It’s a sunny day in May, and Candi Martinez holds her daughter’s tiny hand as the two twirl to face a pair of friends in the middle of a carless Oakland street. She greets them as music fills the air on Lakeshore Avenue, which is transformed into a dance floor for the inaugural Lakeshore Spring Festival.
Martinez gracefully glides through the crowd to take center stage and welcome guests to the first street fair held in the district in more than a decade. It’s one of more than 100 family-friendly festivals and events she estimates to have produced in The Town in the past two decades, most of which are free to attend.
“Communities are made better when they have access to art, to culture, to events,” said Martinez. “I think that public events are natural stewards of public safety. So I feel really inspired when I see intergenerational spaces, and I look out at the elders. I see everybody in between. I see different abilities, and it’s an even playing field. It’s not like someone has an elevated VIP status. We’re all there together, and that really inspires me.”
Martinez got her start in more intimate music venues in San Francisco, like the former Justice League where The Independent now stands. She went on to curate the VIP experience for a little music festival in the desert we may have heard of called Coachella. Martinez had exclusive access to work alongside the world’s most lauded artists, like Beyonce and Carlos Santana, but something was missing—a real sense of community.
At her core, Martinez is driven by the desire to make art more accessible to more people. “I feel like there’s more heart in it,” she shared. “I get to work with a lot of different nonprofits, so there’s a lot of commitment to community, to equity, to access.”
Last year, Martinez estimates the events she produced collectively drew about 90,000 people and employed more than 500 different artists. This year, she took in the scale of the 25th anniversary of the Laurel Street World Music Fair, which alone brought out 20,000 people.
“There was a point where I got on stage and I could see nothing but a sea of people for like five or six blocks, and I felt really proud of myself,” said Martinez, “but also my team that I get to work with and that we all really support each other. I knew that was something really important that we were bringing to East Oakland.”
Another recent event of hers featured global Afrobeats superstar Juls, who headlined the 8th annual Afrobeats at the Lake festival in Snow Park this August. Though it was one of the few festivals that wasn’t free, tickets were intentionally lower-priced, and local vendors were again welcome to set up shop.
“There are ways that the festival showcases our smaller businesses,” noted Martinez. “Our artisans that are making jewelry, clothing, candles, different types of things that are really special that you can only buy directly from the person who made it, which by far beats shopping on Amazon or Target.”
As she looks back at her career highlights, Martinez is proud to say she’s worked on the last shows in San Francisco for James Brown and Amy Winehouse. But she’s also excited to support some of the first shows for up-and-coming local musicians like B. DeVeaux, Jwalt and Ajai Kasim.
“I’ve gotten to work alongside like these really big names, and then also really amazingly talented local artists,” she said. “So I love when I get to see people that I worked with several years ago … blow up and get their flowers.”
And this summer Martinez was given her own flowers too. These include a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, a State of California Senate Certificate of Recognition, a commendation by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and a City of Oakland Mayor’s Proclamation. But she insists her greatest gift is witnessing people experience joy.
“I feel like Oakland is at its best when we’re together and we’re celebrating life,” observed Martinez.
