Steppin' Out

Cover Story

One of the younger participants at last year's Tapestry Arts Festival gets a lesson in drumming.

Rich 'Tapestry'

Annual festival brings summer to a close with lots of art and music

By Heather Zimmerman

Summertime has its fair share of outdoor festivals highlighting art or music, so it's fitting the season comes to its unofficial end on Labor Day weekend with the Tapestry Arts Festival, a big street fair with an abundance of both art and music.

This year's festival, the 31st annual, takes place Sept. 2-3, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sept. 4, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Park Avenue, Almaden Boulevard and San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose.

Central to the festival is a juried art show featuring works in a variety of media by about 250 artists from around the country. The offerings include clothing, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, pottery and even furniture.

Another major draw is the festival's four stages of music, with performances all weekend long of everything from swing and soul to country and classical guitar. The Joe Sharino Band again will headline a Sunday twilight concert on Sept. 3, 6 p.m. The twilight concert proved a popular new addition to the festival last year.

All that shopping and dancing around is bound to make a person hungry, and so the festival's dozens of food booths offer just about anything one could imagine: Hawaiian barbecue, falafel, funnel cakes, even crepes on a stick.

Other festival features include Nonprofit Way, which showcases local organizations offering a variety of community services; the Design for Living Home and Garden Show at Parkside Hall, and the adjoining Interactive Alley, with children's rides and a hang-gliding simulator.

Of course, the littlest festival visitors will especially appreciate the hands-on children's art activities in Creativity Zone, where free workshops with professional artists include mask-making, circus skills and monoprinting.

Festival admission is free. For more information, call 408.494.3590 or visit www.tapestryarts.org.