Inflatable Art: Why Not Here?
For decades, inflatable public art has been popping up around the world. We’d like to float this idea here too.
Kick off summer early with these fun fairs and festivals in May
Break out your flip-flops, bring your appetite, and get ready for some big fun. Check out these four fairs and festivals in May to get a jump-start on the summer revelry.
Field of Dreams
Build it, and they will come. On March 31—after decades of trying to land a Major League Baseball team—Sacramento finally got its civic wish when the Athletics played their first home opener at the newly renovated Sutter Health Park. The team may have lost the game to the Chicago Cubs, but fans packed every corner of the stadium for a chance to witness history and, of course, to root, root, root for the home team.
In the Name of the Mother
With Chu Mai, James Beard Award-nominated chef Billy Ngo honors his mom and the dishes he grew up loving, while putting his own spin on Vietnamese and Chinese classics. The result is a noteworthy new restaurant whose dishes taste both comfortingly familiar and excitingly fresh.
Out and About in May and June 2025
There’s an Englishman in Wheatland as Sting takes the Hard Rock Live stage; the ninth annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival lights up the screen at The Sofia; Leon Bridges at Thunder Valley, and more. Here are 10 local events rounding out the spring.
Where She Was From
Life for E.A. Hanks, who grew up in the Fabulous Forties as the daughter of Tom Hanks, may have looked like it was coming up roses. Too often, though, the reality was anything but, as the self-described “Sacramento girl” details in her poignant new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, which follows a childhood shaped by her mother’s mental illness and a writer’s search for the truth, thorns and all.
Think Global, Spend Local
By most estimates, only about 9% of plastic products actually get recycled. According to NASA, 2024 was the planet’s hottest year yet, and the National Weather Service reports that last summer was downtown Sacramento’s warmest on record. But now for the good news: There are more local retailers than ever that are making it easy to be green. So with Earth Day just around the corner on April 22, we’d like to introduce you to seven of the most eco-forward stores in our region. In the 1967 film The Graduate, young Benjamin Braddock was given one word of advice: plastics. Well, in 2025, we have two: dryer balls. Trust us.
A Sporting Chance
Nearly 30 years after 2Pac’s “California Love” debuted, a snippet of its lyrics—“from Oakland to Sactown”—rings prophetic these days as the team formerly known as the Oakland A’s prepare for their home opener at Sutter Health Park on March 31. Of course, it’s been far longer than three decades that the capital city has been chasing its baseball dreams, and now they’re about to come true (at least for a few years). But what does it all mean for Sacramento’s prospects as a permanent home to America’s Pastime? Mark Kreidler—a longtime journalist for ESPN and The Sacramento Bee, and one of our city’s most astute sports observers—weighs in on why the next few years could be a home run, one way or the other.
A Swinging Good Time
Playground swings are for kids—or so we thought. It turns out grown-ups love them too. In fact, such urban amenities are a surprisingly popular trend for people of all ages in cities like Boston and Tulsa. So what do you say? Let’s give this idea a big push.
The Art of Appropriation
A new museum retrospective spotlights the late Sacramento painter and professor Wayne Thiebaud as a master student of art history. From da Vinci to Picasso, great artists have always studied and copied their predecessors on the way to creating their own singular masterpieces. As this exhibit shows, Thiebaud is still teaching. The lesson: Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
Coming into Bloom
More than a decade after the idea was first planted, the Hanami Line might just be poised to give us all a sneak peek of its annual cherry blossom showcase. Sacramento, get ready to be pretty in pink.
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