APRIL 2009 (0
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Brats and beer: Big names back ’09
fair
Annual Encinitas Street Fair runs April 25
and 26 downtown
If anyone doubts the growing clout of the
annual Encinitas Street Fair, organizers can now do a little
name-dropping to back them up. Now in its 26th year, the
Encinitas Street Fair boasts two major sponsors well suited for
sponsoring an event that takes place at the height of spring
— and Johnsonville Brats and Stone Brewing Company.
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The event has slated 450 food, arts and
crafts vendors, along with the World Famous Johnsonville
Brats’ Big Taste Grill, four live music stages,
children’s ride, Kid’s Zone by Magical Child, and
the Stone Brewing Company Beer Garden featuring four of their
award-winning ales. The fair draws more than 100,000 shoppers,
who this year will be able to browse vendors offering clothes,
accessories, plants, household products, environmental
products, art, antiques and home décor, according to
Radmill. Extra activities for children are offered as part of
DEMA’s Free and Affordable Family Fun Program.
Johnsonville Brats, this year’s title
sponsor, is bringing its Big Taste Grill to Downtown Encinitas.
The grill is 65 feet tall, 54,000 pounds and holds claim as the
world’s largest grill. It can cook 750 bratwurst at a
time, or 2,500 brats an hour. A dollar of every brat purchased
at the fair will go to the DEMA Scholarship Fund, which will
create a scholarship for one San Dieguito Academy High School
student and one La Costa Canyon High School student.
This year’s beer garden is sponsored
by Escondido-based Stone Brewing Company, which has been ranked
as the “All Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by
BeerAdvocate Magazine. Stone Brewing will offer its top selling
and most popular beers, including Stone Pale Ale, Arrogant
Bastard Ale, Stone Levitation Ale, and Stone India Pale Ale.
Stone Brewing will also bring its delivery truck powered by
bio-diesel and representatives from the company to educate beer
drinkers on what’s in their cup as well as the Stone
Brewing Company philosophy, according to Radmill.
In addition, tip money on Saturday will go
to Water for People (www.waterforpeople.org)
and on Sunday to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of
America (www.ccfa.org).
Volunteers from each organization will serve beer in order to
earn the tip money, with the earnings going to their respective
charities.
Green friendly
DEMA, with the help of Stone, will
encourage beer garden patrons to reuse their cups for their
second glass of beer as part of the fair’s
reduce-reuse-recycle initiative. Those who reuse their cup will
receive a raffle ticket for each time they reuse. In 2008, beer
garden customers cut their cup usage by one third, according to
Radmill. The goal this year is to reduce waste in the beer
garden by an additional third.
Look for the blue ClearStream recycling
bins at the street fair, as well. The city of Encinitas is
lending DEMA 100 ClearStream recycling bins to capture glass,
aluminum and plastic at the fair. The bins were purchased
through a joint grant between the city of Encinitas and DEMA
from the Department of Conservation. By using ClearStream bins,
organizers said they hope to divert waste from the landfill
into recycling centers. Signs will be posted encouraging people
to drop their recyclables in the blue bins.
Family friendly
This year, the street fair will have a new
Kid’s Zone organized by Magical Child (www.magicalchild.com), in conjunction with the local nonprofit Boobs
on the Move (www.boobsonthemove.org), which raises funds for breast cancer research. The
Kid’s Zone will be located in the Lumberyard parking lot
between H and I streets. All day, Magical Child will hand out
10 percent-off coupons for its store, as well. The Kid’s
Zone will include an H2O station, cupcake decorating,
biodegradable balloons, coloring, eco house building, hula
hooping, jump rope and face painting.
The Encinitas Fire Department’s
Annual Pancake Breakfast is slated for April 25. The Fire
Department will set up in the 7-11 parking lot located at D
Street and Coast Highway 101 and will cook pancakes from 7 a.m.
to 11 a.m.
Transit and parking
DEMA has a few suggestions on how to get to
the fair. For Saturday, organizers suggest avoiding parking
hassles altogether by taking the North County Transit
District’s Coaster rail line. The Coaster station,
located at D Street and Vulcan, is steps away from the fair.
The Coaster schedule is available at www.gonctd.com/coaster_schedules.htm.
Limited parking is available in the morning
hours on Saturday and Sunday. Suggested parking spots are at
City Hall, located on Vulcan Avenue; the Moonlight Beach
Parking lot, located on Third Street; and the two Coaster
Station parking lots – Vulcan and S Street, and Vulcan
and E Street.
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