Tri-Valley bustling with arts, animals and community involvement
With the holiday season behind, and the first month of 2024 in full swing, maybe you need a vacation from all the merry making? Our luxurious rooms, Continental breakfast, and location in the middle of downtown Pleasanton is a great place for an escape.
Get involved
The Rose Hotel prides itself on being a part of Pleasanton and supporting our community. We sponsor local groups and events throughout the year and like to bring attention to the many good things our town does.
This weekend is the annual Make a Difference for Pleasanton Festival. The event brings together more than 40 local nonprofit organizations at the Pleasanton Senior Center to share information about how they help our community and how residents can take part in their efforts to improve Pleasanton for all who live here. Organizations represent groups who arrange clothing and food drives, support conservation, work with foster families, run social service agencies, support the arts, sponsor Special Olympics and more.
The festival is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the Pleasanton Senior Center, 5343 Sunol Blvd., Pleasanton. Make giving back to our community one of your 2024 goals.
Travel vicariously
Pleasanton is a more easily attainable vacation destination for most Americans than traveling abroad, making Armchair Travelers – A Kaleidoscope of Fabled Lands: From Western Australia to Southern Asia an even more intriguing event for visitors to the Tri-Valley. Live vicariously through this 1:30 p.m. Jan. 11 event at Livermore’s Civic Center Library, where international traveler Frank Rainer will present a fascinating slideshow of his adventures in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Maybe the presentation will inspire you to take your own adventures, whether to the Bay Area, or further abroad. This event is free to the public, and no reservation is required.
A bit of variety
For a performance unlike anything you’ve likely seen, check out American Social Club: Family Ruckus on Jan. 13. Starting at 8 p.m., this variety show at Pleasanton’s Firehouse Arts Center includes a variety of art forms.
Instruments, singing, dancing, visual art and comedy are all part of the package. The variety show format was popular in decades past on TV, but now you get a chance to see an array of performance types come together in person. Tickets are available online for $20 to $35 per person.
If you’re visiting shortly after Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, the Firehouse Arts Center also is hosting an ’80s Dance Party with DJ Jessica Platt on Jan. 19 from 8 to 10:30 p.m. Bring your best neon clothes, headbands, tube socks and do your hair up big while dancing to the best hits from the decade. Who doesn’t want to relive the 80s, right?
Dance party tickets are available on the Firehouse Arts Center website for $20 per person.
Fellowship
The Pleasanton Community of Character Collaborative is hosting its 24th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship breakfast on Jan. 22 at the DoubleTree. This year’s event features Jacqueline D. Brown speaking on “DIVE (Difference + Invited + Valued + Embraced: Bridging Character, Unity and Inclusive Leadership in Dr. King’s Dream.”
Critters galore
For animal lovers, there are a couple of upcoming events worth traveling to the Tri-Valley to see the weekend of Jan. 13-14 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds (just a short drive from The Rose Hotel). The NorCal Reptile Expo takes place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The event features exhibits of reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and more. Vendors will include breeders and whole-sale suppliers. In addition, there will be plenty of kid-friendly activities.
On Sunday, Jan. 14, the Pleasanton Exotic Bird & Poultry Expo takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the fairgrounds. Visitors can check out finches, canaries, lovebirds, cockatiels and more, as well as find supplies and accessories for their own birds.
Tickle the funny bone
Comedy shows are fun to watch, but what if you add in a competitive element and include the audience? That’s the premise behind GET IT!? with host Joe Klocek.
During this Jan. 26 event at the Firehouse Arts Center, audience members will need to pay close attention to rounds of standup comedy routines, after which they’ll be quizzed on the content. Whoever gets five questions first right becomes the GET IT!? champion.
GET IT!? tickets for the event’s 8 p.m. start time are available on the Firehouse website.
Alternative ballet
On Jan. 29, the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are set to perform at Livermore’s Bankhead Theater. The ballet performance at 7:30 p.m. is sure to be unlike a children’s ballet performance or any professional dance troupe you’ve seen: This is an all-male cast in drag performing humorous routines.
Despite their comedic style, these dancers still have all the ballet skills they need to take the stage by storm, amazing the audience with fancy footwork. Ballet tickets are available online for $90 to $120.
Making history
For those exploring the Tri-Valley in early February, you might know history as a subject stereotyped to be filled with boring lectures and forgettable facts. History That Doesn’t Suck looks to turn that narrative on its head on Feb. 4 at the Bankhead Theater with its host, Utah Valley University Professor Greg Jackson.
For his 3 p.m. performance, Jackson is taking his podcast of the same name, which views history through a sarcastic and comedic lens, live and on tour with a special performance titled “The Unlikely Union.” This show is a speed run covering the first 100 years of American history in under 2 hours.
History That Doesn’t Suck tickets are available for $30 to $60 online.
Once you’re done exploring the Tri-Valley region’s extensive list of January events, retire to your room at The Rose Hotel. Our hotel features Old World charm and the highest level of customer service. Come see us soon.
Reach us by emailing [email protected], calling (925) 846-8802, or stopping by to visit at 807 Main St., Pleasanton, CA 94566. Click here to book your next visit to the Rose Hotel.
