As the leaves turn brown and summer moves into fall, Oakland is host to a number of festivals and conventions that will engage everything from the sexual identity, artistic sensibilities and taste buds of the community.

Many of the festivals and events in August coincide on the same weekends. This overview of the month's happenings is designed to give locals a feel for which event is best suited for the day or weekend's entertainment.

Kicking off August is the 11th Annual Laurel Street Fair along 35th and 38th and Macarthur Boulevard, said Simone Acevedo, the vendor coordinator for the Laurel Street Fair. The fair will cater to the revitalization of the district as everything from a health and wellness tent and live music will be featured during the August 14 celebration, starting at 11a.m. and going until 5 p.m.

The John Santos Sextet, a five time grammy nominee, and Valerie Troutt, a jazz and soul vocalist, will be performing during the street fair. The fair has a green zone and a huge kids zone to keep the children occupied.

Acevedo says that the community is becoming more family oriented and connected as the fair has progressed.

"It's different from other years because we have more energy, a younger group of people who are putting it together," Acevedo said. "We've learned from the mistakes of the past, now we've pulled it together and the district has grown."

Next weekend is the Femme Collective. A conference devoted to everything femme, a number of panels will discuss the multiple layers of complexity of being a queer person who is feminine. The conference is being held from August 20 to 22 at the downtown Oakland Marriot.

The conference will have more than forty workshops over three days with topics and caucuses on class, identity, relationships, race, sexuality, activism and skillshares that range from dance and drumming to meditation and pastie-making, said Allison Stelly, also known as "Cherry," a co-chair for the Femme Collective Media team.

"For queer and/or femme people and allies, it is a great way to connect with femme community and show your support/be a good ally/learn about issues dear to femmes," said Stelly via email. "For everyone, we have a whole lot of talent- great films, speakers, performers, art- from near and far, and we promise a really good, sparkly engaging time."

Many of the panelists and performers are local to Oakland. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ruby Vixen, Amelia Mae Paradise of Diamond Daggers, Cherry Galette and Titland (made up of Kentucky Fried Woman, Starr69 and Cherry Poppins) are just some Oakland names that will be participating in the Femme Collective.

Stelly says she is still looking for local volunteers, who will get a discounted registration. As of right now, registration for the entire weekend costs $75 and tickets will be sold at the door for some events.

Despite looking initially at Atlanta to be the host city, Stelly said they instead decided on Oakland because it was more financially feasible, but also because of the supportive community.

"Immediately, we realized Oakland was a great choice because of a lot of the Steering Committee being in the area, a great pool of performers and presenters to tap into, and also a supportive community of femmes and allies," Stelly said.

Locals hoping to celebrate the musical history of Oakland, look no further than the tenth annual Oakland Art and Soul, happening the same weekend, from August 20 to 21.

"This is our tenth anniversary, so in honor of our 10th anniversary, we are making this an all-Oakland showcase," said Samee Roberts, the executive producer and founder of the Art and Soul conference. "We're featuring musical artists who are either born here, raised here or live here now."

Some of the highlight performances will be CAKE, a band originally from Sacramento who has some members now living in Oakland. CAKE is performing their upbeat dance music on Saturday on the main stage. The Bittersweets, also a band of Oakland Locals, are also performing on the main stage before CAKE.

On Sunday, the D'Wayne Wiggins and Friends House Party will be playing on the main stage, with support from Tony! Toni! Toné!.

"Everybody in Oakland should celebrate this festival that was founded right here," Roberts said. Later adding, "We're thriving, we've found a way to fund this festival on our own, more importantly, people should come and check out these musical greats out in Oakland."

Be sure to swing by Oakland's Art and Soul, tickets start at $10 for adults, $5 for teenagers and seniors and free for children under twelve, to follow a long timeline of the city's musical history.

The next weekend is the highly anticipated Eat Real festival. The festival is held on August 27, 28 and 29 at Jack London Square and is one of the only local festivals completely dedicated to food.

Eat Real lives up to it's name with 80 food vendors, continuous programming that features everything from food performance art to urban homesteading and gardening, said Susan Coss, the director of Eat Real.

"Great food encompasses a whole bunch of different things, it's fresh, the abundance of flavor, being grown or raised ethically, and we also believe that the food we have at our event needs to be accessible," Coss said.

The festival adheres to the principle of accessibility. The festival is free, and no food item costs over $5. The festival works with vendors to incorporate one or two local or sustainable ingredients into their menu.

Coss said the programming also connects local food producers to combine their products into one specialty item, such as putting together a local cheese company with a  jam company to create a cheese and jam sandwich steeped in local flavor.

There will be vegetarian options at almost every booth.

"It's a hell of a lot of fun," Coss said. "There's going to be great food, it's really a great way to spend a day or an evening, we have all sorts of programming, it's about more than coming and standing in line and eating food."

August is a month that celebrates all things Oakland- from food and flavor, music and art to community development and the celebration of feminine identity these festivals will only serve to encourage the broader cultural development of Oakland.

The fun doesn't stop in the summer months. Stay close to Oakland Local to learn more about upcoming events. October brings the Montclair Family Fun Festival, the Spice of Life Festival, Oaktoberfest and the 9th Oakland International Film Festival.

About Sara Kassabian

Sara is a 20-year-old news-editorial major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a lifelong East Bay resident. She is the opinion editor, former news and entertainment editor and a constant contributor to her college publication, the CU Independent. Outside of chasing down leads, Sara's interests include music both as an art form and an industry, water rights, political philosophy, human sexuality, deviant literature and adoptable animals. Sara can be contacted at Sara@oaklandlocal.com.