What’s Going On?

The North Beach Festival this weekend has been a fun and great festival which takes place in Little Italy. This has been my first experience at the festival and it has nothing, but great things about it. What I thought was going to be only two blocks of festivities ended up being more like eight or more blocks of awesome art, food, music, and other commercial products. The festival also included the entire Washington Square Park. There were two grandstands, one located at Columbus and Green and another located at Washington Square Park.

The North Beach Festival is probably one the most relaxing festivals that I’ve ever been. How relaxing can it be? Well, you can first start off by walking throughout the whole festival and see all sorts of things, then when you get tired, grab a bite to eat and bring it over to Washington Square Park and have a seat on the grass and listen to some live music.

What made this festival fun and different was that I saw artists creating masterpieces on the pavement made from chalk, a pizza tosser, a “swing” band getting 10 couples out on the dance floor, people getting their animals blessed in the local church, a band singing “Motown” in North Beach, and an overall fair that was divided into many different cells.

This event was so much fun that I spent a hefty amount time just walking and looking at the different booths that were here. I had some delicious Sicilian pizza. I listened to some great music. I saw some cool works of art. I got to see a pizza tosser and while taking a picture I caught a huge blob of raw pizza dough thrown randomly at me as the tosser was trying to throw it into the crowd behind his back. I even got a tan.

There is so much art and color and history in this festival that it was a shame that I haven’t come to this festival ever before. I do hope to come back in future years and I hope that if you haven’t attended the festival that it is one to mark on your To Do List.

The Haight Ashbury Street Fair (HASF) is a very colorful fair with lots of different colors and things going on. What makes this fair interesting is that all different types of people attend it. Much more different than the Union Street Festival and the others that will occur in the summer, the HASF brings out the most interesting people. Hippies, punkers, skaters, and bums are all out and about. Some are here looking for free entertainment and some are here to just bring back memories of what life was like in the Haight in the 60s and 70s.

This year at the fair I saw a couple of interesting things. One was a woman creating works of art with henna tattoos. This was the very first time seeing this type of art up close and personal. I never understood what it was at first. My first impressions were that it was a tattoo that was etched into your skin using fine point metal picks, but I was wrong its harmless. A woman just used ink from a bottle and squeezed it on to her customer’s skin. While researching more of about henna, I found out that “Black Henna” has para-phenylenediamine (PPD) in it and that could possibly give stain and scar skin and could possibly lead to health risks.

Another thing I saw at the fair that was rather interesting was a vendor that created short
saxophones. The short saxophones looked like a clarinet but had the upper reed portion of a sax. When I heard him play it, the sound was just amazing. I couldn’t believe my ears. Although, I don’t think this will ever become part of an orchestra, I think that this unique instrument would be good to accompany any musician while on the road travelling. Though it would not look and feel the same, the short sax is highly portable.

The fair was held on Haight St. a few blocks south of Oak St. and ran along several blocks from Stanyan St. to Masonic Ave. Two grandstands were located on each of the ends of the fair. Food vendors were at every single block and there were many many artists that came to show off and sell their pretty creative works. The weather was great at the fair, only in San Francisco could you have foggy weekdays, but clear and sunny skies on the weekends.

Overall, this fair was pretty fun. There were so many friendly vendors and just seeing all the psychedelic tie dyed shirts and crazy colored memorabilia just takes you to another world. What also I love about this fair is that you can spend the whole day in this area. In the morning you can stroll around in Golden Gate Park, the afternoon spend the time at the fair, and in the evening grab a bite at a local restaurant. Another great thing about this fair too is that it’s on flat ground; no hills which is great for everyone.

Pictures of the Haight Ashbury Street Fair can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.