Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The East Bay: Fairs, Festivals & Fun

By Madeleine Glazier


While San Francisco and Oakland certainly have their fair share of attractions and annual events, for residents of Alameda or Contra Costa County, there are plenty of fun festivals and celebrations that are held throughout the year. Here are a just a few events you might wish to attend.

Because there is abundance of native California walnut trees, Walnut Creek was named for this plentiful nut. This town's most popular festival is the annual Walnut Festival - not a surprise, right? Record shows, however, that it used to be a Grape Festival that was being held here however during Prohibition, grape farmers ditched winemaking to grow walnut trees thus a new festival was created. Every September, the town's Walnut Festival includes activities like 5K-10K run, the ever popular twilight parade, live music, arts and crafts displays and a carnival.

Concord is a bit of a jazz hotspot. This city was the birthplace of famous jazz musician Dave Brubeck and the town named a park after Brubeck. Concord Records also was founded in Concord, with its initial emphasis in jazz. Its founder, Carl Jefferson, also founded the Concord Jazz Festival. This annual event has been a popular tradition in Concord since 1969.

It may not be Hollywood but you can surely find lots of interesting film festivals in East Bay. Both the Orinda Film Festival and the California Independent Film Festival were hosted by and held at the historic Orinda Theatre. Another famous annual event in Danville is the Danville International Children's Film Festival. Several other film festivals can be found held in Oakland and Berkeley.

A wide variety of events are being held in annual county fairs on both counties. Come mid-June, until roughly after the Fourth of July you will find the annual Alameda County Fair which showcases petting zoo, livestock and small animal exhibits and of course lots of live music, the arts and crafts as well as several contests and competitions for people of different ages. As for the fair in Contra Costa County, this four-day affair takes place in early June and you are likely to find live music, livestock exhibits, cooking contests, monkey shows and a carnival.

Should you find yourself contemplating on relocating around the area of Alameda County or Contra Costa County, calling the real estate team at 1stInSite is a great first step. They have helped hundreds of clients find Lafayette homes for sale, Danville homes for sale, Alamo homes for sale, Walnut Creek homes for sale, Orinda homes for sale and real estate in any other East Bay town or city.




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