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Press Releases
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All New Saturday Night Street Party in Downtown Oakland.
In Addition to Great Music, Food, and Family Fun, 12th-Annual Festival Shines the Spotlight on Art.
OAKLAND, California, June 13, 2012— The City of Oakland continues to raise the bar for its wildly successful flagship festival, Art & Soul Oakland. Now in its 12th year of offering top-flight talent, food from all over the globe, hundreds of artisan booths, and the largest family fun zone of any festival in the Bay Area, the event this year adds a late-night bash and cutting-edge art show to the festivities. Named among the top 12 “must-see summer festivals” in Northern California by the San Francisco Chronicle, Art & Soul Oakland 2012 -- slated for August 4 & 5 in downtown Oakland -- goes boldly into the night on Saturday, with audio-video art installations and multimedia performances to accompany DJ Dyloot broadcasting from the rooftop of Oakland City Hall.
Thanks to an expanded partnership with the East Bay Express, the festival will include new art elements, including collaborations with de Young Artist Fellow and Artist-in-Residence Alumni, Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, and Black Rock Arts Foundation, the nonprofit arts organization that supports Burning Man art and artists. Works from Oakland-based arts collectives The Crucible and NIMBY, plus artists from American Steel, will also be featured. Thirty-five East Bay Express art racks will be on display in the walkway between Frank Ogawa Plaza and City Center. Other new features include a contemporary East Bay showcase gallery curated by Ken Harman of Spoke Art and Illuminated Corridor light-based art projections by Oakland artist Suki O’Kane and the Oakland Underground Film Festival. There will also be special art installations by acclaimed Oakland and East Bay artists including Eddie Colla, Namita Kapoor, Jane Elliot, John W. Wood, Masako Miyazaki, Mayumi Hamanaka, Obi Kauffman, and Tracey Snelling.
Long established as one of the top music festivals in the region, Art & Soul Oakland will again deliver nonstop music as diverse as the city itself, this year showcasing the Bay Area’s best talent in rock, R&B, jazz, soul, folk, E.D.M., punk, honky-tonk, metal, blues, gospel, world, and Latin. Also new this year is a stage dedicated to the region’s hottest youth rock bands.
Luce, the popular local band headed by singer-songwriter Tom Luce, headlines the Art & Soul Main Stage hosted by KFOG on Saturday, August 4. Luce has consistently been a Bay Area favorite, with songs like “Good Day” and “Buy a Dog” topping playlists at dozens of radio stations, as well as being featured in movies and television shows. Also on the bill are Bay Area-based female folk-rockers Blame Sally, whose vital, original sound inspires many disparate comparisons — they’ve been likened to everyone from Indigo Girls and Dixie Chicks to The Wailin’ Jennys and Radiohead. Two additional performers will be announced in mid-July.
On Saturday, the East Bay Express premieres its new EBX Plaza Stage in front of Oakland City Hall with a wide-ranging lineup: banjo player Frank Fairfield, “post-apocalyptic-art-wave” outfit Metal Mother, the Oakland metal band Saviours, and indie-folk-rockers Vetiver. National recording artists Souls of Mischief, part of the famed Oakland hip-hop collective Hieroglyphics, headlines on Saturday. The group formed in 1991 and includes emcees A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. The Bay Area’s top trance DJ, Dyloot, best known for his alluring stage presence and hypnotic sounds, elevates the late-night party from the rooftop of City Hall while the multimedia art show curated by Ex’pression College for Digital Arts projects over Frank Ogawa Plaza. A final headliner for the EBX Plaza Stage lineup will be announced in mid-July.
Also slated for Saturday is the always-popular Community of Unity Gospel Showcase on the Jefferson Street Stage, headlined by the new Edwin Hawkins Singers. The City Center Stage will see two-member teams perform some of the freshest, homegrown street dancing anywhere during the “Yak to the Bay” turf dance competition. The 12th Street Stage will focus on Latin and world music, plus indie bands like singer-songwriter-troubadour Garrison Starr and Sweet Talk Radio, whose captivating vocals and lyrical guitar have attracted the attention of television producers. The husband-and-wife team’s songs have been featured on numerous TV series like Fairly Legal, In Plain Sight, Army Wives, Beautiful People, and Haven.
