Fruitvale Dia De Los Muertos Festival

Pluses: it is in a Latino neighborhood and it is free. It is also nice to have local artists represented. Negatives: it gets very crowded, at the end of the day there are too many drunks, and it is too commercial.

I haven’t been in several years because: A. It wasn’t really a very cultural event — it was mostly filled with food, t-​shirt and other vendors. And B. Someone tried to steal my car (caught them at it). I won’t be going again.

The Unity Council 2014 Dia de los Muertos is underway and invites local artists to contribute poster art ideas for their 19^th Annual Dia de los Muertos Festival.
Final Cash Prize to be determined could be up to $ 1,000…
Final selection is a few weeks away!
Share with your artist friends.

This festival was cool real crowded, hard to walk through. The Aztec dancers were awesome. Lots of good foods. Would go again.

Very cool! Free! Festive! Tons of musical acts both in English and Spanish! Tons of variety of food! Nice people! Booths were very distinct. Now I sort of understand what Dia De Los Muertos is. Very good Aztec dancers as well. Well polced. Street parking. Long lines in the bakery and fresh fruit store. But there were a good variety of food kiosks. Tons of samples at Safeway and State Farm. Thank you!!! What can you ask for? Highly recommended.

I spent a really pleasant few hours at this event this year. I had a chance to meet and chat with Mayor Quan. Got plenty of freebies and info at various booths, and saw some altars which brought tears to my eyes. There were various folks in tribal dress as well as low rider cars. We stopped to get powdered beignets at a biz near the Bart and got some East Coast style Italian Ice at Heaven in A Cup. Also got to chat with some Instagram folks who were having a meet-​up. Had no trouble with crowds, the area was clean, felt safe with plenty of cops, and the booths were inviting. Go Fruitvale, Go Oakland.

Before I had my little Chicana, I thought calaveras and altares were a cool tradition my fellow Latinos enjoyed. Over the years, I have grown to appreciate the richness of this holiday so going to the festival with my little one is a fall highlight. Reasons to hop on BART and head over:
*Danza Azteca
*the low rider cars and the oldies they were bumping…“Crystal blue persuasion… uh-​huh…”
*and of course, the many beautiful and poignant altares.
Why I can’t give four stars:
*Much too crowded. There’s no way for organizers to address this issue other than to expand and this festival actually covers a large area. The crowded aisles are treacherous for those of us with little ones.
*Food options are pricey. We walked down International past a row of drunks and saw that the taquerias had lines out the door so we opted for Vietnamese food.

Went to the Fruitvale Dia De Los Muertos Festival Sun 10÷28÷12. Got there before 10am & it wasn’t too crowded, lots of stuff still setting up.
I watched a tiny bit of the Aztec dancers
Met Oakland Mayor Jean Quan
A bunch of Low-​Rider cars were there to take pics of
FREEBIES:
Blue reusable bag from Alameda County Transportation Commission
Blue small reusable BART bag
Orange reusable bag
Kaiser spinned the wheel I got the Thrive bag
Safeway Tortilla Warmer spin the wheel, also spinning the wheel raisins
Hand sanitizers
Key chain w/​flashlight
PG&E frisbee — spin wheel
pens, pencils
Sample of Mango smoothie from McDonald’s
Mexican cookbook, notepad
Radio station got a book: Diamond Life
Went to Otaez Taqueria for my lunch/​bathroom & Nieves Cinco de Mayo for ice cream.
I stayed about 3hrs, very crowded after 11am.

Lots of potential but unfortunately co-​opted by large businesses, what may have once been a cultural extravaganza to honor ancestors is now a marketing stunt for chips ahoy, kool-​aid an array of high fructose corn syrup infested products wanting to become staples in the Latino family household. Also showcasing overpriced trinkets and cheap feather jewelry and other ethnic low quality junk.
Overcrowded.
Unhealthy foods.
Not the place to bring your kids.
Hard to find parking.
The only two good things I can think of about this festival is that it hopefully brings money to the Fruitvale community, and that the few families who build altars for the festival get to express themselves creatively through arts and crafts.
Will I come here again? Probably not.
…unless after i am dead, someone in Fruitvale decides to build me an altar!

