KITE FESTIVAL This family-friendly event will celebrate its 30th anniversary this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in César Chavez Park. Every year, hundreds of people flock to the Berkeley Kite Festival to watch masters fly kites or to fly their own. The free festival will feature kite making and flying lessons, as well as food and craft activities. The festival begins at 10 a.m. each day and continues until 6 p.m. Parking in the Berkeley Marina and at Golden Gate Fields costs $15, although the shuttles to the festival are free. Parking space is limited and the Berkeley Police Department encourages you to take public transit to the event. There will be free valet bike parking.
CORPSE FLOWER The folks at UC Botanical Garden are providing daily updates on Facebook about the progress of one of its Corpse Flowers, officially known as the Amorphophallus titanum or titan arum. The flower, which is native to Sumatra in Indonesia, emits an odor that smells like a rotting corpse right before it blooms to attract insects to pollinate it. This flower, nicknamed Trudy, has been growing about two inches a day and appears ready to burst into bloom at any moment. UC Botanical Garden is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
SUNDAYS ON TELEGRAPH Telegraph Avenue becomes a swirl of color, music, art, food and fun at its annual summer festival held each Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. through Aug. 30. This year, the events include the closure of Haste Street between Telegraph and Bowditch, with three stages on Telegraph for live music, at Channing Way, Haste and Dwight. Telegraph Avenue itself is also closed to vehicle traffic during the festival. This is a family-friendly event. To learn more, don’t miss past Berkeleyside coverage of the street fair, which began in 2013.
BID AMELIA ADIEU Bestselling Berkeley author Marissa Moss has been penning (and drawing) her popular middle school series, Amelia’s Notebooks, for 20 years and has written more than 30 Amelia books and sold more than 5 million copies. Moss is finally saying goodbye to her popular character in one final book, Amelia’s Middle-School Graduation Notebook. Moss will be signing at Books, Inc. at 1491 Shattuck Ave. near Vine on Sunday July 26 at 10 a.m. (See Berkeleyside’s recent story on Moss.)
A CHORUS OF MALE VOICES The Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus will lift up their voices (the group is 50 members strong) on Friday July 24 at 8 p.m, and Sunday July 26 at 1 pm. at Freight & Salvage at 2020 Addison St. This popular group will be singing a broad array of music, from Broadway tunes to classical songs. Tickets are $22 in advance, $26 at the door. For a sneak preview, check out their Facebook page.
Don’t miss these other events previously mentioned on Berkeleyside:
YMTC’s original “Don’t stop Me.”
‘Top Girls’ by Berkeley’s Shotgun Players is top theater
An accomplished “Fiddler” at Berkeley Playhouse
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.
