The Burlingame Chamber of Commerce hosted the 29th annual “Burlingame on the Avenue” festival last weekend. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19 and Sunday, Aug. 20, clothing, jewelry and art booths lined the closed-off streets while food trucks served bites to eat to passersby. Local bands performed on multiple stages around the Avenue, playing covers of iconic songs.

Burlingame Parks and Recreation, Burlingame Fire Department and other local departments ran information booths. The fire department hosted a game for attendees to play, where they spun a wheel with fire safety questions, allowing winners to pick prizes from the table.

Many people attended throughout the weekend, enjoying the warm weather, handmade items and food. Burlingame students, along with plenty of families, checked out the booths.

“What stood out to me was how nice the people at the stands were and how they were good at advertising their products,” junior Angie Katz said.

Although it may be a local community event, it also attracted people from other nearby cities.

“It was my first time [at this event],” said Stephanie Chen, a junior at The Bay School in San Francisco. “The crochet booths were the most interesting and the live music stood out to me.”Stories and memories from artists lived in each booth. For one, Constance Provenzano, the owner of the handmade clothing store “Earth Stuff,” whose life story is intertwined with her passion for threading clothes.

“My mother taught me to sew when I was four years old. I come from a family of weavers, among other things from Greece,” Provenzano said. “I taught myself to do batiking and dye work, but I love anything to do with threads. I’m a very boring person surrounded by threads.”

In order to create her colorful and unique clothing, Provenzano implements the diverse set of skills she learned when she was young.

“I knit, crotchet, spin, weave, sew, batik, dye, quilt, embroider, oh my gosh, it never stops. If there’s a needle, color and thread around, I’m all for it,” Provenzano said.

Provenzano has a mission behind her designs: to uplift spirits.

“I think that color can bring out wonderful moods in people and can alter an unhappy mood into a good mood,” Provenzano said. “So I use those colors to teach people how to feel better, or feel good about themselves.”

Along with clothing, many vendors advertised art pieces. Ozan Berke, the owner of “Puzzled Comics” has been transforming comic book covers into artwork for four years. 

“Well, it’s interesting, I didn’t grow up reading any of these,” Berke said. “It was a friend of mine 20 years ago that asked me to store his multi-1000 comic book collection. And they came with me over many different states. He ended up giving them to me.”

After Berke received the comics, he immediately saw potential for them outside of their original purpose.

“I didn’t grow up reading any of these, but I wanted to do something creative with the comic books that were not very valuable. So I decided to turn them into jigsaw puzzles,” Berke said.

The remarkable stories featured at local community events are the perfect way to engage with customers.

“I like talking to all of the people here, I like the two-day events,” Berke said. “So it’s nice to be able to maximize the selling experience. Plus you know, being an introvert, if I don’t come out and sell and socialize I end up not talking to many people.”