The highlight of this festival is the Aztec dancers. Watching them dance barefoot in the puddles along with the drumbeats made me want to join in.
Other than that. there were not many alters, not a huge selection of foods or music or vendors. Sure it rained but it’s just a lil drizzle!
I expected more representation of Mexican culture…

Odd that it is odd to say this, but the Day of the Dead fest was kind of a downer.
I went 3 – 4 years ago and loved the event, it was lined with a seemingly never-​ending string of booths with food, art, alters, etc. I remember being overwhelmed and unprepared.
This year in contrast, plagued by rain (not the event’s fault), the festival seemed to be on a much smaller scale. Moreover, the event was set to kick off at 10am, yet even by 11 many booths were not up an running. Maybe at noon it was in full swing… maybe…
The rain, the slow start, the smaller scale than years-​past might have let this be a 4 star event, but what was featured this year was pretty hit or miss.
There were some amazing alter displays, two or three really nice and unique arts & craft sales booths, and a parking-​lot of food. Sadly, the food (a huge draw for me) featured hot dog stands more than anything else. I did have a very good tamale, a sip of my wife’s hot champurrado, a freshly fried churro that was stuffed with cajeta, and a papusa (first stand open to sell food, I was starving, so I got it even if it meant Salvadorian food at a Mexican street fair). Also, randomly, why was there a teriyaki stand?
Lastly, Pan de Muerto is a huge part of the holiday, yet to get some I had to walk 10 blocks down International to a local Panaderia unaffiliated with the festival. I did see one stand with mini-​bagged versions of the bread, but come on, you would think someone at the fest would sell the holiday’s central food, fresh and in it’s full glory.
What I ate was good. Some of what I saw was eye catching. I just wanted more. Hence, 3-​stars because the event has been and can be better than the 2010 version.

I thought this was pretty fun. Be prepared for tons of people. Plenty of yummy foods to try, as well as fun stuff for the kids to see. Our kids had a pretty good time, even with the crowds. Can’t have a bad time when you get chocolate filled Churros and Texas Snowballs!

This was a great event. I did get a little confused as to how far it stretched, but I was front row for the dancing/​ceremonial stuff, which was pretty cool.
If there were any problems, I didn’t see any… just lots of people enjoying the festival.
Yes, it gets crowded. Lots of long lines for some of the giveaways, etc. I think it is probably better to get their even before 10 to get front row for the Aztec dancing. Lots of food to be had (roasted corn that is as big as your head).
I think taking Bart is key to enjoying this event.

It was my first time coming to any Dia De Los Muertos Festival and I had such a fantastic time. This festival stretched down International Blvd. Just as I thought my friends and I were getting to the end, it kept on going.
There was something for everyone — altars, food, music, crafts, jewelry, luchador masks, freebies, agua fresca, etc. The altars were interesting, some more ornately decorated than others. Their were various music acts which just made you want to get up and dance. There were so many food booths lined up on each side of the street. You could get your fill of Mexican food of tacos, burritos, and corn which were interspersed with vendors selling jewelry, musical instruments, purses, skeleton figures, and luchador masks. There was definitely something for everyone.
Drawbacks: I didn’t see anyone selling tamales. And I tasted pickled pig skin was not so pleasant.
Bottom Line: I will be back next year.

The festival was larger and a lot better this year. The only problem when attending is that there is no parking, (which is why I took B.A.R.T. this year) and the food gets more expensive each year. My partner and I hit up one of our favorite restaurants after searching for a booth or new place to try. The alters seem to be in the same place every year now and the booths keep growing in number by the dozens. Over all the street fair end of it is getting bigger, but that’s not the reason I go.
The opening ceremony this year was huge! There must of been a dozen different dance troops and it lasted for well over an hour. It was a beautiful reminder and a chance to be with others in a moment of true reflection. Oh yeah, there were a bunch of ignorant people on the sides bobbing there heads like it was a rock concert and my hips hurt from trying to make sure all the children and little old ladies could get by me to sit in front, but over all it was a beautiful hour which left me smelling like frankincense and mur for the rest of the day.
Barbara lee was there showing support for the cultural fair as she understood it. She even stayed a whole 5 minutes after her speech to watch some dancing. Unlike everyone else, my partner waited until the ceremonies were over to take pictures and then we needed to find a restroom. We got a mango agua fresca and hit up some booths. Initially the whole deal seemed far too touristy, but once we found familiar booths and eventually got some food, we met up with family and walked around to see even more stuff.
In all I think we were there about four hours, but it was a great experience. Some of the dancers went immediately from the opening ceremony to a second one that seemed even bigger. It was insanely cool to see that many people dance for that long and there were still people going as we left. I got to see the altars, some awesome art and even found a couple of shops I didn’t know were in the Fruitvale, (one was new). It was fun as could be and if not for the lame christian folks handing out those, «reasons why holloween is satanic» fliers for the first two hours it would have been an even more chill day.
CHAD

