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Who ordered the rain? 

It’s early May, which means festival season is about to kick into high gear. This weekend, numerous organizations held festivals, fairs and outdoor events around town, banking on the good weather that Mother Nature has delivered in recent weeks. 

This weekend, she changed her mind. 

Instead of two days of glorious sunshine and spring weather, the Bay Area was treated to a dose of clouds, wind and rain. So, many of those springtime events found diminished crowds, and in some cases, the organizers called an early end to the festivities. 

One of Saturday’s affected events was the second annual Downtown Music Circus. The morning clouds weren’t a problem for the dozens of musicians who performed around downtown, but when the rain started falling in the afternoon, some of the groups packed up their instruments, microphones and amplifiers. And a piano on the sidewalk outside Eddie Bauer had to be rolled inside to keep it dry. 

“Even with the cold weather and rain, it was amazing the number of musicians who were able to find refuge under some kind of shelter,” said Bonnie Hughes, the music festival’s director. “But it was the spectators who couldn’t always find enough shelter to stay around and listen to the music.” 

Across town, at John Muir Elementary School, the cold weather kept away some families from the school’s annual May Fair, said Fern Royce from the school’s PTA. And the event ended an hour early thanks to the afternoon rain. 

Organizers of a similar event at Jefferson Elementary School were fortunate, as far as the rain was concerned: They scheduled their May Fair to end at 2 p.m., about an hour before the rain began. 

On Sunday, the city-sponsored Cinco de Mayo gathering in Civic Center Park was significantly smaller than in previous years, when the weather was more cooperative. The event was scheduled to run until 6 p.m.; by 2:30 p.m., the event was effectively over. 

Other outdoor events scheduled for Sunday included the Jazz on Fourth Street concerts and History/Storytelling Day at People’s Park. 

The National Weather Service forecasts continued clouds and drizzle this morning, with more sun by the afternoon. Partly cloudy skies are expected for the next few days.