City Notes

As the dog days of summer reach their peak, animal rights groups and canine-lovers will celebrate the annual International Dog Day on August 26.

By COMPILEDJULIE STEIGERWALD
From August 24-27, take in Bat Yam’s Festival of Street Theater and Art (photo credit: BATYAMFEST.CO.IL)
From August 24-27, take in Bat Yam’s Festival of Street Theater and Art
(photo credit: BATYAMFEST.CO.IL)
CENTER
Dizengoff Center goes to dogs
As the dog days of summer reach their peak, animal rights groups and canine-lovers will celebrate the annual International Dog Day on August 26.
In light of the day celebrating “man’s best friend,” the Israeli animal rights group Let the Animals Live will host a celebratory training event for children and dog owners at Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center mall.
The location was chosen as the mall is one of the country’s commercial centers that allow pets to enter their premises.
Activities will take place on August 26 from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. in the Plaza Gallery on the mall’s first floor.
Activities will include a station for adopting abandoned dogs, children’s educational sessions and a training area for the four-legged friends.
Bat Yam streets to become stage for art, theater festival
For three days in late August, streets of Bat Yam will be cleared of vehicular traffic and filled as an open arena for cultural events for the city’s International Festival of Street Theater and Art.
From August 24 to 27, Bat Yam’s seaside promenade and Ben-Gurion thoroughfare will transform into an outdoor stage for dozens of musical performances, art installations, puppet shows, dance and acrobatics performances along with street theater stands, and more.
During the festivities, art, which is usually confined to museums, galleries and dark halls, will also move out into the open public space and will be a part of the central events and celebration.
The artists will also interact with festival-goers as part of the initiative aimed at regenerating personal and communal interactions in the technology-ridden 21st century.
The event’s organizers have also created a free camping site adjacent to the festival on the Bat Yam sea shore. Entrance to the festival is also free of charge.
SOUTH
Meteor shower illuminates Negev skies Thousands
of people flocked to Mitzpe Ramon on Thursday night, August 11, to see the celestial spectacle of the annual Perseid meteor shower.
Stargazers witnessed the cosmic event when Earth’s orbit passes through debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle.
Situated above the Ramon crater, Mitzpe Ramon’s elevation of nearly 900 meters above sea level, along with its dry desert climate and low levels of light pollution, create an ideal setting to see the shooting stars.
This year’s meteor shower peaked between the hours of 12 midnight and 2 a.m. NASA estimated that there were about 200 meteors per hour during the shower’s peak.
The local soccer stadium housed the town’s traditional Star Party, with dozens of telescopes for public use and various events and films to celebrate the astronomical occurrence.
Pioneer high-altitude balloon successfully launched from Ashkelon
A high-altitude balloon was successfully launched into the stratosphere last week for the first time from Ashkelon, the municipality announced last Wednesday.
The balloon was launched from the city’s marina to a height of over 30 kilometers, reaching the Earth’s second major layer of atmosphere.
The unmanned balloon was fashioned with a scanner that recorded its journey from takeoff to landing back in Israel.
The launching was attended by dozens of students from the International Space University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni was also in attendance, along with NASA engineer Joseph Pellegrino, Israeli Astronomical Association chairman Dr. Igal Patel and civilian space entrepreneur Maya Glickman from the firm Spacecialist.
The event was also witnessed by members of the municipal council, students from Ashkelon’s center for the gifted and talented and local residents.
“This is a historic day for Ashkelon,” said Patel. “This experiment was very interesting due to the uniqueness of the height reached by the launch and the return of the equipment.”
NORTH
Haifa hosting EDM Life in Color festival
A star-studded lineup of world-famous DJs is set to rock tens of thousands of people at the Life in Color festival taking place for the second year in Israel in Haifa on August 25.
The multi-artist concert, dubbed “the world’s largest paint party,” will take place at Haifa’s Ethos Field as a stop on the international tour of the festival.
Artists Steve Aoki, DVBBS and R3HAB will take the stage as revelers rave while pyrotechnics and paint fillthe scene with visual enhancements to the electronic sounds.
The festival’s organizers say that the body paint available at the concert is nontoxic and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and removable with water.
Entrance to the event is permitted for people age 18 and older.
Tickets are available at http://www.lifeincolor.co.il/.