Eat Real Festival To Take Place In Oakland August 26 - 30

Three-day event in Jack London Square celebrates good food, featuring taco trucks, street food, fresh fruits and vegetables, artisan specialties, and more; events will raise money for and awareness of food accessibility and farmland issues

SAN FRANCISCO (MAY 28, 2009) - The Eat Real Festival, the country's first celebration of street food made with sustainably produced products, will take place at Jack London Square in Oakland, August 28-30. Featuring the best of the Bay's taco trucks, ice cream vendors, and the finest beers of Northern California, the mostly-free event will put eaters in contact with the real people in the Bay Area -- the farmers, chefs, and producers -- who make our food.

As part of the celebration, Eat Real has partnered with La Cocina, a San Francisco based incubator kitchen that enables low-income entrepreneurs to launch food businesses; the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, a state-wide organization working to build a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice; and, the Peoples Grocery, a community-based organization in West Oakland that develops creative solutions to the health problems that stem from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods.

Eat Real Festival will also anchor a week of street-centered food events in the Bay Area: on August 22nd, La Cocina will kick off a weeklong street food celebration, with an all day event in San Francisco. Bridging the two weekends will be a week's worth of fundraising dinners for several other Eat Real partner organizations.

 "This event celebrates what's best about Bay Area food - top quality fresh foods, terrific artisan foods and locally-brewed beer," said Anya Fernald, Eat Real Festival's founder. "Eat Real will celebrate how the Bay Area is putting the food back in fast by showcasing delicious street food plus local farm products and brews." 

Highlights of the Eat Real Festival three-day event include:

·    Good to Go Market - featuring local produce and hand-made foods straight from the farmers and purveyors in the Bay Area. 10am - 4pm, Saturday and Sunday.

·    Street Eats - dining at freshest with the Bay Area's top street food trucks and carts selling tacos, Vietnamese sandwiches, barbeque, hot dogs, ice cream and more, all featuring select sustainable and local ingredients. 11am - 9pm, Saturday and Sunday.

·    Beer Shed - showcasing the best of Northern California's handcrafted beers under one tent, and featuring a rotating series of IPAs, imperials and cask ales. (tickets on sale now - please visit www.eatrealfest.com for more information)

o    Friday, 4-9pm
o    Saturday, 10am-9pm
o    Sunday, 10am-5pm

·    From Scratch Kitchen - cooking demos from Bay Area chefs, making delicious fresh foods from scratch. 10am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday.

·    Street Stage - presenting local writers, artists, musicians and activists on stage. 10am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday

·    Curbside Cinema - outdoor film festival, featuring the best food flicks beginning around 8pm, Friday and Saturday.

·    Keeping it Real Dinners - fundraising dinners for non-profit partners at some of the best Bay Area restaurants serving their own special street food menus. Tickets to go on sale in June.

Partners and collaborators include:
·    People's Grocery
·    Community Alliance for Family Farmers
·    La Cocina
·    Dave McLean, Magnolia Pub & Brewery and Alembic Bar
·    John Randolph, Randolph Designs
·    CCS Architecture
·    Baldauf Catton Von Eckartsberg Architects

For complete information about the Eat Real Festival and the La Cocina Street Festival, as well as information about the ticketed events, please visit www.eatrealfest.com.
 
About Eat Real Festival
Founded in 2008, Eat Real Festival is a social venture created to inspire eaters to choose tasty, healthy, good food. Through a vibrant, local festival in Oakland, CA, and a focus on delicious and sustainable "street food," Eat Real puts eaters in contact with the real people -- the farmers, chefs, and producers -- who make our food. Eat Real Festival will donate a percentage of its profit to several California organizations promoting access to healthy and affordable food, entrepreneurship and economic development.