Hot Ticket in The Town this week: Oakland International Film Festival<\/p>\n
For the past 24 years, the Oakland International Film Festival<\/a> has helped to elevate the work of independent filmmakers<\/a>. For 10 days starting on Sept. 9, the festival will screen films and host mixers at venues throughout Oakland including Grand Lake Theater. This year\u2019s screenings include \u201cOakland Ilokana<\/a>,\u201d a short documentary by Elenita Makani O\u2019Malley about her grandmother, one of the first Filipino children born in 1930s Oakland<\/a> (screening Sept. 16<\/a>), and \u201cCities Like Oakland\u201d<\/a> by Jarod Backens, a short feature about an Oakland therapist grappling with a client\u2019s death and her personal search for empathy and connection (screening Sept. 17<\/a>).\u00a0 Bilingual Dimond Park Bioblitz Saturday<\/p>\n For the past three decades, the Friends of Sausal Creek<\/a> has been tirelessly working to restore and steward the Sausal Creek watershed<\/a>. This weekend, the Oakland-based nonprofit is teaming up with El T\u00edmpano and the California Academy of Sciences for a free, Spanish and English bilingual day of exploring the creek\u2019s incredible biodiversity. Participants will be invited to use the iNaturalist app to help identify and log local biodiversity. The morning includes guided walks, games, a free lunch and a raffle. Annual dahlia show at the Gardens at Lake Merritt<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever walked through the Gardens at Lake Merritt and admired the rows of colorful dahlias<\/a>, you have the members of the San Leandro Dahlia Society<\/a> and volunteers to thank. They manage and tend the garden with no funding from the city. This weekend, growers from the American Dahlia Society will display their perennials during a two-day competition. You\u2019ll be able to see these gorgeous flowers and buy a bouquet for your house as well.\u00a0 Virgo\u2019s Groove day party<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Virgo, or have a Virgo in your life you want to celebrate, this day party at High 5ive Rooftop Bar (inside the Kissel Hotel) is the place for you. DJs Lexx Jones, Sean G, DCisChillin, and Oh El Knows will be behind the one\u2019s and two\u2019s.\u00a0 Goth yoga at Spire Church<\/p>\n Spire Church<\/a> is a 1800s Gothic Revival building that has been transformed into a multi-use event space<\/a> that hosts music shows, film screenings and niche exercise classes like \u201cexercism\u201d pilates and the goth yoga. Organizers call this weekly yoga class \u201ca unique experience of spiritual enrichment that harmonizes mind, body, and soul with the realm of the divine.\u201d Coming soon to The Town: The Oakland Skates hockey team inaugural season<\/p>\n The Oakland Skates<\/a> are Oakland\u2019s latest semi-pro team, and they\u2019ll be launching their inaugural season this October. But the team isn\u2019t entirely new. It\u2019s a revival of a roller skating team<\/a> with the same name that played from 1993 to 1996 at the Oakland Arena. Tickets for the home opener against the Santa Rosa Growlers go on sale on Thursday, Oct. 1. Season tickets are available now.\u00a0 “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a holiday weekend which means extra time to roam around the Town, catch up with housework, or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,5499],"class_list":["post-450457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-this-week-in-oakland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450457","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=450457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Wednesday, Sept. 9 to Saturday, Sept. 19, see website<\/a> for a complete schedule, various locations in Oakland<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CITIES_LIKE_OAKLAND_STILL_19-1-1600x865.png\")
Still from the short film \u201cCities Like Oakland\u201d by Oakland filmmaker Jarod Backens. Credit: courtesy of Jarod Backens<\/p>\n
Saturday, Sept. 5, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., register to participate<\/a>, Dimond Park, 3860 Hanly Rd.<\/p>\n
Saturday, Sept. 5, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 6, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., free, The Gardens at Lake Merritt, 666 Bellevue Ave.<\/p>\n
Sunday, Sept. 6, 4 to 9 p.m., free before 5:30 p.m., $10 to $66<\/a>, High 5ive Rooftop, 437 25th St.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6_Sausal_OakRain_Jan_5_danzig-1600x1067.jpg\")
A view of Sausal Creek, along Dimond Creek Trail, January 2023. Credit: courtesy of Daniel Danzig<\/p>\n
Every Sunday, 12 to 1:30 p.m., donation requested,<\/a> Spire Church, 825 Athens Ave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Home opener, Friday, Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m., tickets on sale on Oct. 1<\/a>, Oakland Ice Center, 519 18th St.\u00a0<\/p>\n