The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by R.W. Bradford

Crowd Pleaser: Phil Chapman, member of the Joe Sharino Band, raced through the crowd before jumping back on stage in last year's Dancing on the Avenue.

Merchants prepare for 25,000 dancers to liven up Lincoln

Organizers expect street dance to draw smaller crowd than last year's

By Maggie Benson

Area dancers will replace polished wooden floors with a strip of concrete when they haul out their dance shoes and trek to Willow Glen for the third annual street dance June 28.

Sponsored by the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association, Dancing on the Avenue is expected to draw 25,000 party-goers whiling the night away eating, drinking and making merry to the sounds of the Joe Sharino Band.

Lincoln Avenue restaurateurs hope they'll be eating and drinking, anyway.

Dave Bertucelli, owner of La Villa Deli, is planning to set up a booth on Lincoln Avenue to help accommodate the hungry crowd. He is also expecting to hire five extra staff members for the big night.

"It's pandemonium," he said. "You get that many people in one spot, and it's too busy. You just can't serve the people properly [in the restaurant]."

Bertucelli said he always sets up a booth for the event. "It adds to the atmosphere of the street dance," he explained.

Mr. Chau's, Goosetown Cafe, Taiwan restaurant and Round Table Pizza are among the many restaurants that tempt the crowd with fresh-cooked food at an outside booth.

Willow Glen Billiards and Brew owners will offer the crowd a "sneak preview" of their much-anticipated billiards hall, according to co-owner John Karamanos. The club is scheduled to officially open in two weeks, Karamanos said.

Dolce Spazio, also slated to open this summer, will set up a booth on the Avenue for the event.

Dancing begins at 5:00 when the jazz ensemble, Joe Bithell Jazz Singer and his Silicon Gulch Jazz Band, warms up the crowd. The business association is also offering free face-painting for kids between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Joe Sharino starts at 7 p.m.

"Joe Sharino is a big draw in and of himself," business association manager Demetri Rizos said. "He's a Glenite, he's from the area and he has name recognition."

Last year, Dancing on the Avenue drew nearly 35,000 participants, according to the San Jose Police Department. Rizos expects fewer people this year because there will be one less stage, and the head count for other San Jose festivals has dropped this year.

Rizos said the business association couldn't host two stages this year because there wasn't another spot on the Avenue to set up a venue. Last year the Electrical Appliance Building was the site of a second stage, where Wild at Heart, a country music band, played. Dancers from the Saddlerack, a country bar just outside of Willow Glen, taught the crowd line dancing.

The Electrical Appliance Building was torn down last month, and a new building is currently being constructed on the site.

Still, Rizos said he expects the event, which was advertised in The Resident and on KARA radio, to draw a sizable crowd. The dance is the association's biggest and most anticipated event, he added. Despite its size, the dance has always run smoothly.

"We've never had any problems in the past," Rizos said. "It's a very safe and sane crowd."

The association sponsored the first street dance three years ago, inspired by an idea from board member Jerry Caravelli. The first dance attracted between 15,000 and 20,000 people, according to Rizos. "We were overwhelmed by the response," he said.

La Villa owner Bertucelli said the event is popular because it draws the community together. "It's a lot of fun," he said. "It's more fun than it is work. Sometimes you only see these people once a year, so it's like a reunion."

Rizos said the event is a key promotion for Willow Glen restaurants, although not so much for retailers. "Our sole purpose of this event is to attract people to the Avenue," Rizos explained, "especially to the restaurants. Dancing on the Avenue is for the restaurants; Founders Day is for retailers."

Still, Bertucelli said the dance has residual effects for both restaurateurs and retailers. "It's great for all the businesses," he said. "It brings people to the street that maybe wouldn't come down here normally, and they notice little businesses that they wouldn't normally see when they're driving down Lincoln."

The dance forces people to take notice of what Lincoln has to offer, he said, rather than zoom by. "[The street dance] actually gives people who wouldn't normally walk up and down the street a chance to do so," he said. "I get a lot of people who say, 'Boy, I didn't even know this deli was here.' "

Amy Carell, manager of Round Table Pizza on Lincoln Avenue, said the event helps give her store and the entire area exposure. "It draws so many different types of people," Carell said. "A lot of people don't even know where Willow Glen is until they go to the dance."

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