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Around Berkeley
🍲 Transforming Civic Center Park into a vast vegan smorgasbord, the fourth annual Bizerkeley Food Festival is the Bay Area’s largest vegan event, with some 100 vendors, live entertainment, games and giveaways, with proceeds benefiting Herd & Flock Animal Sanctuary. Sunday, Sept. 1, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Civic Center Park. $10.49
🎶 Returning to Jupiter for their long-running final Friday residency, the Hogan Brothers (featuring Julian on drums, Steve on bass and Colin on electric piano and accordion) present a program as diverse as their far-flung musical pursuits while remaining grounded in the African American musical continuum running from jazz and blues to soul and funk. Friday, Aug. 30, 7-10 p.m. Jupiter. FREE
🔥 Berkeley’s summer Movies in the Park series continues with a showing of Pixar’s family-friendly rom-com Elemental. Street parking is limited, so you’re asked to arrive 30 minutes prior. Bring blankets, sleeping bags, low-back beach chairs and a flashlight to help you navigate the dark. Friday, Aug. 30, 8 p.m. James Kenney Park. FREE
🇧🇷 One of the best bands on the West Coast devoted to the accordion-powered dance music of northeastern Brazil known as forró, Seattle’s Foleada features Brazilian vocalist Adriana Giordano, accordionists Jamie Maschler and Gabe Hall-Rodrigues, percussionists Jeff Busch and Sam Esecson and bassist Michael Catts playing a traditional form of the zydeco-like music known as “pé de serra.” Friday, Aug. 30, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz. $15/$20
🇵🇷 Puerto Rican vocalist Madeleine Zayas’s quartet Sudamericanto play a gorgeous mélange of original songs and gems from the Brazilian and Latin American songbooks set to arrangements tailored by Brazilian jazz piano great Marcos Silva, Peruvian bassist David Pinto, who spent years as the music director and arranger for Susana Baca, and highly versatile percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz. Friday, Aug. 30, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $25
🐻 Watch Cal’s Golden Bears face off against the UC Davis Aggies in its season opener. Cal football has added 54 players to its roster since the end of the 2023 season. Tickets can be purchased on the Cal Athletics website. Saturday, Aug. 31, 2 p.m. California Memorial Stadium. $36-$298
🌭 Fans of the Golden Bears will be holding a Top Dog Indie Sleeze Tailgate at the Sproul Plaza parking lot (to the left of Sproul Hall, near Sather Gate) before the football game. Mike the Hot Dog Mayor, the hot dog vendor at Oakland Ballers games, will be cooking up some hot dogs. There will be both traditional condiments and untraditional toppings (including mac and cheese and pulled pork) and Malört shots. Saturday, Aug. 31, 10 a.m. Sproul Plaza parking lot.
🤼 Berkeley-based Oasis Pro Wrestling takes its show on the road this weekend when Big Toko Kickback III comes to the Cornerstone, with WWE legend Sam “Tonga Kid” Fatu appearing to celebrate his birthday. Sunday, Sept. 1, Doors open at 6 p.m., bell time at 7 p.m. Cornerstone, $40-$80, plus fees
🎶 Iconic Bay Area vocalist Linda Tillery, who got her start in the late 1960s Berkeley rock ‘n’ soul band The Loading Zone, celebrates her 76th birthday at the Freight with the East Bay Allstars, a deep-in-the-pocket contingent of players including Berkeley stars such as saxophonist George Brooks, vocalist Zoe Ellis and vocalist/percussionist Vicki Randle. Sunday, Sept. 1, 7 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $54/$59
🎶 Ben Goldberg opens a month-long residency as part of the ongoing back-patio Wednesday night music series at Babette with Tune-Yards co-founder and bass guitarist Nate Brenner and Tune-Yards drummer Hamir Atwal. Wednesday, Sept. 4, 6-8 p.m. Babette. $10 charge with dinner
🦋 The Moth StorySLAM, an open-mic storytelling competition in which you’re asked to share a true, personal 5-minute story, is coming to Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage. The evening’s theme is “elbow grease”, and you’re asked to prepare a story about putting in long hours, toiling over work and burning the midnight oil. Wednesday, Sept. 4, 7 p.m., Freight & Salvage. $20 (RSVP)
🎸 Ashkenaz’s role as the headquarters for the Living Dead continues with the Joe Marcinek Band, whose namesake guitarist draws on his love of Chicago blues, New Orleans funk, plug-in jazz, and psychedelia with keyboardist Mookie Siegel, drummer Anna Elva, bassist Mike Meagher and vocalist Jenifer Freebairn. Wednesday, Sept. 4, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz. $15/$20
