It is 4:50 p.m. on a beautiful Friday afternoon in Oakland. Nineteen food trucks from Off the Grid, an organization that hosts street vendors and food trucks at different locations throughout the Bay Area, line up at 10th and Oak Street, right outside the Oakland Museum of California. The 10th Street Amphitheater, located on the lower level of the museum, stands empty, but will soon fill up with a mob of people. DJ Dion Decibels sets up his equipment and mixes songs by Mary J. Blige and James Brown. Event organizer and emcee Preston Justice sets up the stage for tonight’s live band, Chelle! and Friends.

Friday Nights at Oakland Museum of California, now in its third year, opens gallery space to the public for extended hours every Friday. Food and drinks are on offer, and bands and DJs provide entertainment. The weekly gathering began in January 2013 in a partnership with Off the Grid to highlight local artists, food makers and tasters, musicians, dancers, historians, environmentalists, writers and poets.

Cynthia Taylor, associate director of Public Programs at the Oakland Museum of California, said the mission of the OMCA is to “inspire all Californians to create a more vibrant future for themselves and their communities.” To support their mission, the museum’s public programs department decided to establish this weekly event in order to provide a meaningful impact on its visitors at the “Friday Nights @ OMCA” events.

The museum and event “proudly reflects the community [of Oakland] in it’s many different facets, bringing together people of every background, ethnicity, age, and interest,” Taylor said.

By 5:15 p.m., the food trucks are open for business and the DJ’s turntables are in full rotation. Slowly, people start to show up: A family of four, a group of five friends, White, Asian, Black, Latinx and people up and down the socioeconomic scale.

They fill the steps of the 10th Street Amphitheater, talking, eating and enjoying the music. “Honestly I think a big part of it is purely wanting to give the people, you know, our neighbors, the people of Oakland and the Bay Area a space to come in and gather and get some fun, some easy access to good music, dance and culture,” Justice said.

People pack the dance floor. Friends dance with each other, couples dance together and parents dance with their children. The Friday night vibe is felt in the atmosphere. You can see smiles on the multitude of faces in attendance.

At 6:40 p.m., a game of musical chairs breaks out before the live band takes the stage. Justice invites whoever is willing to join in on the game, which continues for 15 minutes until the final two people are left: Two children between the ages of seven and 10. A man with his one-year-old uses his baby to reach over seats and places his child on an empty seat, securing them a chance to participate in the next round. One kid didn’t get the hint that he was eliminated and stayed in the game until he was eliminated again.

“You know I think that we’re in a really good space,” said Justice. “We have a lot of families and individuals who come very often. Some people come every week and some people come maybe twice a month.”

The 10th Street Amphitheater — better known as the “Go Local Stage” — is packed with 300 people. The Oakland band Chelle! and Friends play a fusion of New Orleans Mardi Gras jazz and R&B.

“The idea is that we’re presenting the arts, the music that is happening right here, in Oakland ideally, but in the East Bay and greater Bay Area,” Justice said.

The success of this night and the museum coincides with ongoing gentrification in Oakland. The influx of people moving to Oakland from San Francisco is triggering the same effect of rising rents and displacement seen in San Francisco. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bay Area’s population increased by 90,834 people between 2014 and 2015, and 25,365 of these people are now residents of Alameda County.

“People say, ‘The hell with it, I can’t afford San Francisco. I’ll go to Oakland,’” Tim Colen, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, told the San Francisco Chronicle in March. Colen believes Oakland is “the new Brooklyn.” With more people relocating to Oakland, they are looking for things to do in the city and “Friday Nights @ OMCA” is one place to be.

At last the band is playing their last song and some of the food trucks are closed because they ran out of supplies. People have filtered out and have gone home. Next week and the weeks to come will be the same thing but with different bands and new exhibits.

On display now at the museum is “Altered State: Marijuana in California,” a linear history of the discovery of marijuana and its vast uses in the past and present, and “Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact” providing a critical insight to the major impact bees have on our ecosystem.

“I’m actually really excited, the museum is going to be opening up an exhibit at the end of July that speaks to the changing landscape of Oakland and the Bay Area,” Justice said.

Their upcoming exhibit “Oakland, I want you to know…” will showcase social, economic and demographic changes in Oakland, but through the lens of those that call Oakland home. This exhibit will consist of artwork, video installations, compelling images and community book-making projects and will be on display July 23 through Oct. 30.