BERKELEY SPARK FESTIVAL The Berkeley Spark 3.0 Arts and Innovation Festival will bring artisans, innovators and nonprofits to Civic Center Park on Saturday for a community-based, participant-driven event that aims to connect the great East Bay. The festival features local independent makers with a focus on sustainability and originality. It also serves as a place for fans of the Burning Man culture to gather, and for those who are heading to the desert to stock up on gear and accessories. Civic Center Park is at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Center Street. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Learn more at berkeleyspark.org.
EATS, BEATS & BREWS The Eats, Beats & Brews block party is back this Sunday with free, live salsa music, a Drake’s Brewing outdoor beer garden, great food, and outdoor seating. Salsa band N’Rumba will perform and Games of Berkeley will put on a game pavilion for a Locally Grown Games Day, where you can try out new games, meet game developers and celebrate modern gaming. Eats, Beat & Brews takes place from noon to 6 p.m. on Center Street at Shattuck Avenue and is free. Learn more at downtownberkeley.com.
MICHAEL POLLAN AT BOOKS INC Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley and New York Times-bestselling author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” Michael Pollan will speak at Books Inc. about his most recent novel “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” that focuses on the history of food and cooking. Pollan will speak at 6 p.m. on Sunday at the new Books Inc. location at 1491 Shattuck Ave (at Vine Street). Learn more at booksinc.net.
LES RAMONEURS’ HARPSICHORD SOUNDSCAPES Listen to Berkeley native Lillian Gordis and John Walthausen’s harpsichord duo Les Ramoneurs perform arrangements of 17th- and 18th-century English and French music. Gordis and Walthausen perform a vast repertoire of suites “drawn from the opera and the salon” and transcribed for a harpsichord duo. Les Ramoneurs will perform on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (2300 Bancroft Way). Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults.
BIRD WALK Join the UC Botanical Garden Saturday for a summer walk in search of birds that breed in the garden — orioles, warblers, robins, and hummingbirds will all be finishing nesting and feeding nearly grown chicks. Both beginning and experienced bird watchers are welcome. Bring binoculars if you have them. Advance registration required. Price: $15. UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, 200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley.
Don’t miss these other events featured on Berkeleyside:
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘They Live by Night’
‘Top Girls’ by Berkeley’s Shotgun Players is top theater
Want to know what else is going on in Berkeley and nearby? Visit Berkeleyside’s new-look Events Calendar. Submit your own event for free if it is not there already — and give it featured status for as little as $10 a day.
-By Francesca Paris