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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

Category: Events

  • The 20th Village Feast is set for Oct. 22

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    Diners pass aïoli at The Village Feast in October 2022. (Wendy Weitzel/Courtesy photo)

    (From press release) The Village Feast celebrates the Sacramento region’s Farm-to-Fork season, where the community gathers to enjoy and honor the bounty of local farmers. This year, the event returns to Central Park – under the shade of the Davis Farmers Market structure – for its 20th anniversary community meal, from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 22.

    Presented by Davis Farm to School and the Les Dames d’Escoffier International, Sacramento, The Village Feast is a fundraiser for food and agricultural education in the greater Sacramento area. The Village Feast follows the late-summer feasts of Provence, France, in the grand aïoli tradition, uniting people and food for a long, leisurely alfresco meal that stars aïoli — a golden garlic-mayonnaise. All proceeds from The Village Feast support early and continued education around food and agriculture.

    As in years past, each meal begins with appetizers of olives, nuts, local wines and fresh baguettes. The meal is served family-style, with passed platters of heirloom tomatoes drizzled with local olive oil, steamed and grilled local vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, and bowls of garlic-scented aïoli. Next comes the grilled lamb and summer white bean salad, then a fruit galette for dessert.

    Les Dames d’Escoffier and Davis Farm to School paired up for this event because of their shared visions and values. Les Dames d’Escoffier, a philanthropic organization of female leaders in the areas of food, fine beverage and hospitality, gives scholarships to area women to further their education in these areas. Davis Farm to School provides garden grants, organizes farm field trips, and supports farm-fresh food in school meals.

    Tickets are $165 per person until sold out. Attendees may reserve tables of eight for $1,320. Tickets are available at https://thevillagefeast2023.eventbrite.com.

    The silent auction will be online, available to anyone. Bids open on Oct. 8 and close at 5 p.m. on Oct. 22. It includes dozens of items and experiences donated by chefs, restaurants, wineries and community members. Participants bid on items by downloading the free Auctria smartphone app at https://www.auctria.com/blog/auctria-mobile-app/. Auction pre-registration begins Sept. 15.

    For more information about The Village Feast event or sponsorships, email Rachael Levine at rachaellevine@hotmail.com.

  • Locally produced, “Yellow Skies” Music Video for Climate Action

    Yellow Skies Cover(From press release) On Friday the locally produced Yellow Skies launched a YouTube music video from the Fridays for Future noon time Davis 5th and B location.  "We are starting from a shoestring and the viewership is growing steadily. We have several hundred views and some really enthusiastic reviews."
     
    @eliotlarson7422
    So powerful! Thank you ❤
    @sarahnovick3168
    So moving!!
    @geraldineclemens5150
    Heartfelt song she does beautiful job. Thanks

     

    Watch here:

     Yellow Skies asks you to join in the work and to declare a climate emergency, a national climate emergency. It is not an emergency to run around in chaos. It is an emergency called to calmly stop using fossil fuels and go into hyperdrive on local food, locally sourced just-about-everything and to produce lots of renewable energy – and to do it quickly. 
     
    The Yellow Skies music video is built around a song. "The song aims to make an enjoyable and meaningful listening experience about what our youth are experiencing, what we are all experiencing." Yellow Skies starts and finishes with clips of youth climate activists speaking out for all of us to take action and points to a few of the many organizations leading the way and demanding change to policies that protect fossil fuel use.

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  • Hot Davis Days Cars & Coffee is Sunday

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    Attendees enjoy the 2022 Hot Davis Days Cars & Coffee event. (Chris Lossin, CPP, Aperture Alley Photography)

    (From press release) Davis Downtown will present its third annual Hot Davis Days Cars & Coffee event on Sunday, Aug. 13 in Central Park, 301 C St.

    The event, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., is free for participants and attendees. Vintage, new, electric and other specialty vehicles are welcome. No registration necessary. Participants are asked to bring their cars to the Farmers Market Pavilion between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Once that area is full, overflow vehicles for the show may park on C Street, between Third and Fourth streets.

    Patrons and participants may enjoy treats from Upper Crust Baking, and coffee from Pachamama. Davis Downtown is collaborating with several other groups to make this year the largest and best Cars & Coffee event yet. These include the car-enthusiast groups Cars and Coffee Sac, Davis Motorsports and Yacht Club Premier Car Club.

    For details, visit https://davisdowntown.com/hot-davis-days-cars-coffee/. For additional information, email info@davisdowntown.com.

    Davis Downtown leads and energizes the downtown as the primary business, entertainment and cultural center of Davis. Alive with activity seven days a week, downtown Davis draws locals and visitors alike to experience fine food and beverages, retail, professional services, arts and entertainment in an extraordinary and sustainable gathering place.

  • Davis Pride Festival draws biggest crowd ever

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    The crowd cheers during the drag revue at the Davis Pride Festival on Sunday (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)

    (From press release) The Davis Phoenix Coalition presented its biggest Davis Pride Festival to date, with its inclusive celebration for members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community. An organizer estimated that more than 5,000 came to Central Park for Sunday’s ninth-annual event.

