OAKLAND<\/p>\n
The Oakland Greek Festival, sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, will return for its 54th year on the weekend of Friday through Sunday, May 15-17. Along with the breathtaking panoramic views from the Oakland hills, festival-goers can anticipate their delectable favorite foods such as gyros, souvlakia, lamb sandwiches, spanakopita, loukoumades, baklava and much more.<\/p>\n
The cathedral\u2019s award-winning Greek folk dance troupes, historical festival photo displays, tours, lectures, cooking demonstrations, Ascension Liturgical Choir concerts as well as live Greek music and dancing will also be featured throughout the weekend. A unique array of wares and take-home pastries are also available for purchase.<\/p>\n
Tickets are $5 at the door or available in advance online. Admission is free for children 12 and younger. Plenty of free parking will be available at the cathedral and surrounding lots as well as on-site premium parking for $30 a day. Festivities will kick off at 4 p.m. May 15 and run through 9 p.m. May 17. Visit oaklandgreekfestival.com<\/a> for tickets or more details online.<\/p>\n \u2014 Oakland Greek Festival<\/p>\n Great Good Place for Books closing after over two decades<\/p>\n A Great Good Place for Books, a bookstore in the Oakland hills\u2019 Montclair Village, will close soon after 22 years, owner Kathleen Caldwell recently announced.<\/p>\n \u201cI have loved being a part of your community, watching your children grow up, being their safe place, turning you onto that book I just couldn\u2019t put down and introducing you to the authors who have set your imaginations on fire,\u201d Caldwell wrote in a public statement. \u201cSadly, it\u2019s time for me to step away. Through many tears, difficult conversations and sleepless nights I have decided to close A Great Good Place for Books.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not yet have a schedule for the closing, but I will update you when I know. I don\u2019t know what my next chapter looks like, but I hope many of you will still be a part of it. Thank you for an amazing ride; who knew GGP was everything I never knew I wanted?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 A Great Good Place for Books<\/p>\n Piedmont East Bay Children\u2019s Choir to host choral festival<\/p>\n This summer, the Bay Area will resonate with extraordinary music as the Golden Gate International Choral Festival welcomes more than 450 choristers, adjudicators and chaperones from around the globe for a week of breathtaking performances, cultural exchange and artistic excellence.<\/p>\n Taking place July 13-18 and hosted by the Piedmont East Bay Children\u2019s Choir (PEBCC), the festival stands as one of the world\u2019s most celebrated gatherings of young singers. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Eric Tuan, internationally recognized as one of the world\u2019s premier youth choir conductors, the festival promises performances of rare beauty, cultural significance, and emotional power.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Golden Gate Festival is a place where young people from around the world build bridges between cultures,\u201d says Tuan. \u201cEven in a deeply divided world, the festival offers us the chance to connect through the universal language of music, bringing our unique cultures and voices together to create international harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, visiting choirs will travel from the Philippines, Georgia, Austria, Catalonia, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Czechia and across the United States, creating a vibrant and diverse cultural exchange that defines the festival experience and fosters lasting global friendships. For online details, visit piedmontchoirs.org\/2026-golden-gate-festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 PEBCC<\/p>\n PIEDMONT Three new trees in Piedmont\u2019s parks and public spaces have joined the ranks of \u201cPiedmont Heritage Trees.\u201d Selected by the city\u2019s Park Commission from a pool of community nominations, the newly designated Heritage Trees were announced April 23 at the city\u2019s annual Arbor and Earth Day Celebration at Piedmont Community Hall.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s Heritage Tree program is meant to raise awareness of and appreciation for Piedmont\u2019s diverse urban forest. Trees selected for recognition this year were Coast Live Oak in Upper Dracena Park, nominated by Jack and Sharona Fischrup; Gingko street trees on King, nominated by Cindy Rafton; and Redwood in lower Dracena Park, nominated by Richard Przybyla.<\/p>\n Five community members or groups submitted nominations for this year\u2019s Heritage Tree program, and the city extends sincere thanks to everyone who participated. Each year, the Park Commission names up to five trees \u201cPiedmont Heritage Trees.\u201d For information online, visit piedmont.ca.gov\/news\/3_new_piedmont_heritage_trees_april_2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 city of Piedmont<\/p>\n To submit an item for the Montclarion and Piedmonter\u2019s \u201cIn brief\u201d section, which is now usually published in print on each month\u2019s second Friday, please email it, at least three days before print publication, to njackson@bayareanewsgroup.com<\/a>. Each item should be 90 to 180 words and include a short headline along with the name of the group or individual to credit for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND The Oakland Greek Festival, sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, will return for its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3764,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-303184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-community-briefs","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCity names three new \u2018Heritage Trees\u2019 in its public spaces<\/p>\n