Summary: Tapestry clogs downtown SJ

ConJosé will not be the only major event in downtown San José on Labor Day weekend. The Tapestry street fair will bring approximately 250,000 people. The good news is that there will be lots more places to spend your money, including street food and arts&crafts. The bad news is that 250K people will make it somewhat more difficult to get in and out, as well as competing for your parking space, filling restaurants, and so on.

If you stay near the convention center, you probably will face little inconvenience; Tapestry is a few blocks away, and it shuts down at night. At the same time, we'd be remiss in our duties if we didn't warn you....   Here are the critical links you'll need to make your travel and stay a pleasant one:

• Transportation
• Parking - but we strongly recommend public transit if you're not staying in a hotel. Your best bet is to park at a light rail facility.
• The hotels page will help you find a place near the convention.

Tapestry: Long description

Tapestry (formerly known as Tapestry in Talent) is a crafts-oriented street fair that takes place in downtown San José every Labor Day weekend. This means that it will be on during ConJosé, so you get two events in the city for your Worldcon membership.

Information about Tapestry can be obtained from their web site. You may be particularly interested in this photo, which shows an aerial view of the festival. The building in the lower right of the photo with cars on the roof is the parking garage of the Crowne Plaza hotel, and you can make out a small piece of the Crown Plaza hotel itself below that. (The Convention Center and other ConJose facilities are just beyond the lower right corner of the photo.) As you can see, the fair will be very close to ConJosé, but is not directly adjacent to the areas we are using. Tapestry uses primarily Alamden Blvd and adjacent side streets whereas the McEnery Convention Center is on San Carlos Street and the Fairmont is on Market Street (Cesar Chavez Plaza).

The main emphasis of Tapestry is on craft stalls, although there are also "home & garden" commercial displays in Parkside Hall. You will also find performance stages featuring many types of music, and food and beverage stalls. Tapestry is likely to be a good place to go for a cheap lunch. Those of you who frequent the craft stalls at conventions will find Tapestry to be like having an extra dealers' room.

Although Tapestry attracts large numbers of people, they are mainly from the Bay Area and the existence of the fair has not affected our ability to secure hotel rooms at good prices. Also Tapestry is a daytime event only so there will not be excessive demand on local restaurants in the evening. There may be problems with parking at times, but San José is very well served for downtown parking and we are working with the Convention & Visitors Bureau to minimize difficulties.

While ConJosé's staff were busy at The Millennium Philcon, local fan Pam Rice went to Tapestry to see what the crowd were like. The following pictures tell the story. Click on any picture for a larger image.

The view from the Hilton. Tapestry can be seen in the distance.

On Alamden Boulevard it is very busy.

Those of you with an interest in crafts may like to know that San José is also home to the USA's oldest quilting museum. For more details click here.

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