Almond Fest was hotter than everAlmond Fest was hotter than everSeptember 26, 2003
If Oakleyites were looking for some fun in the hot, hot sun they got it this weekend at the Oakley Almond Festival. With temperatures soring into the high 90s to 103, even the grass surfaces of O'Hara Park couldn't keep the heat away.
One vendor over the weekend said that "the promoter of the Almond Festival, (the Oakley Chamber of Commerce) can't control the weather, can’t make people buy the vendors’ products and they couldn't help that the 49ers lost the game on Sunday."
Just as other festivals have reported over the past summer, attendance seemed to be a little down during the weekend, many of the events attracted the same if not more visitors. For instance, the Saturday morning Almond Parade, which wound its way from Empire Avenue's Crockett Park down Cypress Road to O'Hara Park, had more participants than last year and more spectators.
Many people were concerned by the fact that Freedom High School hosted their homecoming game on the Friday night before the Festival, but that seemed to add to the fun in this year's Almond Parade as students from all the classes entered their homecoming floats in the parade. Two Freedom High School groups tied for Best of Show of all the entries in the parade. They were the Freedom High School Cheerleaders and the Freedom High School Band.
After the parade, people funnelled into the festival to enjoythe weekend. Some went on to take part in a pie-eating contest while others listened to music on the Main Stage or watched demonstrations from local dance groups on the community stage.
Two main highlights of the festival took place in the morning and the evening. Saturday morning featured what was supposed to be a tug-o-war between the Oakley Police and the Oakley Fire Fighters. The firefighters wound up having other commitments so the festival organizers put together a group of local service groups to match up against the Oakley Police.
While Oakley's Chief of Police Jon Cox headed the pack of Oakley Police officers, Delta Lions Club members Kevin Romick and Bill Arnold were leading the chamber’s squad including chamber vice president Keith Nance, Almond Festival member Chris Neff and even chamber members Rick Lemyre and Greg Robinson. The police department won the scrimmage and received a $500 donation.
Later, on Saturday evening, the festival ran its second annual Saturday Night at the Movies featuring the Disney movie "Treasure Planet."
"It's really great that the festival can do a movie like this," said Amy Rosenblum, an Oakley resident. "Especially because most of these kids don't know what a drive-in was. Watching a drive-in movie on Friday night was a tradition when I was a kid. They should do this every weekend in the summer."
On Sunday the festival held its Prince and Princess Contest for kids ages four to eight. All that is required of the contestants is to be cute and to answer a few simple questions. This year 21 children vied for the honor. Samuel Giomi and Elsa Mingiste, both of Oakley, took home the awards. While everyone who entered the contest went home with a prize, the new Prince and Princess of Oakley won gift certificates from Toys R Us and, in addition to being able to brag about the fact that they are now Oakley's new royalty, they also get to ride in the 2004 Almond Parade and host the introduction of Christmas caroling at the chamber's Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Nathon Young of Brentwood was the winning crawler in the Diaper Derby this year. Mom and Dad may have been excited about winning the case of diapers, but little Nathon was more excited about the soft yellow stuffed dog that was bigger than he was for his prize.
All in all, everyone said that despite the heat it was a fun weekend and the kids had a great time, which is what the festival is all about.
Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.
Distributed by the Contra Costa Times