ABCey’s Weekend Lineup 7/7-7/9

It’s almost Friday! ABCey brings you this week’s Weekend Lineup with the top events in the Bay Area for the upcoming weekend! After the long 4th of July weekend, here are some amazing events to keep the fun going!

Pro Beach Volleyball Tournament

July 6-9th | All Day 9am-6pm | Cost: FREE! | AVP San Francisco Open | Piers 30-32

Starting Thursday through Sunday, The Mens & Women’s AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour will make its return to San Francisco. Sit back & relax & enjoy some exciting beach volleyball with the scenic Bay Bridge looming overhead.

Friday Nights at the de Young

Friday July 7th | 5-8:30pm | Cost: FREE! | Golden Gate Park | 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA

Friday Nights at the de Young programs are after-hours art “happenings” that include a mix of live music, dance, theater performances & more! The café also offers a special Friday Night menu and specialty cocktails!

French Fry Fest

Saturday July 8th | 11am-5pm | Cost: $5 General Admission, $35 All You Can Drink Craft Beer & Sangria, Ages 10 & Under – FREE! | Soma StrEat Food Park | 428 11th Street San Francisco, CA

SoMa StrEat Food Park and Broke Ass Stuart are teaming up to bring you the Bay’s most delicious food trucks and pop-up shops. Come enjoy some fry specials to the sound of disco funk jams all day!

Refreshments and Resistance: A Benefit for ACLU

ACLU is a group of professional women who have been awakened to their capacity to effectively drive positive, progressive change in our country. Proceeds will be donated to the ACLU, which works to protect and expand Americans’ freedom to vote. Your donation includes bottomless sangria, mimosas, or a non-alcoholic refreshment of your choice!

Sunset Silent Disco Yoga

Sunday July 9th | 6:15-7:30pm | Baker Beach | San Francisco CA

Yoga at the golden hour with curated music, the incredible SF community, and outdoor yoga teacher and founder Julie Aiello. Come enjoy this picturesque, peaceful, and fun environment for some relaxing yoga. They even supply headphones so you can listen to the teacher + to curated music together!

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What events will you be attending this weekend? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook or Twitter page!

Sources: SF Fun Cheap, EventBrite, De Young website, EventBrite, EventBrite

The Tech Behind the Bay Lights

The art installation by Leo Villareal on the Bay Bridge is absolutely stunning. The thousands of shimmering lights decorating the bridge elevate the Golden Gate’s awkward cousin to the big leagues while adding to the already picturesque skyline across San Francisco Bay. ABCey explores the innovative technology behind Villareal’s masterpiece.

The backstory: Villareal is an accomplished artist whose work spans across America, including the Burningman camp Disorient. Ben Davis, founder of World Pictures Ideas, discovered Villareal’s work at the 2010 Zero1 Biennial in Silicon Valley. As chairman of Illuminate the Arts, Davis recruited the artist to begin the enormous project to adorn the Bay Bridge in light in honor of its 75th birthday.

Villareal used around 25,000 individuall programmed white LED lights to complete his project. Philips Color Kinetics custom made the lights and a complex algorithm to create an ever-changing pattern across the western side of the bridge. The lights are mounted in single strands along the bridge’s cables and use around 150 kilowatt hours during its nightly 7-hour shift. The displays costs around $11,000 per year, or about $4.25 per hour!

The bridge is now not only a bridge, but a contemporary work of art deemed the largest LED sculpture in the world. 50 million people are expected to see the bridge during the art work’s two year lifespan. The Bay Lights are a symbol of the bay area’s world-renoun leadership in the arts, transportation and progress, and, of course, technology.

Have you seen the Bay Lights? What do you think of this project? Let us know with a comment, tweet, or Facebook post!