Top Tickets: April 15-21

Diablo's picks for the can't-miss events of the coming week: Pleasanton TEA Party, California Independent Film Festival, Celebration of Children's Literature, The Pork on Your Fork, spring plant sales, and the Lamorinda Earth Day Festival.

It’s Tax Day! Spend your refund seeing hundreds of indie films at the California Independent Film Festival. Or, if you just wrote a large check to the IRS, opt for touring beautiful gardens, meeting children’s book authors, or learning about “going local”—for FREE!  Here are this week’s Top Tickets…

April 15: Pleasanton TEA Party
More than 300 grassroots TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Parties are being organized across the country on Tax Day, to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. The Bay Area’s biggest rally is across the street from a Pleasanton post office, and includes speeches, music, and appearances by KSFO’s Brian Sussman and Barbara Simpson. Amador Valley Community Park, 4301 Black Ave., Pleasanton, 12–6 p.m., free, pleasantonteaparty.com.

April 16–19: California Independent Film Festival
Attention film geeks: you check out more than one hundred indie flicks and short films right here in the East Bay at the California Independent Film Festival. This year’s fest honors actress Diane Ladd with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and features the cast of How To Be (hopefully including teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame). Tickets sold individually or in packs of 4, 8, or 12; all-access passes also available. Various East Bay locations, caindiefilmfest.org.

April 18: Celebration of Children’s Literature
Meet a dozen East Bay authors—including Todd Parr, Robert San Souci, and Ying Chang Compestine—at the Celebration of Children’s Literature. Young participants will enjoy a sing-along, storytelling, art activities, a book fair, and author signings. Plus, Peter Rabbit and Corduroy Bear will drop by for a visit. Tolman Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., free, phone, gse.berkeley.edu/admin/childlit/.

April 18: The Pork on Your Fork
Slow Food Delta Diablo hosts a pig-centric event to put people in touch with their food before it hits the plate. Master Butcher Randy Sprinkle will slaughter and butcher two Ennes Ranch pigs, and guests will enjoy a family-style meal of pulled pork sandwiches. A silent auction benefits local ranchers. Ennes Ranch, 7247 Chadbourne Rd., Brentwood, 10 a.m., $15 for observers, $100–$160 for participants, brownpapertickets.com/event/61251.

April 18: Spring plant sales
Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft Garden celebrates opening day with its annual Spring Plant Sale. The private garden will offer an assortment of natives, succulents, and other drought-tolerant plants, and horticultural specialists will be on hand to answer questions and guide tours. But why go to one plant sale when you can hit two in the same day? The Regional Parks Botanic Garden hosts is annual California Native Plant Sale, where you can find shrubs, trees, and perennials not available in nurseries. Ruth Bancroft Garden, 1552 Bancroft Rd., Walnut Creek, free, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m., (925) 944-9352, ruthbancroftgarden.org. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, at Wildcat Canyon Road and South Park Drive in Tilden Park, Berkeley, free, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., (510) 841-8732, nativeplants.org.

April 19: Lamorinda Earth Day Festival
Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda join forces to celebrate “Going Local.” Focusing on five areas (eat local, shop local, power local, move local, and act local), the event offers live music, food tasting, activities for kids, a collaborative art piece, educational displays, and speakers Kathryn Lyddan of the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust and Better World Handbook author Ellis Jones. Stanley School, 3455 School St., Lafayette, free, 11 a.m.–4 p.m., sustainablelafayette.net.

For even more events happening this week, browse the complete listings on Diablo’s Community Calendar.
 

Posted at 11:27 AM in Best Of Editor Picks | Permalink