Short Takes

12 Bands and a Harvest of Pumpkins
The Noe Valley Harvest Festival on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005, will yield a bumper crop of entertainment and events, organizers say. Plans so far include a pumpkin patch, band performances, and a neighborhood treasure hunt. Harvest Festival Chair Sara Butz promises something for everyone--12 bands have already volunteered.
To avoid disturbing residents near the festival, all the music will be either acoustic or low amplification. The main stage will be stationed at Church and 24th streets, and other bands, choirs, and musicians will mingle with the crowd throughout the festival.
The "Punkin Patch" will offer pumpkins for sale and a pumpkin-decorating contest. The treasure hunt will lead participants from merchant to merchant along 24th Street and down Church Street, and prizes will go to the most successful sleuths. Guerrero Street Gardens plans to sponsor several activities, including a prize for the biggest slug and the most beautiful basket of Noe-grown items. They'll also demonstrate how-to's for fall and winter gardening.
According to co-organizer Richard May, the logo contest that was announced in the May issue of the Voice is well under way, and the deadline has been extended to June 15. "I hear some schools are gearing up to send lots of entries," he says. Everyone under age 18 who lives or goes to school in Noe Valley is welcome to participate in the logo contest. Mail your submission to: Harvest Festival c/o Richard May, P.O. Box 460129, San Francisco, CA 94146, or drop it off at Forbeadin, the bead shop on Church Street just north of 24th Street.
The deadline for vendors to apply to the fair has also been extended to June 15. To apply, visit the festival web site at www.nvharvestfestival.com. Also, visit the web site and e-mail Butz from there to volunteer at the festival. More help is needed to make it all happen.
All-Night Adventure Race Starts at Douglass Playground
The evening begins in the middle of Noe Valley, but participants will walk, run, and bike all over San Francisco before the sun is up. The San Francisco Day and Night Challenge is an urban race that's been a rousing success in Seattle and is making its debut in San Francisco. Participants receive a map of the city with 60 checkpoint locations circled. All travel except for the ferry to Sausalito is by foot or bicycle. Within a time limit of three, seven, or 16 hours, participants try to visit as many of the checkpoints as they can in any order. Some may enjoy a leisurely three-hour tour of San Francisco, while those who choose the 16-hour option will be traipsing the city until well past dawn.
The challenge begins at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, at Douglass Playground, at 26th and Douglass streets. Organizer Terry Farrah says he chose it as the starting point because Noe Valley is the geographic center of San Francisco. A resident of Millbrae, he is a regular visitor to Noe Valley.
For the 16-hour option, participants must form teams of two to five people. Event fees range from $15 to $65 per person, with a $30 maximum for any family that includes a child 12 or under. Preregistration is required for the seven- and 16-hour options. Day of event registration is available for the three-hour option. Registration is now open on the event's web site, www.nightanddaychallenge.com.
Free Fun at S.F. Folk Fest
Guitar lessons, crafts, concerts, dancing, food, and more take center stage at the two-day San Francisco Free Folk Festival this month. The 29th annual fest begins at noon and ends at 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 18, and then runs from noon until 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 19, at Roosevelt Middle School, located at 460 Arguello Street near Geary Boulevard.
Sponsored by the 55-year-old San Francisco Folk Music Club, the festival will host live performances by dozens of musicians and dancers, including the Shut-Ins, M'Earth Tones, Aswan Dancers, Loose Canons, Dunsmuir Scottish Dancers, McBride Irish Dancers, the Blackwoods, and master fiddler Ray Bierl. At 8 p.m. each night, you can waltz, swing, and ballroom-dance to the band Brassworks, featuring a tuba, trombone, French horn, and two trumpets playing everything from Broadway to Baroque.
In addition, the volunteer organizers have planned a huge array of dance and music workshops teaching django, sea shanties, thumbpicking, sacred harp, yodeling, barbershop, ukelele, and "songs of love, lust, and labor."
The festival also will hold storytelling sessions and songwriting workshops for the whole family. A music and crafts marketplace will be available for shopping, and food will be sold on-site as well. Organizers expect a crowd of up to 3,000 this year.
The folk festival is wheelchair-accessible and easy to reach by bus (take the 24-Divisadero to the 38-Geary). To find out more about transit and the festival's class and performance schedule, visit www.sffolkfest.org.
Human Ribbon for Hunger Awareness
On Tuesday, June 7, the San Francisco Food Bank will partner with the St. Anthony Foundation and Project Open Hand to observe National Hunger Awareness Day. To raise awareness in the community, a human ribbon will be staged from the Ferry Plaza to the Civic Center to the Golden Gate Bridge.
According to the San Francisco Food Bank, 150,000 people in San Francisco are in danger of going hungry. The event will be held from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. For more information or to volunteer to participate, call 282-1900 or visit www.sffoodbank.org.
Call for Altered Barbies
If you were (or are) one of those kids who loved to shave your doll's head or twist its limbs around, this is your chance to do it again and call it art.
The Ultimate Altered Barbie and Friends Show 2005 has put out a call to artists, and the Barbies selected will be showcased during the month of August. Works will be selected from the following categories: three-dimensional Barbies, photographs, paintings, performance art, film, spoken word, and fashion.
The deadline for submissions is June 20, 2005, and accepted artists will be notified by July 1. The show will take place at Red Ink Studios at 989 Market Street in San Francisco.
Artists can send an Illustrator or jpeg digital image through e-mail or up to three slides through the postal service. Mail slides to Chatterbox, 135 Melrose Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127, or e-mail digital photos to jilleele@ yahoo.com. For more information, call Julie Andersen at 240-2202. (Andersen owned the gift and art store Chatterbox, formerly at Church and 24th streets.)
This month's Short Takes were written by Erin O'Briant.