Eat Real Festival

Friday through Sunday is another Oakland festival, the Eat Real Festival. It features local food and drink, fresh, from the people who produced it.

Street food, fresh summer fruits and veggies, live music, handcrafted local beers, ice cream sold from the back of a bicycle. Come find it all and more at Eat Real, a free festival, taking place August 28-30 at Jack London Square. Buy from your favorite street food vendors, pick up a ticket for the Beer Shed and sample from among the 40-something microbrews, or shop in the Market for local produce and artisanal snacks. In between the good eats, enjoy the non-stop entertainment and activities that include chef demonstrations, dance performances, bands, films, food competitions, and lots more, for free.

There are lots of different events through the weekend, so check the full lineup on the Eat Real website.

Besides the listed events, Ghost Town Farm will have tours, a goat raising workshop, and a chicken slaughtering workshop showing urban farmers how to kill the bird humanely, and how to pluck, clean, and rest the bird for the dinner table.

And all this week Oakland restaurants have been partnering with different organizations to raise funds. Tonight, for example, Doña Tomas partnered with TransFair USA, which is the licensing organization behind the Fair Trade certification for agricultural products in the U.S. Tomorrow (Thursday) Flora partners with Meals for Change; Saturday Bocanova partners with the California Food and Justice Coalition.

There'll be lots of good food and drink, so come and eat and drink local!