Celebrating Earthquakes Tonight in Winters

On most days, Winters is a quiet place to leisurly converse over some coffee or breakfast.

Tonight it’ll be a raging party.

The Earthquake Street Festival, which will feature plenty of live music and entertainment, will begin at 5 pm and last until 11 . But for many, the party will continue deep into the night, as crowds spill into the nearby restaurants and bars.

Here's a fact: The first newspaper article I ever wrote was a story about bar occupancy limits during this same festival, exactly four years ago, while reporting for the Winters Express.

It’s not that the city had drawn up new occupancy limits; they had merely decided to begin enforcing the old ones. The Earthquake Festival is the one day per year that those limits are heavily tested in Winters, so the police went around and let bar owners know. 

You might ask, why does Winters celebrate an earthquake? 

The celebration actually commemorates the rise of the city after the devastating quake of 1892. So they're celebraiting the rise, not the fall. Or they just want to party. You won't find many references to the earthquake at the festival itself. 

Either way, there will be live entertainment all evening, including Winters band EGG (which features at least one member who works at UC Davis), Los Caporales (mariachi and folkloric ballet) and perennial headliner the Time Bandits.

The festival will also have bounce houses and games for kids, along with local food vendors on the street.