    It was part of a community-focused, family-friendly weekend that included a skate night, fun run, music festival, drag queens, vendors and more – June 3 and 4. A handful of quiet protesters attended the drag show and took video. The crowd and drag queens started interacting with the protesters, who left before displaying the banners and posters they intended to raise.

    Those in Davis will notice the rainbow crosswalks around Davis’ Central Park, which were painted on May 28. Those set the celebratory tone for Skate with Pride on Saturday night, Run for Equality on Sunday morning, and the Davis Pride Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The fair included music, a drag queen revue, educational booths, food, drink, and vendors coordinated with the assistance of Davis Craft and Vintage Market. There were even special activity zones for youths, teens and seniors.

    On June 23, there’s a Ride with Pride bike party excursion, with participants meeting at Central Park at 6 p.m. and leaving about 30 minutes later. Businesses interested in hosting local pride events, to raise money for and promote Davis Pride, may learn more at https://www.davispride.org/host.

    Davis Pride events are coordinated by an all-volunteer community formed by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, a nonprofit that works to foster diversity, eliminate intolerance, prevent hate-motivated violence, and support LGBTQ+ youths in Davis and surrounding communities. The coalition was founded in the aftermath of a 2013 anti-gay attack on former Davis resident “Mikey” Partida. Proceeds from Davis Pride events support the coalition’s anti-racism and anti-bullying campaigns, help LGBTQ+ youths and their families, and provide outreach with area police departments, churches and schools. To donate, go to https://davisphoenixco.org/donate.

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    Davis Media Access Executive Director Autumn Labbé-Renault interviews Davis Pride Director Sandré Henriquez Nelson on KDRT radio at Sunday’s festival. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
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    Mikey Partida prepares to raise the pride flag at Davis City Hall on Sunday, June 4, before the Davis Pride Festival. Partida was the victim of an anti-gay attack in 2013 that spurred the formation of the Davis Phoenix Coalition. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
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    Runners and walkers take position at Third and C streets in Davis on Sunday before the Run for Equality. The event was part of a series of weekend pride activities. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
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    Claire Yribarren, left, and Olive Amendolara pose for a photo during Saturday’s Skate with Pride event in Central Park. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
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    The ’80s cover band Tainted Love headlined the Davis Pride Festival on Sunday in Central Park. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
    SkateLimbo

    Skaters compete in a limbo competition at the Skate with Pride event on Saturday, June 3 in Davis’ Central Park. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)
    MusicScene

    Festivalgoers enjoy as Xavier Toscano & Friends perform Sunday at the Davis Pride Festival in Central Park. (Photo credit Wendy Weitzel)

  • 2023 Davis Pride events starting soon

    (From press release) Here is a reminder of some upcoming 2023 Davis Pride events:

    • Saturday, June 3: The free Skate with Pride, 7 to 9 p.m. in Central Park, Fourth and C streets.
    • Sunday, June 4: The annual Run for Equality begins at 8 a.m.
    • Sunday, June 4: The ninth annual Davis Pride Festival kicks off after the run, with a community fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Central Park, and live music – including a drag revue – from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free to this family-friendly event.
    • Friday, June 23: A Ride with Pride bike party excursion meeting at Central Park at 6 p.m.

    Learn more at https://www.davispride.org/

  • Pride sentiment stronger than ever this year

    Davis festival is June 4 in Central Park

    MercuryRising2023

    Mercury Rising will return to the 2023 Davis Pride Festival, leading the popular drag queen revue. (Photo credit: Wendy Weitzel)

    By Wendy Weitzel

    Members of the Davis Phoenix Coalition work to eliminate hate. That’s been a heavy lift this year, as organized groups have threatened trans youths, protested drag shows and boosted white supremacy. And that was all before the community was terrorized by what police say was a serial stabber who killed two and injured one in a six-day period this spring.

    So the nonprofit’s team is more determined than ever to bring a positive message to their biggest event of the year: the Davis Pride Festival. It’s all part of a weekend of activities in downtown Davis that celebrate June as International LGBTQ+ Month. After three years of COVID and the trauma of the stabbings, they want to offer positive ways for the community to come together for healing and joy – and to celebrate diversity.

    Davis Pride is an all-inclusive celebration for members and supporters of the LGBTQ community. The community-focused, family-friendly weekend includes a skate night, fun run, music festival, drag queens, vendors and more – June 3 and 4. Proceeds from Davis Pride events support the coalition’s anti-racism and anti-bullying campaigns, support to LGBTQ+ youths and their families, and outreach with area police departments, churches and schools.

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  • Come check out the Whole Earth Festival this weekend

    2023 WEF East Quad-Main St

    By Scott Steward

    The 54th Whole Earth Festival held on the UCD Quad, and sponsored by ASUCD, is a beautiful sunny event that everyone can enjoy.  This year’s theme is "Sell Out to Love" at this alcohol and smoke free event.

