Oakland celebrates 10 years of Art & Soul
on August 23, 2010
Written across the “Why I love Oakland” canvas, put up at the Art & Soul festival, were testimonials like “I love Oakland because it’s diverse,” “Because of our rich culture,” “I love Oakland because the people here are amazing and welcoming” and “cuz it’s real!” So many people had written on the canvas that by the afternoon of the second day of the festival, there was no more free space to write.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the organizers of Art & Soul pulled out all of the stops for this year’s festival and thousands of people came to enjoy. Part music festival, part street fair, part educational outreach, dozens of vendors and information booths were set up in downtown Oakland. There were amusement rides, balloon tying, all sorts of food, a wine garden, local artisans selling jewelry, hats, and paintings. And then there was the music line-up—MC Hammer and CAKE headlined Saturday while Sheila E., John Handy and Lenny Williams headlined Sunday.
“The focus was all on Oakland around music,” said Harry Hamilton, the associate producer of the festival. “All of the artists currently live in Oakland or have an Oakland home.” Art & Soul is put on by the City of Oakland and Hamilton said what matters to him most is that people are having fun and celebrating the city’s music, heritage and art. “I wish we could capture the spirit and keep it with us all year round,” he said.
Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
1 Comments
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
I put a couple of photos up here: http://tiny.cc/6imm0
I hope Art & Soul remains a viable festival for Oakland and people continue to turn out. A nice way to get all of Oakland together for a party, something to look forward if only but once a year.