I haven’t had this much fun at a festival in a looong time. As soon as I got off BART I heard the music coming from the festival. The festival extends about ten blocks downtown.
–The festival did a great job spacing out the music. I hardly ever found any dead space. This really kept the momentum going and probably even the spending. There were three stages for live bands, street performers, dancers, and cultural performers.
–I was surprised at how many activities there were for kids. This festival is pretty kid-​friendly. They have free cultural activities, arts and crafts, rides, and a play area. There was this bull riding machine for kids. It was pure hilarity.
–I saw a couple of things I’ve never seen before. Like this flat taco salad thing. I have no idea what this is called. It looks good though. The shrines were also cool, although I felt a bit morbid looking at all the dead people. There was one shrine that was dedicated to all the 2008 murders in Oakland. I was shocked to find the dead toll in the Oakland area to be over a hundred people! booo.
–The food was great. Contrary to what others say about food prices, I thought it was dirt cheap. I got papusas, corn, pineapple juice with pineapple chunks, and a huge churro for ten bucks! I was so content afterwards.
–It was interesting to see how different company’s tried to market their products to the hispanic crowd. Disneyland’s colors were all blue? Safeway was giving away free samples of their products? Like what’s so special about a sample size cup of chocolate milk?
–Crowds were expectedly ridiculous. It wasn’t that bad unless you had a stroller.
I totally regret not bringing my camera. Gahhh.

Every Year I enjoy to roam International blvd.
I walked upon a crowd of too many familiar brown faces with kids of glittery sparkled cheecks and sticky resedue on the mouth from the popsicles.
Oh yes. HEAVEN I stopped to look and peek at the clothes they had, and the smell of roasted corn and churros ripped me away and had me floating into a land of Extascy. I danced in the middle of the street with my best friends and loved ones.
The only thing that I was most upset about is that their could of been more altars here.

I went to the day of the dead festival this afternoon. It was my first time at this sort of cultural event and my first time at fruitvale village.
I loved every second of it (in spite of the crowds). The alters were beautiful, there was a vast array of arts/​crafts, shops with jewelry and clothes and quite a few other things. And most importantly, there were copious amounts of food! Churros, salted churros (the pinwheel things), great jicama and cactus, asada tacos, corn and so many other delicious things.
The music and dancing were entertaining and it was a great event to spend the afternoon. I would give them a higher rating except for the fact that the crowd was so massive that it was difficult to move from one side of the festival to the other. Will return though (and will probably return on random sundays as they have similar festivities)

I had a lot of fun at this event. I made sure to get there early enough to avoid the crowds that were sure to come. I mean, it’s always crowded whatever time you show, but there’s a difference to striding and shuffling your way through.
As I exited the Fruitvale BART, I was treated to the noise of a conk shell initiating the start of the Aztec dancers. I’ve seen them perform so many times here in the Yay, but it never gets old for me. It’s just as amazing, colorful, mystical, and beautiful as when I first saw the troupe perform years ago. The rattling of their ankle ornaments with the swirl of the gorgeous feathers headdresses in tune with the pounding drum — absolutely powerful.
After the performance, I ventured out to see the many stalls that filled the sun warmed streets that day. There was delicious food and drinks being offered like grilled carne asada, chicken, tacos, fresh coconut juice among other gastronomical delights. There were also stalls selling skeleton t-​shirts /​figurines in various everyday poses as if they were still living. This is the most recognized symbol of El Dia de Los Muertos. With this there were many displays honoring loved ones who’d passed away. Some were personal with pictures of the deceased accompanied by their favorite things/​drinks/​meal. Others were more symbolic of the day as a whole. They were all beautifully put together.
So many people started showing up so I knew that was my cue to head back home with the goodies that I’d bought. Overall the weather was beautiful for this nice event. I liked this versus the Cinco de Mayo festivities where folks just get drunk and some violence is bound to go down. Here, I think people are trying to be more respectful.

2006 was the 11^th annual Dia de Los Muertos Festival. We have been to at least 9 of them and look forward to this event every year.
We went when they first opened at 10AM and stayed till 12:30pm.
It is a wonderful community event and fun for the whole family.
Highlights Include:
Ongoing music and dance performances on 4 – 5 different stages.
(We saw one of 2 – 3 different Aztec dancer groups wearing the
worlds’ greatest costumes – stunning sequins and huge feather
headdresses.
Plenty of food booths and carts: fruit, pupusas, tacos & burritos,
corn-​on-​the-​cob,
Lots of community booths, local tv and radio stations, HMO’s,
other major businesses, museums (ie. Lawrence Hall of Science,
Oakland Zoo, Monterey Aquarium) many with spinning wheels for
prizes (I got a CD!)
Craft and activity booth for kids.
Low-​key rides and jumping pavillions for kids.
Loads of Dia de Los Muertos booths with sugar skulls, Loteria games, paper cut outs, jewelry, clothing and more.
Too much to see!