So when a born-and-raised local decides to throw an immersive variety show that combines Vikings, rabbits, the occult, lucha libre, and comedy into one unholy evening, we're inclined to say: this is the kind of thing SF should be encouraging.

The event is called Viking Party, and it's exactly as unclassifiable as it sounds. The next installment lands June 13 at Mayes on Polk Street, and all proceeds go to Napa Bunnies rabbit rescue — because of course they do. This is San Francisco.

Here's what we appreciate about this from a liberty-minded perspective: no city grant applications, no nonprofit industrial complex overhead, no Board of Supervisors resolution declaring June "Immersive Viking Awareness Month." Just a guy with a bizarre creative vision, a venue willing to host it, and a charity that benefits. That's how culture is supposed to work — from the ground up, funded by people who actually show up.

One SF resident summed up the appetite perfectly: "We need something like Sleep No More, which was an awesome experience and a big hit in NYC." They're not wrong. San Francisco has spent years watching other cities build immersive cultural scenes while our bureaucracy makes it progressively harder — and more expensive — to do anything creative in a commercial space.

The best economic development program a city can have isn't a tax credit or a task force. It's making it easy for weird, passionate people to do weird, passionate things. Viking Party didn't need permission from City Hall to exist, and that's precisely why it might actually be good.

If you're into live experiences that defy categorization — or you just want to support a rabbit rescue while watching lucha libre wrestlers in Viking helmets — June 13 at Mayes is your night. San Francisco's counterculture isn't dead. It just stopped waiting for a permit.