Davis festival is June 4 in Central Park

Mercury Rising will return to the 2023 Davis Pride Festival, leading the popular drag queen revue. (Photo credit: Wendy Weitzel)

By Wendy Weitzel

Members of the Davis Phoenix Coalition work to eliminate hate. That’s been a heavy lift this year, as organized groups have threatened trans youths, protested drag shows and boosted white supremacy. And that was all before the community was terrorized by what police say was a serial stabber who killed two and injured one in a six-day period this spring.

So the nonprofit’s team is more determined than ever to bring a positive message to their biggest event of the year: the Davis Pride Festival. It’s all part of a weekend of activities in downtown Davis that celebrate June as International LGBTQ+ Month. After three years of COVID and the trauma of the stabbings, they want to offer positive ways for the community to come together for healing and joy – and to celebrate diversity.

Davis Pride is an all-inclusive celebration for members and supporters of the LGBTQ community. The community-focused, family-friendly weekend includes a skate night, fun run, music festival, drag queens, vendors and more – June 3 and 4. Proceeds from Davis Pride events support the coalition’s anti-racism and anti-bullying campaigns, support to LGBTQ+ youths and their families, and outreach with area police departments, churches and schools.

By Scott Steward

The 54th Whole Earth Festival held on the UCD Quad, and sponsored by ASUCD, is a beautiful sunny event that everyone can enjoy.  This year’s theme is "Sell Out to Love" at this alcohol and smoke free event.

I recommend getting there early to enjoy the vibrant green brought on by all that rain! Bring a soft frisbee but expect to share space with spike ball, a game where young people furiously throw a malleable ball object downward into a small trampoline and then alternately palm the ball up in the air before hurling it again.

There are 130 stalls of goods for sale neatly organized around the perimeter of the Quad. The quality of the merchandise is high and higher still than I remember at the 50th. The Festival has always crept towards being more mercantile, but the education corner is poignant and the Kids Space well supplied and staffed. There are few lectures about counter culture and alternative living (that proliferated in the early years of WEF), but the legacy of that ground work is woven into the comfortably open green grass and open sky of this healthy pubic common.

There are 18 food booths and entertainment a plenty. Bring your own personal shade and something to carry water. It is up to those of us, who have seen decades of Whole Earth Festivals, to share our WEF stories. It is particularly important to make the connection from past to present to mend the pandemic multi-year gap in the continuum of this youth led event.  Find yourself starting a conversation in the shade of a tree on the west Quad.

For 54 years WEF goes on with the lightness and importance of being born of and remaining youth led. Children of all ages come celebrate mother earth.

A drag queen performs at the 2022 Davis Pride Festival. (Wendy Weitzel/Courtesy photo)

(From press release) The rainbows return to Davis’ Central Park in June for the ninth annual Davis Pride Festival. The community-focused, family-friendly weekend includes a skate night, fun run, music festival, drag queens, vendors and more – June 3 and 4. 

The events, produced by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, follow the theme “I am Davis Pride.” This year, Davis Pride’s presenting sponsor is BluPeak Credit Union. The highlights of the weekend include:

• Skate with Pride, starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 3. The free night will include a disc jockey, disco lights and food trucks. Skating will be under the Davis Farmers Market Pavilion in Central Park, Fourth and C streets, downtown.
• Run for Equality at 8 a.m. on Sunday, June 4. It includes a 5K and 1K run/walk from Central Park. Registration is $25 until May 28 and $30 after.
• A community fair kicking off the Davis Pride Festival at 10 a.m. on June 4. It continues until 5 p.m. in Central Park with educational booths, food, drink, and vendors coordinated with the assistance of Davis Craft and Vintage Market.
• A music festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that Sunday, with local and international bands, choirs and a drag queen revue.  This year’s music headliner is Northern California favorite Tainted Love – The Best of the ’80s Live.
• A Ride with Pride bike party ride starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 23, from Central Park.

Soroptimists give away pumpkins, paint faces and help kids play games and paint pumpkins at the Davis Farmers Market Pumpkin Patch, coming up on Oct. 26. Enterprise file photo.

(From press release) Pumpkins, plants, face painting and a petting farm. Those are just a few of the highlights at the annual Pumpkin Patch, Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Davis Farmers Market.

The event, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., has all of the usual Saturday market vendors, with fruit, veggies, nuts, bread, breakfast, lunch and coffee. But this annual event has lots of extras that celebrate the fall harvest and mark the transition to a Winter Market schedule on Wednesdays. Come in costume and enjoy the many activities in Central Park, 301 C St.

Soroptimist International of Davis will have free pumpkins for youngsters, as well as face painting, pumpkin painting and games. Soroptimists work to educate and empower women and girls, and give out free pumpkins once a year to thank the community for supporting their beer and wine booth at Picnic in the Park. All profits from beer and wine sales go into Soroptimist programs like monthly mentorship at King High, grants for single moms, and their work to end human trafficking. The service organization is also a key supporter of Davis Farm to School.