Residents from all over the Bay Area are marking their calendars for Sept. 13 for the 15th annual Celebrate Saratoga! Street Dance, hosted by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce.

The five-hour fiesta, which starts at 5:30 p.m., will feature an array of activities for the whole family. Guests will have the opportunity to taste award-winning wines to complement samples of gourmet food from local restaurants while movers and shakers can enjoy live music from six different stages. Children can roam around and get their faces painted at the Fun Zone, which will be set up in the Buy & Save Market parking lot.

According to the chamber's executive director, Kristin Davis, planning for this event is a yearlong process, but members from the 15 subcommittees—bands, facilities, wineries, restaurants and finance, to name a few—started meeting formally in February.

According to Davis, all bands have been booked. These local groups are returning entertainers and include the Brickheads, the Heartbeats and Red Beans and Rice. In addition, nine local and nonlocal participating wineries have been confirmed and scheduled, but that number is expected to increase to 13, and only five out of the anticipated 18 food booths have returned their applications requesting booths. Vendors have until July 1 to submit their applications.

The event is entirely staffed by volunteers. So far, approximately 400 people have signed up to help on the actual night of the event.

"We're anticipating an excellent turnout of 30,000 to 35,000 people," said David Hernandez, the chamber president and co-chairman of the celebration. "The number of attendees increases every year." Hernandez said he's even heard of people from other states—former Saratoga residents—flying in for the event.

With so many people, Hernandez and Davis said their main goal is to make things run as smoothly as possible. Last year, one of the problems they had was transportation. Shuttle buses were provided, but didn't get the guests to their destination on Big Basin Way at a reasonable time due to traffic on Fruitvale Avenue. This year, in addition to having more shuttle buses, traffic will be rerouted so that the buses will run the opposite way along Saratoga Avenue and Highway 9 toward Los Gatos.

The history of the celebration can explain why many merchants are enthusiastic about this tradition. According to Davis, the event was established to celebrate the completion of a prolonged construction project. The project drove many businesses away and left the village area empty, but the annual event helped to put energy and traffic back in the neighborhood.

The celebration will be held from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Big Basin Way up to 5th Street. Those interested in volunteering for the actual day should call the chamber office at 408.867.0753.