Sunday 31 August 2008

Oakland - nicer than you thought

Today we ventured to Oakland for the Art and Soul Festival. Oakland is a city with a bad reputation, the 21st most dangerous place to live in the USA (see this list and note that Mission Viejo, where we saw that rodeo, is really safe! As long as you're not a calf).

Today, is was great. They'd closed off several streets which meant that, because of the nice American grid layout, there was a huge pedestrianised space with music stages, local food, wacky stalls, etc. We wandered in the sunshine, sampling such delicacies as Oakland-produced Ethiopian honey wine and organic potato salad. We even found some Earl Grey tea.



I will certainly be attending the State barbecue championships this year.



Free baby with every ticket purchased!



San Francisco uniform.



This is Matthew Nathanson on the main stage. The only British band on offer was The Wombats, and they played yesterday...



The crowd was out of control.



A nice Oakland building.



Hannah enjoying herself (she opted not to keep the baby).