10%

Everything's Coming up SoFA

SJ Spring Street Fest

By Carl Fisher

April 28^th, 2016

boxed in

One of the things I like about street festivals is that there is so much to take in. If you’re hungry, there’s food. Need some mellowing, there’s brews. Need something to entertain your eyes or ears, there’s art/crafts/people watching and music. And it usually doesn’t cost a thing (at least to look). All of these things were all found in abundance this past Sunday in downtown SJ.

Silent no more

After getting a sampling of the outdoor scene I headed inside. Aura was the venue for Content magazine’s subscriber pickup event and they had several acts on tap. Unfortunately, I only managed to take in one of them. It was Talkie. They were billed as indie-pop, rock & roll and they lived up to the billing. Instead of just sitting there and listening, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to take a few pics. It was actually a very challenging place to shoot because of the odd lighting. They had this massive video display at the back of the stage and whenever there was a bright image, all I got was silhouettes. As it turns, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Expressions

One of the neat things to see at this festival was the creation of art, andthe main attractions was the work of artists from Force 129 Art and Design Studio. They had only just recently finished a fantastic mural on the side of a steel shipping container that is being used for storage in a local park. I haven’t seen it live yet, but a pic of it is on their website and it’s pretty impressive. Anyone can take a can of spray paint and tag something, but it takes some real talent to create art.

The beats

There was lots of live music to take in, but if that wasn’t your thing, there was also plenty of spinning going on (both of records and people).

Chillaxing

As I was heading out the thumping sound of Afroliscious grabbed my attention so a few pics were snapped. They certainly were high energy. Unfortunately, my energy was waning so I called it a night.