The YBG Festival has slowed down its schedule this week. The next free concert is on Sunday. While you’re waiting for Sunday to get here, you can learn about the YBG Festival’s mascot, Bearnice…

The Remarkable Tale of Bearnice, the Rambling Bear
Chapter 1  Book 1 Volume 1

This is the beginning of the tale of Bearnice, the Rambling Bear, which is what everyone who knew Bearnice used to call her, back in the day, as they say, yes, long, long before she appeared one sunny summer afternoon in the South of Market, San Francisco, fluffing up her fur with her little paws and plopping her little bear self right smack down in the middle of the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. She just showed up one day, they say, and that was that.

And how did all this come to pass, the stuff before ‘and that was that’?

It all began in Paris, where Bearnice lived. It was the ’60s.

Bearnice was young and in love with Bearnardo, who came to her one day and told her that he was going to leave Paris and he wanted Bearnice to join him. He told her that Paris just didn’t have enough to keep a young polar bear happy. He said he longed to see distant lands, he longed for the freedom of the wild west, he longed to follow the sun.

“I want to go where I can see the sun dip slowly into the sea,” he told her.

“Oh Bearnardo,” she said, “that’s beautiful. I will follow you anywhere.” She was bearly 18, and she loved Bearnardo.

He told Bearnice: “We’re going to America!” And off they went.

Bearnice and Bearnardo lived for a short time in New York City when they first arrived in the States. But they weren’t comfortable there. The country was in the grip of a huge economic bust. Everywhere in the Big Apple people were cursing the stock market bears.

Bearnice and Bearnardo felt worried for their safety. They decided to get out of town.

Bearnice and Bearnardo moved to Chicago, because Bearnice liked the names of the baseball and football teams. Also, the winter weather was very convivial for polar bears.

As soon as summer hit, the two discovered that Chicago was not the place for them. With such thick fur, Bearnice suffered terribly in the awful heat waves of July and August.

The vast Midwest of the Great Plains surrounded the City of Big Shoulders, and Bearnardo felt hemmed in, suffocated. One day, Bearnardo woke with itchy paws and told Bearnice that they had to keep heading west, following the sun, following his destiny.

More to come…