Bay Explorer
Temescal Street Fair
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Location: Telegraph Ave. from 41st St. to 51st St. in Oakland.
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Website: http://temescalstreetfair.org/
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Pricing: $$
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Hours: 12 - 6p.m. The first Sunday of June
Description: Another weekend in Summer, another street festival! The Bay Area is full of them. Temescal Street festival is a really fun street festival in June. It is actually the day after the Cherry Festival in San Leandro (see San Leandro Cherry Festival post) so if you don't make it to one hopefully you can make it to the other! This festival is 10 very full blocks of food, crafts, vendors, music, entertainment, and fun kids activities. There are lots of food vendors to choose from and if none of them meet your fancy, not to worry you are walking through a food district! I opted to go to my favorite Mexican salad place at Cholita Linda and to take a load off in their back garden away from the busy street. The kids zone is probably one of the largest you will find at a street fair with slides, rides, jumpy tents, obstacle courses, and even a train ride for your little ones- the only thing I could take the baby on. The street is lined with vendors selling their crafts: hats, to clothes, to jewelry, and everything in between. Also there is live entertainment every few blocks you can hear a band playing, or someone singing, we even caught an acrobatics act. On our way out we found an excellent natural organic popsicle stand (expensive) but really yummy! It was a nice way to end the excitement of the day!
Highlights: The kids zone is the largest that I have seen at any one festival so your children will have lots of fun deciding what to do next!
Tips: Parking is tricky because you have to park in residential neighborhoods, but the honest truth is that even if you park a few blocks over from the event- you are never really that far away from it, you're going to be walking either way you slice it! We had to park about 4 blocks from where it started so by the time we even got there I felt like I had already been walking a lot! Needless to say wear comfortable shoes!