Sad news on a Friday night as the city gears up to dance for another weekend: Ira Sandler, the man behind dance palace 1015 Folsom for more than four decades has died. His passing was announced in a Facebook post by 1015 booker and scene mover DJ Dials, who wrote:
Our beloved friend, brother and impresario Ira Sandler has passed away.
There are very few people who leave a permanent mark on a city’s culture. Ira Sandler was one of them.
San Francisco has always been a city defined by dreamers, outsiders, creators, and innovators. Ira embodied that spirit. He helped preserve and cultivate a community that made this city unique, vibrant, and alive.
For over four decades, Ira was the heart and soul of 1015 Folsom, a legendary space he owned and founded. He was a true original, an icon, a man of kindness and humor. What made Ira special was not just his vision, but his generosity. He gave opportunities to artists before anyone else believed in them. He supported locals, nurtured creative communities, and welcomed people from every walk of life. He dedicated his life to creating spaces where people could thrive and be themselves.
The impact of his work can be measured in millions of the countless people who have and will walk through the doors of 1015 Folsom, but his true legacy lives in the stories those people carry with them.
In the spirit of the community he built, we are gathering to remember him together. We invite you to join us for a celebration of his life, event details to follow. RSVP using in the form below and we’ll contact you with more information: https://forms.gle/nt84Qm1zvaBkJ2Uv5
It’s hard to describe the impact Ira has had on 40 years of local clubbing. He took over the 1015 space in 1986 (on Friday the 13th, no less, a couple days before the Loma Prieto earthquake) and ran it as Das Club, before buying and rebranding it in 1989 in anticipation of the rave scene that was breaking out on the West Coast. While 1015 was known for its major techno parties, it was also fabulously universal in its programming: live shows, gay circuit parties, salsa bangers, wild fundraisers, and parties of every stripe found a home there.
The last time Ira appeared in these pages it was for 1015’s 30th anniversary party in 2019, where he waxed rhapsodic about his good friend DJ Doc Martin, who helped the club transform into a house and techno Mecca and put SF on the underground map. Ira’s generosity of spirit and taste puts him in the pantheon of club giants of the early electronic dance music era like Doctor Winkie of Club DV8 and Audrey Joseph of 177 Townsend. I’m overwhelmed by memories of all the times I’ve had there ’til way too wee in the morning.
His club will still bang on, in fact you can go dance there this weekend. RIP to a great one.
