Thursday nights in downtown San Jose will be a little cooler this summer thanks to the new Pobladores Night Market in the arty SoFA District, which is a natural fit for the weekly Thursday happening.
Last week, the band Surf Monster played tunes appropriate to the hot weather, with food trucks and a beer and wine garden keeping everyone well fed and happy as they sat in the shade at Parque de los Pobladores. Visitors shopped at sidewalk shops including cap sellers B-Fresh Cult and GG’s Boutique, and the San Jose Downtown Association handed out coupons for a free hot dog from the Quick Dog food truck for the first 50 attendees.
Visitors to the Pobladores Night Market enjoy food truck fare and a beer garden at Parque de los Pobladores in downtown San Jose on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
The market’s success — if not its very existence — can be credited to downtown San Jose’s post-pandemic shift. The Pobladores Night Market takes the place of the San Jose Downtown Association’s long-running farmers market, which had a stable home at San Pedro Square Market on Fridays at lunchtime for years before the pandemic hit in 2020.
With employees working from home and downtown virtually deserted at midday, the farmers’ market reopened in 2022 as an evening event in the SoFA district but it never really gained traction. The Pobladores Night Market so far seems to have hit the right balance.
It should be interesting to see what the vibe is like this week when genre-spanning local faves Rebelskamp take the stage. The market, on South First Street between William and Reed streets, runs from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and will continue through August.
Visitors to the Pobladores Night Market in downtown San Jose walk by vendor booths on South First Street on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
PACKED WEEKEND: The Pobladores Night Market’s just a prelude to what should be a huge weekend downtown.
The SoFA district will again be the site for the 43rd annual Juneteenth on the Streets festival, which gets going at noon on Saturday and includes headliner Marsha Ambrosius and a “Battle of the Bands” between the marching bands of Alabama State University and Florida A&M University. Go to www.bayareajuneteenth.org for more information.
The event is hosted once again by the African American Community Services Agency, and it’ll actually be the second Juneteenth celebration this week for its executive director, Milan Balinton. He was in Washington, D.C. this week for the festivities held on the South Lawn of the White House.
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And the Fountain Blues Festival returns to Plaza de Cesar Chavez on Saturday, with a lineup starting at 11:15 a.m. that includes Terrie Odabi, the Miles Turk Band, the Anthony Arya Band and the Delgado Brothers with Chris Cain. Details and tickets are available at fountainblues.com.
But the biggest event of the weekend will likely be at Discovery Meadow Park — right next to where San Jose Foos is bringing Guatemalan American DJ Gordo’s Taraka series on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. There’ll be a custom-built stage, food trucks and a 200-foot bar in the spacious park. Get more details and tickets at tarakasanjose.com.
STEALING A FEW LAUGHS: San Jose Stage opened its summer musical, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” last weekend, with Jonathan Rhys Williams and Keith Pinto proving to be a side-splitting pairing in the lead roles of dueling con men played by Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the 1988 movie. San Jose Stage Artistic Director Randall King said the show, directed by Johnny Moreno and running through June 30, is a good counterbalance to all the troubling realities these days. “Couldn’t we all use a laugh right now?” King said. If that’s you, go to www.thestage.org for tickets.
CAUSE FOR CLAUS: Christmas in the Park has returned its annual fundraiser back to July this year — July 13 at History Park to be exact, so it’s coming up faster than you can sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The festive event includes dinner, drinks and dancing amid some of Christmas in the Park’s holiday displays, with the Hitmen providing the musical entertainment.
Early-bird — or is it early-elf? — tickets for Christmas in July are $100 until June 13, when the price goes up.