A new free series takes over Telegraph Avenue near Latham Square on the third Thursday of each month, 5–9 PM, through October — with food vendors, DJs, live music, and yes, street wrestling.

A new free block party series has taken root in downtown Oakland, and the next edition lands Thursday, July 16.

Oaktown Thursdays runs the third Thursday of each month, 5–9 PM, through October 2026 on Telegraph Avenue between Broadway and 17th Street — the Latham Square corridor. It's free, no ticket, no wristband. The debut on June 18 drew roughly 36 vendors selling African and Latino food, desserts, ice cream, clothing, and art, with a live music stage, DJs, a four-venue bar crawl (Muchin, Fluid 510, Lucy Liu, plus a fourth), and West Coast Pro Wrestling running a ring in the street. Future editions are being themed around Oakland Pride, Latino Heritage Month, and the Black Panther Party's 60th anniversary.

The series was founded by Sean Sullivan, managing partner of Fluid510, one of the anchor bars on the crawl — so yes, there's a direct financial interest in bringing foot traffic to the block, but that's also kind of the point. Sullivan told KTVU: "We have all these thousands of new residents in these beautiful buildings and we need to give them a reason to get outside." Organizers deployed metal detectors and security staff at the debut, a deliberate break from the chaotic later years of Oakland's First Fridays, which this is clearly meant to succeed.

Remaining dates: July 16, August 20, September 17, October 15, all 5–9 PM.

Logistics: Telegraph Ave at Broadway, downtown Oakland. Nearest BART is 12th Street Oakland City Center — about three blocks south on Broadway. Street parking on nearby blocks. All ages. Free.

If you're going: show up closer to 6 PM once the vendors are all set up, and the bar crawl circuit makes more sense as a lap than a destination.