On Sunday, August 5, the Art & Soul Main Stage hosted by KBLX opens with Oakland jazz singer Kellye Gray. Gray blends scat singing, ballads, Latin, funk, soul, blues, solo, and improvisation into her shows. USA Today calls her “simply one of the most exciting jazz singers.” The ever-versatile Lalah Hathaway — daughter of the legendary Donny Hathaway — headlines, bringing an eclectic mix of jazz, pre-rock pop, R&B, funk, and gospel. Additional performers on the dynamic KBLX lineup will be announced in mid-July.
Sunday’s EBX Plaza Stage gets it going with Oceanography, an Oakland band whose catchy songs include cerebral lyrics penned to familiar melodies over drumbeats made for arena rock. Drawing influences from Nineties rock like Dinosaur Jr. and Nirvana, Oakland band Churches features veterans of the local scene, creating “salvation through distortion for the disaffected small-town weirdo in everyone.” Oakland’s own Persephone’s Bees, whose Notes from the Underworld was considered one of the best major-label debuts of the year, brings an everlastingly fresh parade of dynamic pop songs and cunning productions. Forrest Day closes the day with their compelling mélange of oddball rock, rap, jazz, and reggae, all hung on solid hip-hop rhythms that led the San Francisco Chronicle to proclaim, “Raise your hands and praise Forrest Day and their seven piece band that can mix up genres … a definite fun time live.”
Sunday also brings the crowd-pleasing Bay Area Blues Society’s stellar lineup of local blues greats to the Jefferson Street Stage, including Oakland Blues Divas, featuring JNeen, Ella Pennewell, Margie Turner, and Tia Carroll Oakland Blues Reunion, featuring Big Cat Tolefree, Little Junior Crudup, Tommy Nunnelly, Wylie Trass, Terrible Tom Bowden, and Lady Bianca, in addition to Billy & the Thrillers, Two Things in One, and The Mekesmo Band featuring Little Deon.
The region’s hottest youth bands take to the City Center Stage on Sunday for Youth Rocks. The 12th Street Stage will feature the heavily rock-influenced, funk- and R&B-infused hip-hop sound of Dynamic Truth. Next, the Oakland-based psychedelic rockers Whiskerman, led by Graham Patzner, creates a Frankenstein fusion with a simple folk backbone, rich classical core, and art-rock and jazz influences. Opening the stage is Caldecott, an organically-grown band of working men, creating beautiful melodies and foot-stomping rhythms based on experiences in the Bay Area and beyond.
The festival will literally light up the night with unique and exciting audio-video art installations featuring live VJing, projections, and mapping by students and faculty from the Motion Graphic Design program at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts.
Also new this year, some of the Bay Area’s hottest mobile food trucks will join favorite festival vendors, bringing a wide array of American and global gourmet eats. Beer, wine, and other beverages concessions will also be offered.
A family paradise, Art & Soul Oakland boasts the largest Family Fun Zone of any festival in the Bay Area, complete with kid-friendly rides and carnival games, inflatable bounce houses, interactive arts, and free festival admission for ages 12 and under.
Art & Soul Oakland 2012 takes place in downtown Oakland on Saturday, August 4, 2012, from 2:00 p.m. to midnight, and on Sunday, August 5, 2012, from noon to 6:00 p.m. The festival is centered in Frank Ogawa Plaza and City Center, encompassing ten strollable city blocks. Northern California’s most accessible festival, Art & Soul Oakland offers direct service from BART 12th Street - Oakland City Center Station in addition to free parking for cars and bike valet parking.
Admission to the festival is always a bargain. Advance online prices for single-day admission are $10 for adults, $5 for seniors 65 and older and youth ages 13-17. Advance tickets will be available online at www.ArtandSoulOakland.com beginning on Monday, July 9. At the gate, single-day admission will be $15 for adults, $8 for seniors and youth. Children 12 and under enjoy free admission to the festival.
Art & Soul Oakland 2012 is produced by the City of Oakland in association with the East Bay Express. Major sponsors include Budweiser, Lucky, KFOG 104.5/97.7 FM, The New R&B 102.9 FM KBLX., Clear Channel Outdoor, Oakland Magazine, Downtown Oakland Association, Lake Merritt-Uptown Association, and Oakland City Center.
For more information on Art & Soul Oakland 2012, visit www.ArtandSoulOakland.com or call 510 444-CITY.
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Media Contacts:
Harry Hamilton, Associate Producer/Publicity, 510 238-2107 or hhamilton@oaklandnet.com
Samee Roberts, Executive Producer, 510 238-2136 or sroberts@oaklandnet.com
Michael Coats, Coats PR, 707 935-6203 or michael@coatspr.com
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