On September 12, the lawn at Menlo College filled with folding tables of local art, a line for food trucks, and a bar selling wine tickets for $12, $30 or $50 depending on how many tastings a guest wanted. Admission was free. Kids had room to run between the booths while a jazz set carried across the quad. It was the first time the college had ever run an event like this on its own grass, a patch of campus at 1000 El Camino Real that usually hosts finance conferences and commencement, not wine tastings.
Two weeks later, the same lawn hosted something with a completely different register. On September 26 and 27, Menlo College became the site of the seventh annual SALA Festival, a ticketed gathering that pulled in Nobel laureates and internationally known authors for two days of panels on literature, art, and the South Asian diaspora. Two very different crowds, two very different price points, one address, fourteen days apart.
Two Weekends, One Lawn
SALA, short for the South Asian Literature and Art Festival, is produced by Art Forum SF and this year built its program around the theme "Global Gaze, South Asian Soul." The 2026 lineup included Nobel Prize winning scientist Venki Ramakrishnan and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, alongside novelists Karan Mahajan, Aatish Taseer, Manil Suri, and Amitava Kumar, artist Salima Hashmi, author and columnist Shobhaa De, and animator and author Sanjay Patel. Indica News reported that more than 22 panel discussions ran across the two days and that, for the first time in the festival's history, the program featured artists from Nepal.
In the Indica News report, festival director Kiran Malhotra described the festival as carrying an international thread since its 2019 launch, saying it always includes "an element of other countries." This year's programming leaned into that history directly, with sessions tracing the earliest waves of South Asian immigration to North America, including the Sikh and Punjabi communities who settled in California in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Set that against the Art & Wine Festival two weeks earlier: free admission, food trucks, a $12 wine ticket, and a first-time-registrants cup giveaway. One event is a debut built for a casual afternoon. The other is in its seventh year and pulls a global roster of speakers. What they share is the venue. Across two fall weekends, both festivals brought public gatherings to a business college's quad.
Holbrook-Palmer Park's Summer Schedule
Holbrook-Palmer Park is, by multiple independent descriptions, the only public park in Atherton and one of the very few public recreation sites the town has at all. The 22-acre municipal grounds include walking paths, gardens, a ball field, tennis courts, and three historic structures, the Main House, Jennings Pavilion, and Carriage House, that get rented out for weddings and private events.
The park's summer events included Sounds of Summer, the town's outdoor concert series, which ran three dates: Take 2 Dance Band on June 18, Maya Band on July 16, and Soul Practitioners, making their series debut, on August 20. National Night Out was held on August 4. Those events were already behind it when the Art & Wine Festival opened its gates on September 12, with the Fall Compost Workshop still ahead on October 7.
The park's playground has been closed since May 4 for renovation, and as of early September the town's own posting had not been updated with a confirmed reopening date.
What's Still on the Calendar
The fall dates show the events scheduled at each venue.
Date | Event | Venue |
|---|---|---|
Sept 12, 2026 | Art & Wine Festival, first edition | Menlo College Quad |
Sept 26–27, 2026 | SALA Festival, 7th edition | Menlo College |
Oct 7, 2026 | Fall Compost Workshop | Holbrook-Palmer Park |
Holbrook-Palmer Park has one event left on its fall calendar, a compost workshop in early October. Menlo College hosted two public festivals in September, one of them brand new. Holbrook-Palmer's rental facilities are also used for private weddings and gatherings, which do not appear on a public events page. The calendar shows public events at both venues this fall.
Menlo College as a Fall Event Venue
Atherton doesn't have a commercial downtown. There's no Main Street strip of shops and restaurants doing the job that a town square usually does, and Holbrook-Palmer Park is one of the very few public recreation sites in town. This fall, Menlo College also served as a gathering place. A first-time wine and art festival is a low-stakes way to test whether a campus quad can double as a town green. Two weeks later, an internationally recognized literary festival showed the same lawn can also carry serious cultural weight.
Menlo College's quad at 1000 El Camino Real hosted two public festivals in September, while Holbrook-Palmer Park's fall calendar included a compost workshop on October 7. Together, the dates show community events at both venues this fall.
If you're tracking what's actually happening around Atherton, not just what a map or a listing shows, the Mary Murphy Team keeps an eye on the small stuff too, from a new festival on a college quad to a park still waiting on its playground.
Mary Murphy | 650-773-4999 | [email protected] | Menlo Park and Atherton's trusted guide for life's next chapter
DRE# 00675838
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COMMUNITY EVENTS IN ATHERTON
Does Atherton have a downtown?
No. Atherton has no commercial downtown or Main Street. Community gatherings happen at Holbrook-Palmer Park and, increasingly, at Menlo College.
What is the only public park in Atherton?
Holbrook-Palmer Park, a 22-acre municipal park with walking paths, gardens, a ball field, tennis courts, and three historic buildings: the Main House, Jennings Pavilion, and Carriage House.
Can you rent space at Holbrook-Palmer Park?
Yes. The Main House, Jennings Pavilion, and Carriage House are available for weddings and private events.
Is the Holbrook-Palmer Park playground open?
The playground closed on May 4, 2026 for renovation. As of early September, the town had not posted a confirmed reopening date, so check the Town of Atherton's website for the latest update.
What is the Sounds of Summer concert series in Atherton?
A free outdoor summer concert series at Holbrook-Palmer Park. The 2026 season featured Take 2 Dance Band, Maya Band, and Soul Practitioners from June through August.
Where is Menlo College?
Menlo College is located at 1000 El Camino Real in Atherton.
What was the Art & Wine Festival at Menlo College?
A free-admission festival held for the first time on September 12, 2026, featuring local art, food trucks, live jazz, and optional wine tasting tickets.
What is the SALA Festival?
SALA, the South Asian Literature and Art Festival, is produced by Art Forum SF. Its seventh annual edition was held at Menlo College on September 26 and 27, 2026, with, as Indica News reported, more than 22 panels and speakers including Nobel laureates Venki Ramakrishnan and Kailash Satyarthi.