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Photograph by Chad Pilster
Cesar Rivera says Dancing on the Avenue is 'whack' and that a lot of street festivals are boring.
Some local young hipsters are too cool for DoA while others prepare to get down and boogie
Annual outdoor music fair will attract some--but not all--post-Gen Xers
By Jessica Lyons
To some dancing teens, Dancing on the Avenue--a Willow Glen tradition some of them have known for years--is the one day when they can throw inhibitions to the wind and really be John Travolta. But some other local young people have mixed feelings about the annual street dance, and a few even say it stinks.
Standing in front of Jamba Juice on Lincoln Avenue, earphones hanging around his neck, 16-year-old Cesar Rivera is able to generalize in one sentence his feelings about the many community festivals that spring up around the valley throughout the spring and summer. "Some of them are cool but some of them are boring," he says.
And what category does Dancing on the Avenue fall into? Although Rivera hasn't been to Willow Glen's street dance, he says he knows a lot of teens his age who have. So he's entitled to vent some thoughts on the matter. "This one is whack and I don't plan on going this year, either," he says.
Photograph by Chad Pilster
Kate Verigin and Erik Madsen feel that Dancing on the Avenue is too yuppified for their tastes.
Erik Madsen and Kate Verigin, a post-grunge couple sitting outside Noah's Bagels, tend to agree with Rivera.
"They're targeting the people who own homes in Willow Glen--the baby boomers," says Verigin, wearing a ripped-up black shirt and pigtails. "That's why we moved out of Willow Glen. It's too yuppified."
The couple, apparently not too anti-bourgeois to spend a leisurely afternoon sipping coffee drinks on a park bench in their former neighborhood, say they prefer festivals along the lines of SoFA, downtown's rock & roll tour of South First Street's bars and clubs. They're less interested in the classic rock music and the traditional food of Dancing on the Avenue, and more interested in punk rock--and even some extreme sports.
"Maybe a festival with a skating ramp, for roller skating and skateboarding would be cool," Madsen says. "Something with more diversity [than Dancing on the Avenue.]"
Photograph by Chad Pilster
Adam John and Justin Hoover say they are looking forward to bustin' some moves at this year's Dancing on the Avenue.
A little farther down Lincoln Avenue, however, attitudes seem to change about the street dance. Two local boys say they can't wait to shake their groove thing on June 19.
Sixteen-year-old Adam John says he goes to the annual event every year. One may not know it from looking at him, but underneath his baggy jeans and jersey is a dancing machine.
"Of course I'm going this year," he says. "Last year I danced a lot. It was pretty cool."
John's friend Justin Hoover, 15, is new to the Glen, but he's heard about Dancing on the Avenue. Now, he's looking forward to making the street dance a Justin Hoover tradition.
"I'm going to go, see what's it's like ... check it out."
And party like it's 1999.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
