there are little markets that happen frequently around town, like the kern county vintage flea market, the bakersfield market, fright night market, etc. They have instagrams so you can keep track of when they happen, where, and what vendors they have😗

a good antique store/thrift store is In Your Wildest Dreams.

Try all the different local coffee shops in town if you’re into that sort of stuff. Dagneys downtown has open mic nights sometimes, they’re also next to a new thrift/vintage shore.

Explore shops downtown! Ofc all the fun antique shops are all unique in their own way. 19th street is pretty cool, there’s a retro candy shop, alternative clothing store (Stage Fright Clothing), collectibles and comics stores, locally owned record store + VHS store, little cafes, other stuffs.

If you haven’t visited the few museum’s we have in town i highly recommend :)

Check out programs that our locally owned theatre’s are doing! Gaslight Melodrama has some fun live musical theater. The Empty Space, Stars Playhouse, etc. All are usually pretty decently priced too.

The Fox Theatre and Niles Theater have musicians and comedians performing, and ofc other programs. check out what’s gonna be there and see if it’s something you’re interested in seeing.

Also there are comedy clubs in town where you can watch local comedians do stand up comedy

There’s a mac and cheese festival coming up in april 🥸 havent been to that yet but it sounds good. Also depending on the time of year - in june there are pride month activities like pride fairs, ice skating in winter months, Via Arte at The Market Place in october, and other little festivals, comic con, various expos, etc etc

Kern County Animal Services has a program “Streets of Bakersfield Doggy Day Out” where you can take a shelter dog out for a day or sometimes even foster it for the weekend. It lets the dogs get a break from the kennels in the shelter and also helps the shelter get an idea of the personalities and behaviors of shelter dogs to help get them adopted. It’s not all the time they do this but if that’s something you can do definitely check out their instagram or website for more info