The following is the Oct. 29 edition of Cultural Capital, an arts and entertainment newsletter written by Abridged contributor Chris Macias. Want it sent directly to your inbox? Sign up here.
To paraphrase Elton John, this Saturday night’s alright for frightening!
Oct. 31 is just a couple days away, making Halloween a weekend-long affair. That means we’re especially stuffed with arts, entertainment and family fun, including a creepy and kooky bike ride, festivals, live music, movies, art activities and more ghoulish adventures. We’ll also dive into to a number of Día de los Muertos events around the area.
Keep your eye out for Michael Myers and let’s go!
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Take a bike ride with your fellow zombies
The details:
- Community Park, 203 E. 14th St., Davis
- 11 a.m., Oct. 31 (Saturday)
- Free
Let’s get these spooky shenanigans started in Davis, where zombies will pedal around town and fall from the sky. Community Park is the hub of the Zombie Bike Parade Festival, where participants will gather in their finest gory costumes and leave at 11 a.m. to ride around town. Along the way, you’ll find “entertainment stations” with candy, face painting, spooky storytelling and much more.
Also look for a BMX stunt show at Mace Ranch Park, the halfway point of the bike parade, plus a costume contest, train rides and zombie skateboarders at Community Park. These freaky festivities wrap with a “Zombie Skydiving Finale” where it’ll look like it’s raining monsters.
Note that you don’t need a bike to participate. You can simply post up at Community Park and enjoy the activities or partake in one of the picnic areas. If you’re from out of the area and don’t want to haul your bike, Spin e-bikes can be found around the park.
You can also rent a ride at one of Davis’ many bike shops. After all, the city is known as “The Bicycle Capital of America.” Maybe it should be known as “The Zombie Bicycle Capital of America” as well.
More family-friendly frights
Check these outings before hitting the neighborhood trick-or-treat trail:
Start the weekend in Elk Grove at District 56 for Hallo-Palooza & Trunk or Treat from 5-8 p.m. on Oct. 30 (Friday). The festivities include a parade, costume contests for humans and pets, an art zone and DJ dancing.
Stop by the Jose P. Rizal Community Center in South Sacramento for the Halloween Carnival & Haunted House from 5-8 p.m. on Oct. 31 (Saturday). The kids can burn off those sugar rushes with arts and crafts, carnival games and a “scare-free zone” for younger attendees.
Get your kiddos into their costumes and navigate the family hybrid vehicle to the Crocker Art Museum in Downtown Sacramento for its “Trick Art Treat” event on Oct. 31 (Saturday). Along with trick-or-treating for art supplies, plan for a late morning of art activities, a puppet show and a big display from the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology. Eek!
Do the Monster Mash and check out a movie
From Black Sabbath tributes to Barry Bostick in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” here are music and movie picks that’ll rock your Halloween weekend.
Here’s a show that puts the “Rock” in “Rocklin.” Hold your lighter (or cell phone) high as Y&T’s Halloween Bash shakes the Quarry Park Amphitheater on Oct. 30 (Friday).
Warm-up the weekend with a family movie night at the Crest Theatre in Downtown Sacramento for a showing of “Hocus Pocus” on Oct. 30 (Friday). At just $2 a ticket, this is a screaming deal for Halloween eve.
Check out the tributes to My Chemical Romance and Sonic Youth in Midtown Sacramento at The Press Club’s Halloween Cover Show on Oct. 30 (Friday). Couples costume idea: Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon from the “Kool Thing” video.
Raise your devil horns for the drummer who played on Black Sabbath’s “Mob Rules” and Dio classics like “Holy Diver” and “The Last in Line.” Vinny Appice’s Sabbath Knights at Goldfield Trading Post in Roseville on Oct. 30 (Friday) will be a headquarters for heshers of all ages.
The recent passing of Tim Curry makes this season’s screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” somewhat bittersweet. But the show will go on, with plenty of sing-a-longs and fan participation, during a run on Nov. 1-2 (Sunday and Monday) at the Varsity Theatre in Davis.
Delve into Día de los Muertos
This week also welcomes Día de los Muertos, the Mexican “Day of the Dead.” It’s a time to honor the deceased in ways both reverent and playful. Here are some ways to participate throughout our community.
Festivities run Oct. 30 and 31 (Friday and Saturday) at the Latino Center of Art and Culture’s El Panteón de Sacramento. This space near Old Sacramento will be home to a massive altar (ofrenda) and community vigil, along with folkloric dance, art and vendors. Now in its 16th year, it’s one of the region’s definitive Día de los Muertos events.
For more than a half-century, the Royal Chicano Air Force art collective has observed Día de los Muertos at St. Mary’s Cemetery in South Sacramento. The tradition continues Nov. 2 (Monday) with a procession, Aztec dancers and ofrenda to enchant the spirits.
When the kids aren’t running wild on “The Crooked Mile,” Fairytale Town is holding a Día de los Muertos celebration on Nov. 1 (Sunday) with face painting, sugar skull mask-making and lots of jumping around to live entertainment.
Also on the family-friendly side, the Sacramento Children’s Museum in Rancho Cordova offers sugar skull decorating among its activities on Nov. 1(Sunday).
Before I go,
Let’s end on a spooky note with songs like “House of the Bats” and “Witches Brew.” These were among the tunes performed by The Sugar Pushers during a recent episode of “The Stacks,” the concert and conversation series from Abridged by PBS KVIE in partnership with Amatoria Fine Art Books.
Stay in touch at christo916@gmail.com. Boo!
