This weekend we’ll celebrate the Fourth of July and the nation’s 250th anniversary. America’s birthday, for many, means small-town parades and band-shell concerts. Below are some area favorites.
Oakland concert: The Oakland Municipal Band will play its traditional July Fourth concert in the Lake Merritt Bandstand from 1 to 3 p.m. in Lakeside Park. The volunteer musical group has been performing free concerts in the park since 1912.
Piedmont parade: Known for the generous show of candy that rains down on spectators young and old, the Piedmont parade is a favorite hometown event. Highlights include the mop-and-bucket brigade, the bagpipe players and antique cars. The parade starts at 11 a.m. and runs along Highland Avenue from Park Way to Piedmont Park.
Orinda parade: Although not as large as the Piedmont parade, it’s a sweet slice of Americana, nonetheless. The parade starts at 10 a.m. in the city’s Theatre District, followed by a concert and carnival in Orinda Community Park that begins around 11:30.
Moraga Commons: There’s no parade, but Moraga’s popular park, Moraga Commons, has a whole day of old-fashioned activities — culminating in an evening concert and fireworks. Bring a blanket, and don’t be late. The display is sensational but short.
In other news: The restoration of the storybook Montclair Firehouse is progressing, despite recurring vandalism to the 1930s Works Progress Administration stone retaining walls surrounding the historic building.
The city of Oakland is assigning a planner to the project, and the lease terms have been finalized, according to real estate agent Nancy Lehrkind. She says the next step is to secure pledges to help pay for retrofitting the building and transforming it into a community arts center. You can find out how to support the project at montclairfirehouseartscenter.org.
Zoo news: The Oakland Zoo’s bison restoration program is celebrating the birth of its 50th calf born at the zoo since the program began in 2016. Four bison calves were born just this season. The program is a partnership with the Blackfeet Nation and the organization Indigenous LED, which helps grow the herd on Blackfeet Territory in Browning, Montana.
Bison were nearly extinct in the early 1900s; but the zoo has trucked more than 40 bison to Montana in the last 10 years. For more information on the zoo’s Species and Habitats Campaign and the Bison Restoration Program, visit oaklandzoo.org/habitats online. Angela Gibson, the facility’s zoological manager, says officials consider having the trust of their Blackfeet partners a great honor.
“It is an opportunity to be involved in a program that restores a part of a culture that was once taken away.”
Book event: The group Friends of the Montclair Library has started hosting author events again, filling a bit of the void left by the recent closure of longtime Montclair bookstore A Great Good Place for Books.
Local author Anne Breedlove will share her book “Happy Campers” at 6 p.m. Aug. 5. It’s the story of how she and her husband, Jim, set out to bicycle from California to the Atlantic Ocean — and ended up on a six-month, 7,254-mile adventure through 21 states and two Canadian provinces.
Ginny Prior can be reached at ginnyprior@hotmail.com and followed on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and at ginnyprior.com.