Courtesy: UC Botanical Garden
🏛️ The East Bay Community Law Center is holding a Fall Legal Festival to highlight legal and community resources regarding tenants’ rights, immigration, health services, public benefits, and more. Free food from Tacos Sinaloa will be provided. Thursday, Oct. 23, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. FREE
🌹 A celebration of Doug Clifton, a retired Alameda firefighter, and his partner, retired nurse Kathy Velez Katz, who were beloved Deadheads recently killed in a Utah motorcycle crash, features Zach Nugent’s JG3 with Sunshine Garcia Becker and Cheryl Rucker. Thursday, Oct. 23, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz. $20-$25
🇨🇺 The Cuband, a dynamic trio of Cuban jazz musicians featuring saxophonist Rafael Matos and pianist Ed Corso, returns for their monthly residency in Tilden Park. Friday, Oct. 24, 5-7 p.m. Tilden Golf Course. FREE
🪔 Two years ago, Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, the daughter of Indian immigrants, launched a Diwali festival to highlight South Asian culture and cuisine. The family-friendly festival will feature various dance performances, music by DJ Damaniac, South Asian food vendors, and additional entertainment. Friday, Oct. 24, 6-10 p.m. RSVP online, BLOC15, 252 2nd St. FREE
🍽️ The Berkeley farmers markets will have a free class series on how to prevent food waste while cooking healthy, farm-fresh food. Register early to receive recipes in advance. Thursday, Oct. 23, 3 p.m., at North Berkeley. Saturday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m., at Downtown Berkeley. Tuesday, Oct. 28, 3 p.m., at South Berkeley.
Shoppers at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market. Photo: Nancy Rubin
✏️ Relive the ’90s with a panel of Bay Area-based cartoonists and authors, who will discuss how their work, cartoons, and Bay Area culture have evolved over the past thirty years. Friday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m. 2904 College Ave. FREE ($10-15 suggested donation)
💀 Berkeley High hosts a Día de los Muertos celebration featuring mariachi, a lowrider car show, children’s activities, artisanal crafts, whole-person healing, hair braiding and haircuts, an altar and art exhibition, and raffles, presented by R.I.S.E, and supported by BUSD, Lifelong Medical Care and the city. Saturday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Berkeley High (at Allston & Milvia). FREE
📖 Berkeley poet Rachel Richardson will read excerpts from her books, including her latest book Smother that tackles grief from climate change and the death of a friend. The reading will be followed by an interview and audience discussion segment. (Read our interview with Richardson.) Saturday, Oct. 25, 1 p.m. Claremont Branch Library. FREE
🚶 Go on a nearly five-mile stroll from West Berkeley to Emeryville and Aquatic Park. A walk leader from the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association will lead the way. Saturday, Oct. 25. Meet at 2701 Eighth St. at 9 a.m. FREE
🎃 Downtown Berkeley’s Halloween Hootenanny is back with live musical performances, vendors, fortune telling, face painting and crafts for kids. The farmers market will also be running at the same time. Saturday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Civic Center Park. FREE
🧛 Rialto Cinemas Elmwood will host a free family matinee of “Hotel Transylvania 2” at 10 a.m., and participating shops at the Elmwood will be hosting trick-or-treating from noon-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25. FREE
🎲 Play some spooky games at Victory Point Cafe’s Halloween Spooktacular, including board games and roleplay games like Blood on the Clocktower. Saturday, Oct. 25, 3 p.m.-1 a.m. $12-$60
🇳🇬 Felabration, the annual birthday celebration of Nigerian superstar, Afrobeat patriarch and outspoken anti-corruption activist Fela Kuti, returns to Ashkenez with a performance by Soji & the Afrobeat Band. Saturday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m. $20-$25
🐇 Botanical gardens aren’t just for flora anymore. A family-friendly fauna event featuring interactive booths and displays, crafts, tours and live animals like snakes and spiders (to see and touch), Animal Day returns to the UC Botanical Garden. Bring a picnic and enjoy the live music on the lawn. Friendly animal costumes encouraged. Sunday, Oct. 26, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. UC Botanical Garden. Free (with admission to Garden)
🌿 Learn how to make a healing salve and herbal tea blend using plant medicine and herbs grown at Spiral Gardens’ community farm. Salves will be available for purchase after the class, and proceeds will go back to the farm. Sunday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m. 1468 Oregon St. FREE
👻 The Deep End Sextet, a Bay Area jazz ensemble that grew out of pandemic rehearsals, will be playing “haunting jazz” at The Back Room. Expect tunes like Kenny Barron’s “Phantoms,” Joey Calderazzo’s “Midnight Voyage,” Joe Henderson’s “Out of the Night,” and Rick Margitza’s “Street of Thieves.” Sunday, Oct. 26, 3 p.m. The Back Room. $20 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP
🎻 Beirut-born violinist Georges Lammam performs with his ensemble, teaming up with activist-artist Holly Near for a Gaza relief benefit, with MECA Director Zeiad Abbas presenting a slide show on the organization’s work in Gaza. Sunday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. La Peña Cultural Center. $25-$75
🤴🏽 A high-concept concert puts Prince’s “Kiss” under the microscope at One Song All Night, a program featuring five Bay Area artists reimagining the Purple One’s chart-topping 1986 hit, with Hannah Mayree, Mike Blankenship and Dame Drummer, Anaís Azul, Tammy Hall, and Flex Duo with Bryan Dyer and Dave Worm. Sunday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m. The Freight. $34-$39
👻 Berkeley Community Media is hosting their 18th annual Horror Film Fest-Evil, featuring indie films that promise to be “not too salty, not too sweet … not too much blood and gore … just enough creep.” Sunday, Oct. 26, 7-10 p.m. 1931 Center St. $10
🎶 Vocalist Bryan Dyer, a longtime creative force on the Bay Area music scene who’s anchored Bobby McFerrin’s Monday afternoon Motion residency at the Freight for years, steps into the spotlight on his own at the new Jazz Nights at the Lobby Lounge series, presented in partnership with Living Jazz. Tuesday, Oct. 28, 9 p.m. Claremont Resort & Club. FREE
📚 Pushcart Prize-winning essayist Christina Rivera, discusses her 2025 anthology “My Oceans: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women” in a reading and book talk with Prof. Shannon Jackson Cyrus, director of the Environmental Arts & Humanities Initiative. Wednesday, Oct. 29, 5 p.m. Hearst Field Annex D23. FREE
🗓️ See more things to do in Oakland and Richmond. And check out our big list of affordable things to do anytime in Berkeley.
If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us at the-scene@berkeleyside.org. If there’s an event that you’d like to promote on our calendar, you can use the self-submission form on our events page.
The Oaklandside’s Azucena Rasilla contributed to this story.
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