Tiny Drummers Make Big Scene at Berkeley 'Sunday Streets'

The one must-see activity in today's second annual Sunday Streets Berkeley festival?

More than one person told Patch it was the drop-in drum orchestra for little kids. 

There you could see and hear a dozen or so very little people banging away on a variety of drums arranged on the pavement of usually busy Shattuck Avenue. Some of them seemed to be making an effort to keep time with whatever song was being performed by the adult-in-charge from Jon's School of Music at the electric keyboard on the sidewalk.

It was also a kind of kids karaoke scene with a microphone for any audience volunteers who wanted to sing. Many grabbed the chance. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" was a popular choice. (The attached 30-second video offers a glimpse.)

Elsewhere, kids made art in the street or played chess with pieces as big as they were. Many mingled with adults for the middle-of-the-street hula hoop party.

Sunday Streets Berkeley was a giant block party stretching along 17 blocks of Shattuck, which was closed to traffic from Haste Street in downtown Berkeley to Rose Street in North Berkeley.

Members of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performed Beethoven in the middle of the street, and a rock band stationed in front of the Post Office had some people dancing in the street.

Many of the food shops and restaurants did a brisk business as a continual throng of people on foot, scooters and bikes streamed by. The booths were widely scattered, unlike those crammed cheek-by-jowl at the Solano Avenue Stroll, and the density of people in the street wasn't quite as high as the Solano Stroll.

Nevertheless, a Patch reporter walking his bike usually had to pause for a bit to wait for an opening to cross the street.

Patch asked people at an official information booth for an estimate of the attendance.

"We had over 40,000 last year, so I'd say we'll have at least 50,000 by the end of the day," said Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association, a business group.

And the response she's hearing from the public?

"They love it," she said. "I think everybody's having a good time. There's something for everyone."

"Plus," added Lisa Bullwinkel, an event planner whose clients include North Shattuck Association, "we've got great weather." It was a warm, sunny afternoon, ideal for a street fair.

Hensley and Bullwinkel did acknowledge hearing one source of disappointment from some people. They wished it happened more often than once a year.

According to the Sunday Streets Berkeley website, the event is "presented by Livable Berkeley and the City of Berkeley in association with the Downtown Berkeley Association, North Shattuck Association, Office of Mayor Tom Bates, East Bay Bicycle Coalition, & Ecology Center."

Published Oct. 13, 2014, 8:54 p.m.; updated Oct. 14, 4:18 p.m.
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