Celebrate Saratoga Draws Thousands to Downtown

Thousands gathered Sunday afternoon, Sept. 16 at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains in downtown Saratoga for Celebrate Saratoga, A Village Block Party.

Chamber of Commerce President Debra Cummins said she expected nearly 6,000 people to show up for this year's festival.

Those who came enjoyed activities, live music, food, lots of wine tasting offered by the extraordinary wineries in the area, a beer garden, saw community awards given out, and patronised vendor booths.

Cummins explained the event is the largest one in the city and was resurrected this year after not running since 2007. Before that, the celebration, called the Street Dance, had run for 19 years but "it became so big and so rowdy with crowds of 30,000 people," that Big Basin Way couldn't accommodate that many people.

"We had fist fighting and underage drinking and we decided to close it down ... a young girl got hit by a car," Cummins said. "This is the first of the reincarnation."

Cummins said Celebrate's predecessor began at 7 a.m. and went until about 10:30 p.m. "Now it's more of an afternoon event, more family friendly, more for the community," she added.

Deni Green, an ambassador for the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and owner of Azule Salon, recalled having the celebration on Highway 85 before it opened up and it was the biggest event the city has had with about 60,000 attending.

When she first moved to the city and opened her business on Big Basin Way, every store was required to participate and the event went until about 11 p.m.