Splatter Festival Returns in 2021 With Food, Wine, Art and Drones

The Splatter Festival in Dublin California is an annual event to celebrate the end of Summer and brings both the community and visitors together for a fun afternoon of food, wine, art, culture, carnival rides and games.

Splatter is produced by the City of Dublin’s Parks and Community Services Department and this free (aside from the carnival rides) festival ran from noon to 8:30pm on Saturday, September 18. The family-friendly event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and returned this year with a smaller footprint. The health and safety of attendees was a top priority and the public health guidelines outlined by Alameda County and the State of California were followed.

There was an assortment of activities and vendors and live performances on stage including cover band Petty Theft, rock and roll band Wonder Bread 5 and Queen tribute band, Queen Nation.

Thanks to generous sponsorships from local businesses the City of Dublin was able to bring back this time-honored annual celebration and give the community an opportunity to have some fun in their own backyard.

In a celebration of Dublin's diversity and multi-cultural make up, Emerald Glen Park Amphitheater featured performances by local cultural groups ranging from Chinese to African and included music, dance and other genres providing colorful and dynamic entertainment.

The theme for the popular chalk art competition this year was "But First Let Me Chalk a Selfie" and was open to all ages. Dublin's City Historian, Steve Minniear also participated and created a piece reflecting a part of Dublin's history through the form of Polly Matusz.

When asked about the story being his chalk drawing Steve said "History, at its most basic, is all about the stories of individuals. To me, Polly Matusz's story reveals so much about individuals' sacrifices and our country's sacrifice during World War II."

He explained that Shoemaker Naval Hospital was built during World War II to take care of the sailors and Marines at Camp Parks and Camp Shoemaker. Originally a 1000 bed hospital it was enlarged to handle 3000 patients. It could handle all emergencies, injuries and diseases, including tropical diseases that some of the sailors contracted in the Pacific. The hospital grounds took up a large area in and around what is now Emerald Glen Park.

Pictured is Pauline “Polly” Matusz who was born in Greenville (Mercer County) Pennsylvania on 29 November 1922. She worked as a nurse and was posted to Shoemaker Naval Hospital (Dublin, California) by 1945. After the war she married Harold Ellingsen and lived in the San Francisco Bay area. They had one daughter (1958-2008). They divorced in 1974. Pauline died in 2013.

Art connects us to our past and helps us to remember those gone before. Emerald Glen Park now serves a very different purpose but still contributes to a thriving community life in Dublin.

There was plenty of food and drink at the festival, including a “Dine Around the World” area that featured a wide selection of international cuisines from Food Truck Mafia. The Rotary Club of Dublinwas on hand to serve local craft beer and wine and Dublin Chamber of Commerce CEO, Inge Houston was spotted volunteering and selling tickets.

Some new additions in 2021 included the Community Art Gallery at the Wave and a Poetry open mic performance on the side yard stage. Dublin's Poet Laureate, James Morehead organized the poetry performances called "Poets Take The Mic" and a number of local poets participated including The Writer's Spotlight, Solachi Voz, Aishwarya P. Prashansa Ravi, Yashvi Sritha, Jenyth Jo, John Dickenson (reading for Miguel Dickenson), and Anjali Paljuri. You can read more about it on the blog Viewless Wings Press and watch James read his poetry.

The Wave hosted the first Community Art Gallery and bay area artists participated in the colorful display, a number of whom belong to the local nonprofit Dublin Arts Collective (DAC) . Sawsan Wolski, DAC President commented "Introducing a gallery at Splatter is a significant step for the visual arts and we are grateful to the City for making this space available to artists. We hope to see it again next year." Some of the artists participating in the exhibit were Ekaterina Bazlakova, Beau Thomas, Kelsey Rae Thomas, Shweta Agrawal, Alka Vidya, Amanda Yu, Meghana Mitragotri, Swati Rastogi, Vanessa Thomas, Sawsan Wolski, Tyler Phillips, Camden Phillips, Brenda Loza, Tirath K., Jennifer Huber, Shelby Perry and Neera Rani. In addition to the paintings and sculptures the display also included the photography of the winners of the Nature in Our Backyard Photo Contest from when it began in 2019 to the finalists for 2021.

Festival-goers enjoyed the return of Splatter so much there were calls to make it a multi-day event lasting all weekend.

In a shift away from fireworks, the festival culminated in a dance party and its first drone show finale, celebrating Splatter and the City of Dublin. If you missed it, there is video footage here.