🎤 The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and UC Berkeley’s Division of Arts and Humanities will celebrate the opening of the museum’s latest exhibit, In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World. The exhibit was co-curated by Dr. Qamar Adamjee, an art historian of the Islamic world and the Indian subcontinent, and Magnes Curator Dr. Francesco Spagnolo, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Music and Center for Jewish Studies. The program features a discussion between Adamjee and Spagnolo followed by Middle Eastern refreshments and music. Thursday, Sept. 5, 5:30 p.m. Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. FREE (RSVP required)
🔎 Learn about fake news and misinformation at a discussion between UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid and California Magazine’s Pat Joseph —a timely topic as the 2024 election season approaches. Farid holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley and pioneered the field of digital forensics to authenticate media in the age of increasingly credible fake news. Tickets, which range from $37 to $42, include access to the galleries at BAMPFA and the post-event wine reception. Thursday, Sept. 5, 6:30 p.m. BAMPFA. (RSVP)
🌳 Kala Gallery’s Where the Tree Grows exhibition asks local artists to examine their cultural roots, family lineage and ancestral connections. It features new works by artists Chia Amisola, Alison Chen, Philip Crawford, Amy Elkins, John Yoyogi Fortes, Charles Lee, Shantré Pinkney, Helia Pouyanfar, Georgina Reskala and rhiannon skye tafoya. Kala is hosting a free gallery talk and walk-through on Thursday, Sept. 5. Exhibit is on view through Sept. 20. Kala Gallery, 2990 San Pablo Avenue.
🎭 The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley will be putting on a free production of Molière’s comedy The Imaginary Invalid in John Hinkel Park’s historic amphitheater. The play follows the story of a hypochondriac French aristocrat who marries off his daughter to a family of greedy doctors so he can save money on his medical bills. (She, however, is in love with someone else.) Read our review. Shows take place a 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, plus an extra show on Sept. 2 for Labor Day. Bring a picnic blanket, a seat cushion and snacks. Hot dogs and veggie dogs are available for purchase during intermission. Through Sept. 8.
Beyond Berkeley
🎶 Now that Instagram has a new feature for adding songs to your profile, it seems like the resurgence of everything Y2K is here to stay for a while. On Friday, Gen Z and Millennials can live out the best of the 90s and 2000s music at Crybaby. DJs Nastia, WhatsUpAlbert and Mackswell will be behind the turntables spinning hyphy classics, crunk, reggaeton and everything in between, along with special guests, hyphy legends the Hoodstarz. Ages 21+. Friday, Aug. 30, 10 p.m. 1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Free to $50
👩❤️👨 Making friends after you’ve left college and moved to a different town is hard, and your local library in deep East Oakland wants to help change that. This weekend, the 81st Avenue branch will host a social meet-up for people in their 40s to mingle and connect with like-minded folks looking to build new friendships. There will be light refreshments. Speed friending takes place on the last Saturday of each month. In October, the meetup will be for people in their 50s.Saturday, Aug. 31, 12 p.m. 1021 81st Ave., Oakland. FREE
💃 If you were around Oakland during the mid to late 2010s, then you remember how fun the Wine & Bowties FEELS parties were. Founded by friends Max Gibson and Will Bundy, Wine & Bowties combined parties, art installations, and essays about Oakland and its culture. After the last FEELS party in 2018, Gibson and Bundy parted ways, and the website and social media channels remained dormant. This weekend, the brand, now under Gibson’s sole control, is making a comeback with a bazaar featuring 40 plus artists and merchants, plus live music by Gentle Gig General Seiji Oda, multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire Chef Lee, and Oakland’s own Prospect Band, plus vibrant vinyl DJ sets from Soul Light Collective and 7000coils. Also, food vendors like Vegan Chula Eats, Tacos El Ultimo Baile, Porchetta, and more. Saturday, Aug. 31, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. 2150 Livingston St., Oakland. $5-$18
If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us atthe-scene@berkeleyside.org. If there’s an event that you’d like to promote on our calendar, you can use the self-submission form on ourevents page.
The Oaklandside’s Arts and Community reporter Azucena Rasilla contributed to this list.
more to do in berkeley
Affordable things to do in Berkeley any day of the week
From farmers markets to trivia nights, we put together a roundup of events and activities held regularly in Berkeley.
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