by Noella Noelophile®
(Photo courtesy of Steven Restivo Event Services, and used with permission.)
Hooray! It’s the weekend!
Even better–it’s a weekend when a lot of cool stuff happens.
(Photo courtesy of Steven Restivo Event Services, and used with permission.)
This Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th, the 62nd Annual North Beach Festival happens, in San Francisco’s historic North Beach area. This free event is is a Bay Area tradition–and promises to be a great time.
(Photo courtesy of Steven Restivo Event Services, and used with permission.)
Festival weekend plans include more than 125 arts and crafts booths, amazing food (in a City known for great restaurants anyway!), beverage gardens, and live entertainment. We count six separate stage areas, featuring music and poetry readings, on their event website.
In addition, the kids get to be creative in a kids’ chalk area–and everyone gets to ooh and aah as the local artists showcase their Italian street painting talents!
(Photo courtesy of Steven Restivo Event Services, and used with permission.)
(I admit: this one, especially, wowed me. The fabric of this gentleman’s clothing looks so realistic that I’d almost expect to hear it rustle!)
(Photo courtesy of Steven Restivo Event Services, and used with permission.)
In addition, from 2 to 3, both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, the Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi hosts the long-running traditional “Blessing of the Animals” ceremony. (The Shrine is located at 610 Vallejo Street, between Grant and Columbus.)
Besides being a don’t-miss way to start the summer in San Francisco, the North Beach Festival supports a great cause. Proceeds from the Festival fund neighborhood projects, including installing and maintaining hanging flower baskets, sidewalk steam cleaning of businesses, and supporting neighborhood organizations that help to keep The City–well, San Francisco.
Admission is free to the 62nd Annual North Beach Festival, happening Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th, from 10 am to 6pm in multiple locations in San Francisco’s historic North Beach district:
Grant Avenue, between Columbus and Filbert;
Columbus Avenue between Broadway and Green; and
Vallejo and Green Streets between Grant Avenue and Columbus
.Meanwhile, if you’re In Southern California this weekend, you’ll get the opportunity to see crafts by the beach–as Patchwork Show Modern Handmade Festival makes its summertime appearance in Long Beach!
While Patchwork Festival has multiple locations, this is their largest event, according to their website. They’ll have more than 200 all-handmade vendors on site, as well as multiple music stages.
Entertainment can be unique (who knew Long Beach even had a Ukelele Club? Their motto: “If it’s not fun, we don’t do it”!)
And at any Patchwork Festival, no one goes hungry.
Think artisan food vendors with handcrafted candies, homemade bread, sauces…and just in case none of that grabs your fancy…
…These are another delectable feature of Patchwork Shows. I personally love India Jones–and yes, they do leave me “jonesing” for more of their samosas!
Predominant among all the creative vendors, showcasing their work, is a sense of fun.
I personally always seem to find new favorite scented soaps and cool jewelry at Patchwork, but you’ll have a lot of opportunities to find your own treasures. Here, Toushonta Hogan offers her natural soaps and oils from Scentsational Soaps. 
In all probability, you’ll get a number of chances to be creative with DIY projects, as well as pick up some amazing gifts for grads, brides, early Christmas shopping–or treat yourself to something special.
And not only is Patchwork Show family-friendly, but canine-friendly as well, with your favorite four-legged companion welcome–and a free shuttle!
The Patchwork Show Handmade Modern Art Festival comes to Long Beach’s Marine Stadium, Appian Way at Bayshore, on Sunday, June 12th, from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free.
Want one more, for this weekend? O-kay.
CRAFTED, in San Pedro, is having all-weekend-long paper crafting classes at their “Creation Station”, where you can make Dad a Father’s Day card for next weekend! This is a low-cost class ($3 for instruction and materials). Classes start at 10:00 this morning, Friday, June 10th, and continue until CRAFTED closes at 6:00 on Sunday evening.
They’ll also be hosting jewelry making classes this Saturday and Sunday, and printmaking workshops starting Saturday afternoon at 1:00 and continuing throughout the weekend. And of course, since CRAFTED is a year-round crafts marketplace, you’re likely to find some unique handcrafted treasures here, as well.
One more note–now is the time to mark your calendar for NEXT weekend! On Saturday, June 18th, CRAFTED hosts an all-day “Summer Camp Etsy Craft Party”, with games, giveaways, and summer-camp crafts all through the market!