these if you're missing the requisite body ink.

Costume: Google bus
Execution: Few things get people more riled up than mention of the now-ubiquitous commuter buses gumming up city streets. Feed into the paranoid by scoring a large cardboard box and fastening it over your shoulders with rope. Use finger paint or markers to draw your commuter bus of choice (don't be afraid to get fancy!), and bring along a kitchen knife to slay the bus in a midnight ritual frenzy.

Costume: Karl the Fog
Execution: Drape a grey sheet or blanket over your head. Offer witty commentary on everyone else's costume and try to include puns on the words "mist," "drizzle" "grey" and "cloud." Brag about your sexual relationships with the Golden Gate Bridge towers.

And when it comes to your topical Halloween costume, by all means get creative, but steer clear of Asiana plane crash references. It's just too soon.

Runners up include Peter Shih, Willie Brown Bridge, and Muni mishaps large and small. What did we miss?

Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect 3 shot by Bob Horowitz.

Boozy participants dressed up at Segways, Ghostbusters, "the Yip-Yips," unicorns, Futurama's Bender, sexy [insert animal of choice], cheerleaders, evil Disney queens, and more during Bay to Breakers 2013. Local photographer Bhautik Joshi snapped these colorful shots of Sunday afternoon's annual marathon revelry.

Amid the pomp and circumstance and BPR-swilling, the Bay To Breakers 2013 race winner was Tolossa Gedefa Fufi, who you can also find featured in this gallery.

Previously: Bay to Breakers 2013

Boozy Bay to Breakers kicked off in zany fashion this year. Here are a few images of decked out participants in the 2013 race. This year's attire included Super Mario, Princess Peach, wrestlers in a ring, tutu, Eagle Scouts Lt. Dangle, just to name a few.

Halloween approaches. Scratch that. Halloween weekend approaches. So that could mean you require more than one costume over the next three days. But what to wear, you locally-minded folks ask? A Frank Chu costume has been done to death. Every other Missionite already looks like Brian Wilson. And only the tackiest of tramps go as a sexy black cat.

Have no fear, folks, as the SFist staff has culled some thoughtful and quick ideas for this coming All Hallow's Eve weekend.

• One color: As DCist (who inspired this costume guide) points out, you can simply wear one solid color for maximum Halloween gaiety. Black on black, blue on blue, etc. If you wear all violet... you can also be The Color Purple! Ahem. Moving on.

• A fig on a plate: Because nothing is as scary as a napoleonic complex meshed with a foodie, go as David Chang's least favorite stereotype about San Francisco.

• The Brown Twins: We saw them on the 30 Stockton a few months back sporting tattered clothes. They could use some goodwill promotion.

• A real housewife from Marin: A Chanel bag and fondness for tuna tartare in a martini glass will do the trick.

• The new Bay Bridge span: Ideal if you're some sort of architect.

• Occupy protester: It was a moment of Zen on The Daily Show this week. Why not own the look of the now via a nifty 99% costume?

• The bush guy: Jump out of a bush and scare the living crap out of passersby. Halloween gold is yours.

• Naked person: Flaunt your meat down the street while being topical.

• Huey Lewis: If you've seen Short Cuts, you know that stuffing a sock (or two) down your pants will give your look an authentic touch.

• Injured Buster Posey: You will get laid. Period.

• The St. Regis: Perfect for thin and plus-size revelers alike.

• Jesus Christ Loves You guy: Frank Chu is dull, unoriginal and woefully meh. Why not go as the other sanity-estranged guy on the street holding a sign?

• It's It: It is, after all, it.

• Burrito: Wrap yourself in tinfoil. Anoint head with refried beans and rice. Voila.

• A homosexual: Tricked you! You can't! We are a culture, not a costume! (Well, for the most part, anyway.)

• Vanessa Getty: This will win you first place in any Halloween costume contest. For she is perfect.

• 66 Quintara line: The F-Market, J Judah, and 38 Geary are dead. It's all about the 66 Quintara now. Because we said so. (Honorable alternate: 10 Townsend)

• Clipper card: Make sure you run around screaming "BOOP!" at the top of your lungs.

• Hashtag: You nerd.

• Zombie pedestrian with bicycle skidmarks: What, too soon?

Anymore bright ideas? Share them with us in the comments.

Still trying to come up with a sexy costume for the big race, but going in the nude is so passé? As these trend-setters demonstrate, there's nothing sexier than adult diapers paired with baby bottles, bibs, and giant pacifiers.

Kudos to the Baby Breakers Flickr group and Creative Commons for giving us such gems all in one place. Here are a couple of the creepiest ones we found, which lucky for you, didn't have a license for re-use and were left out of the mix.

We'd like to know what Beth Spotswood has to say about this.

Sunday was the annual How Weird Street Faire, which took place on Howard Street (get it?), and it was just as colorful and lively as ever. Although no one showed up wearing a new Hermes suit with a sharp updo - which would have been truly weird, at least for this raucous crowd - a good time, it seems, was had by all.

Flickr photo Generik11 captured some shots of the whimsy. Check out more of his How Weird Street Faire images.

Scores of comic aficionados converged on Moscone Center this weekend to attend the annual Wondercon, our annual comic book, science fiction, and motion picture convention. Folks dressed up in colorful attire, emulating characters ranging from Captain America to Superman to (most splendidly) Bob's Big Boy.

Check out these images of the action.