Viva CalleSJ 2022 on Sunday, September 18th

Viva Calle SJ is one of San Jose's largest and most unique annual events. Miles of city streets will be completely shut down to let people walk, run, bike, or skateboard down the streets of San Jose. 

Viva Calle features multiple activity hubs which are basically festivals-within-a-festival that highlight the local area. This year the activity hubs will be at Parque de los Pobladores (Downtown), Kelley Park & History Park, the Arena Green, and Japantown. You can expect live music, vendors, food, activities, bike parking, and good times at all four hubs. In between the activity hubs you will still find all sorts of interesting stops, hydration stations, and stores. Up to 100,000 people attend this event, but it never feels crowded given how spread out it is.

This year the route is essentially a hub Downtown with 3 spokes extending to the activity hubs. It's wild to think that you can walk from Kelly Park to Japantown in the middle of city streets.

Viva CalleSJ 2022 takes place on Sunday, September 18th from 10am to 3pm (streets are closed until 4pm). It is completely free and has no designated beginning or end as it's not a race. It also overlaps with a PokemonGO community event, so you may see a lot of people on their phones. You can use the handy map below to locate the routes and festivities. For more info, head over here. Hope to see you there!

Viva Calle 2019 Part 2 - "Parks to Roses" on Sep 22nd

Rain and hail may have put a damper on the first Viva Calle this year, but that is not going to happen again in late September. Thankfully we have not one but two Viva Calle's this year.

During Viva Calle SJ, miles of city streets will be completely shut down to let people walk, run, bike, or skateboard down the streets of San Jose. Viva Calle features multiple activity hubs which are basically festivals-within-a-festival that highlight the local area. For part 2, the activity hubs will be at Backesto Park, Arena Green, and the Municipal Rose Garden. You can expect live music, vendors, food, activities, bike parking, and good times at all three hubs. In between the activity hubs you will still find all sorts of interesting stops, hydration stations, and stores. Last year over 100,000 people attended the event.

Viva Calle 2019 "Downtown and Eastbound" takes place on Sunday, September 22nd from 10am to 3pm (streets are closed until 4pm). It is completely free and has no designated beginning or end as it's not a race. However, it appears that for the first time ever there is also a new 5K at 8am.

You can use the handy map below to locate the routes and festivities. For more info, head over here. Hope to see you there!

Review & Photos - 7th Annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival

Despite the fact we're in a drought, I am glad that it didn't rain on Saturday.

I know, I'm simply horrible to say such a thing.

But hear me out - on Saturday, it was the 7th Annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival.

The Luna Park Chalk Art Festival "is an annual nonprofit event organized by volunteers to increase support for the arts in local schools and the community. The purpose of the festival is to provide a family-friendly, accessible venue to showcase the talents of local artists and students, foster awareness of the critical need for arts in schools and organizations serving youth, and to raise funds for providing grants and scholarships to meet that need." [lunaparkchalkart.org]

Last year I wanted to attend. We were going to bring our one and a half month old out for a day at the park. But since it was raining that didn't seem like a good idea. And apparently rain and chalk, for the most part, are not friends. Not unless you get really creative…

Anyway, this year it was sunny! Sun sun shiny sun hot sun.

My hubby and I packed up our 13 month old and headed to Backesto Park. It was hoppin'! Lots of people wandering around, checking out completed and in-progress chalk art pieces, listening to live performances, buying handmade goodies, or snacking on some food from a couple food trucks.

I love events like this. I really do. It's family fun, artsy, and it's at a park. It really makes me love San Jose even more than I already do.



So we made our way around part of the artwork, snagged a lunch from the truck Banjara Bistro. Chicken tikka masala in a crepe with a side spinach salad for me, and my hubby had the chicken tikka masala in an omelette. Then my hubby, a donut purist, moseyed over to Rollo's Donuts to bring back TWO donuts. However, he arrived with a bag of five instead. Apparently it pays to go to a donut shop a short time before they close. (Generous freebies.)

On to the artwork!

I noticed a *lot* of sea and sea life - fish, octopuses, and mermaids-a-plenty.



Pop culture references FTW!

Trader Joes not only had some artwork going on, they were giving out free snacks and water. Very generous and awesome of them. Unfortunately I did not win the "guess how many brussel sprouts" contest. Boo.

Both Dave Cortese and Sam Liccardo showed up to say a few ones. Not even going to get political here, but one sounded more enthused to be there than the other.

There were a ton of vendors, many of which I've seen numerous times at SOFA district or SJ Made events. There was something for everyone. If you like candles and knickknacks - they had that. Want designed t-shirts with local messaging - that was there (therethere.com to be specific, and a personal fave of mine.) Many of the chalk artists had booths as well. Working on the Back to the Future pixel art was David Canavese from OtherLife Art. I made a mental note to purchase one of his mixed pop culture referenced art pieces.

While we stayed for several hours we did not stay until the end so I didn't get a chance to see the final outcomes of some of the work-in-progress pieces I saw. But thanks to the magic of the interwebs, those photos are out there.

Follow Luna Park Chalk Art Festival on Facebook for updates - many people have shared their photos/links to photos via the Event page as well.

Feel free to check out the rest of my Luna Park Chalk Art Festival album of photos on Flickr. There are a lot of great pieces of work (in various stages) in there!

Also - see you next year! I made ornaments two years ago (for The San Jose Blog) at Christmas in the Park - I think next year we should have a sidewalk space to draw on. What do you think? I'm excited to participate!