Where does the time go? It felt like only yesterday I was in attendance of the very first SubZERO Festival (presented by Zero1 and South FIRST FRIDAYS) and it was nothing more than a strip of rag-tag street vendors with a handful of trinkets to share and sell. The art galleries that peppered South First street flung their doors wide open for the public to filter through and get an idea of what the local artists are up to. Flash forward to the present, art galleries are still flinging their doors and street vendors are still lining the streets—but there’s something different. There’s an alchemy in progress; An undeniable energy that could not be possible without the investment of time, patience, and support of both the San Jose community and the local artists who continue to create and connect with their material and themselves.
But enough history, you’re here for the present! Or, recent present (let’s avoid using the word history again in this post, yeah?). It’s a known fact that food brings people together. It doesn’t matter if it’s from a spit grill or your grandparent’s oven, food automatically develops community. Food trucks. I really believe that these were instrumental with how livelier and united festival-goers were. There were at least eight different trucks serving anything from speciality hotdogs, creative desserts, to more ethnic delights like WOW SILOG TRUCK (Filipino), TIKKA BYTES (Indian), AN THE GO. You gotta hand it to them, they have some punny names.
Treatbot
TREATBOT, this ^ particular food truck was never without a line! Even when the event wrapped, it was one of the very last ones to close its windows. Shame on me for never being prepared with a decent low-light camera to capture all these evening spectacles. Also, shame on me for not actually trying any of the food. Haha, erm…well, I was overwhelmed with all the choices and my waller was underwhelmed with some of the prices.
On a positive note, when the over and under whelming is listed I’ll know where to find them: SJ EATS!
What’s wonderful about this particular festival is that it’s in the evening. Assuming the weather isn’t in Noah-atic proportions, there’s a bit of romanticism (at least for me) that meanders through festival-goers as they weave through three blocks worth of eye-catching, attention grabbing, eye-brow raising, smirk pulling oddities and gravities.
The cardboard house (in the middle of the street), by Lacey Bryant
The art of André Hart...
The StreetSwag Photobooth, by BrainSoiled (dot com)
Hah..Um, not sure. I think they're part of Trina Merry & The Pure | Dance Theatre...
As you can see, there’s a lot of ground to cover during this festival. I’m almost beating myself up for not going in ready to report on each and every single aspect of the event. Then I realized, I do that way too often –I’m going to cool it and just experience it with most of my senses (and cents).
A little bit of Italian madonnari street painting...
A shout-out to my fellow Thespians, Cardboard Box Theatre Project
First thing to come to mind: Aquatic version of the Delorean(?)
I’m pretty sure my (iphone) photos are barely doing the event justice but I implore you to make an effort to clear your schedule for next year’s SubZERO Festival. It’s well worth the price of admission (it’s FREE!) and there’s no reason not to go if you’re already living in San Jose.
There were a handful of things that I had a healthy chuckle over…like these:
I could not pay attention to w....THERE'S A FRIGING SCIMITAR BALANCING ON HER HEAD!
There were some neat CAPOEIRA exhibitions...ba na na wei, ba na na wei!
Not just any gourd speakers, DISCOUNTED gourd speakers.
I ran into was my boss and co-worker, both participating in a live demo with the SILICON VALLEY ROLLER GIRLS. They’re pretty awesome!
With names like, "Postal Servix", "Lindsay Lohanded", and "Booty Vicious", what's not to love?
A wonderful highlight of the event were the dual stages they erected on both end of South First Street. Both had bands/musicians that kept people entertained and in some cases, really grooving.
A view of the main stage.
For a more in-depth listing of the Artists and Vendors who participated during the festival, click here.
All good things must come to an end, and what a way to end the night—the rain finally started to come down during the last song of the last band that held the main stage. They’re called BATTLEHOOCH and they were great to experience live! They had a saxaphone player, come on–that immediately puts them up there, right?
Crowd gathering in front of the CALIFORNIA THEATRE for Battlehooch.
A pooch out for Battlehooch.
And that was that–another year in the wraps. Here’s to SubZERO 2012!
The walk home.