    I recommend getting there early to enjoy the vibrant green brought on by all that rain! Bring a soft frisbee but expect to share space with spike ball, a game where young people furiously throw a malleable ball object downward into a small trampoline and then alternately palm the ball up in the air before hurling it again.

    There are 130 stalls of goods for sale neatly organized around the perimeter of the Quad. The quality of the merchandise is high and higher still than I remember at the 50th. The Festival has always crept towards being more mercantile, but the education corner is poignant and the Kids Space well supplied and staffed. There are few lectures about counter culture and alternative living (that proliferated in the early years of WEF), but the legacy of that ground work is woven into the comfortably open green grass and open sky of this healthy pubic common.

    There are 18 food booths and entertainment a plenty. Bring your own personal shade and something to carry water. It is up to those of us, who have seen decades of Whole Earth Festivals, to share our WEF stories. It is particularly important to make the connection from past to present to mend the pandemic multi-year gap in the continuum of this youth led event.  Find yourself starting a conversation in the shade of a tree on the west Quad.

    For 54 years WEF goes on with the lightness and importance of being born of and remaining youth led. Children of all ages come celebrate mother earth.

  • Celebration of Abraham ZOOM Service of Compassion and Comfort, Sunday May 7

    Interfaith Prayer Compassion and Comfort

    Dear Friends,

    What a horrific week! But also what an outpouring of community solidarity. As Chief Pytel said at his press conference, the work of not only all the law enforcement personnel but also the community resulted in an ending to the violence. The community also really stepped up to provide shelter for the most vulnerable among us, the unhoused. Now our community must heal. To aid that process, the Celebration of Abraham will host a ZOOM Service of Compassion and Comfort on Sunday.

    Attached is the information on the Sunday May 7 ZOOM Service of Compassion and Comfort. Please spread the information about our ZOOM to your email lists and friends. Our service will focus on the need for healing but also on how the community came together to meet the challenges especially those faced by the unhoused and how we need to strengthen the community going forward. We will end by offering some of the ways individuals can become involved in caring for the community.

    Register for the Zoom here:  https://bit.ly/abrahamprayer

    Thank you, Helen

    Helen Roland Cramer

  • Entertainment announced for Picnic in the Park

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    The Davis band Cold Shot features René Martucci and Richard Urbino. (Courtesy photo)

    (From press release) The dance-party band Cold Shot will be the first musical group to play when the Davis Farmers Market’s Picnic in the Park returns on May 17.

    The family-fun event will be every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., May 17 through Sept. 13. A local band will play each night. There will be children’s entertainment, loads of food vendors, and plenty of opportunity to gather as a community. Late September through early May, Wednesdays swap back to a traditional farmers market, open 3 to 6 p.m.

    Cold Shot, featuring René Martucci and Richard Urbino, brings together a dynamic selection of upbeat rock ’n’ roll, pop and dance party songs that span decades of iconic artists. Other bands on the 2023 Picnic in the Park schedule are Julie and the Jukes on May 24, Pleasant Valley Boys on May 31, Odd Man Out on June 7, The Teds on June 14, They Hey-Nows on June 21, and According to Bazooka on June 28. The Peter Franklin Band plays on July 5, The New Harmony Jazz Band is July 12, 5-Star Alcatraz plays on July 19, It’s About Time is on July 26, and Putah Creek Crawdads are Aug. 2. The Geoffrey Miller Band is Aug. 9, Penny Lane is Aug. 16, Wealth of Nations is Aug. 23, Kindred Spirits is Aug. 30, Island Crew is Sept. 6, and The Kalapana Awa Band is Sept. 13. To see the calendar and band descriptions, visit https://www.davisfarmersmarket.org/entertainment-schedule/.

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  • Tree Davis to Observe National Arbor Day with City of Davis and Enterprise’s Bob Dunning

    2021 Bike Tour 1 (1)

    (From press release) Saturday, April 29, marks National Arbor Day, and Tree Davis will celebrate it by offering two, free events at 8 a.m.: a bicycle ride/tree tour and a celebration at Central Park with the City of Davis and journalist Bob Dunning. Mayor Will Arnold will also attend the event and read the City’s proclamation.

    Starting at 8 a.m., the fifth edition of the “Great Tree Search Bike Tour” will begin with coffee and donuts at the North Davis Pond parking lot, located at Anderson Road and F Street. At 8:30 a.m., Board President Greg McPherson will begin the six-mile tour with stops at several ecological restoration projects. In addition to visiting Great Trees, the tour will include outstanding examples of tree shaded streets and parking lots. Riders will learn about the past, present, and future of the Avenue of Trees along West Russell, then finish at noon at Central Park to join the ongoing celebration.

    At the same time, from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., an Arbor Day Celebration will be taking place at Central Park. Tree Davis, City of Davis, UC Davis Arboretum, CAL FIRE, West Coast Arborists and other urban forestry champions will be available to chat with attendees about the importance of trees in the face of climate change. At noon, Bob Dunning will lead a discussion at the event about the history and impact of Davis’ trees, alongside city staff and other community leaders.

    Attendance for both events is free, though registration for the bicycle ride is necessary, at:  www.treedavis.org.