This week, celebrate all things literary as part of Independent Bookstore Day, peruse art vendors and sample cuisine at Mountain View’s A la Carte & Art festival and catch 700 kids singing at 2015 Choralfest.
Books
Independent Bookstore Day
What began as California Bookstore Day has grown to encompass independent bookstores across the land. This Saturday, May 2, book havens from Palo Alto to Portland, Menlo Park to Miami will celebrate all things literary. At Books Inc. in Palo Alto, kids of all ages are invited to morning family story time with tales read by the Stanford Band mascot: the Stanford Tree. From 12:30-4:30 p.m., there will be snacks, drinks, raffles and visits from local authors.
Down the road in Menlo Park, Kepler’s Books will start the day with a story hour with children’s author Dan Gutman, followed by dinosaur activity time. Come 3 p.m., the adults are invited to tea time and a discussion of all the best new releases with Kepler’s knowledgeable staff. And at 7 p.m., it’s Kepler’s literary trivia night: Come prove that English degree was worth something, after all.
For more about Independent Bookstore Day, go to cabookstoreday.com. For a complete list of local events, go to keplers.com or booksinc.net.
Festival
A la Carte & Art
With the weather forecast showing nothing but sunshine, it’s the perfect weekend for Mountain View’s A la Carte & Art, the annual festival that pairs artisan food and drink with juried arts and crafts, live music and more. There will be more than 200 artists and craftspeople exhibiting their work in everything from stained glass, leather and jewelry to wind chimes, ceramics and sculptures. Take a break from shopping to groove to the live tunes of rock cover band The Megatones and Southern-style rockers the Fog City Swampers. Once you’ve worked up an appetite on the dance floor, you’ll have plenty of food vendors to choose from, plus beverages from regional microbreweries and vintners.
Children’s activities include hula hooping, a climbing wall, caricature art, face painting and temporary tattoos, as well as a high-adrenaline bungee jump.
A la Carte & Art takes place on Mountain View’s Castro Street between Church Street and Evelyn Avenue. The festival runs Saturday-Sunday, May 2-3, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. To learn more and for a complete schedule, go to alacarte.miramarevents.com. For more information, call 650-964-3395.
Music
Choralfest
Nearly 700 students from the Mountain View Whisman School District will take the stage at Shoreline Amphitheatre May 4 for a rousing evening of song. It’s all part of the 14th annual Choralfest, a free public concert put on in partnership with the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA).
Subtitled “Music Makes Me Proud,” this year’s Choralfest opens with Stanford a cappella group Talisman singing songs of the African diaspora and more starting at 6 p.m. At 6:30, youth performances begin on the main stage. Every student in the school district gets music education in the curriculum as part of CSMA’s Music4Schools program, and Choralfest is an opportunity to hear the results of that gift. Elementary school choruses, fifth-grade honor choirs and middle school choruses will perform individually and together, and local dignitaries will speak.
Choralfest takes place on Monday, May 4, from 5-8 p.m. at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. Admission and parking are free. To learn more, go to arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800, ext. 307.