SeeCalifornia.com

Photos: Giant Zucchini Man (center) at Hayward Zucchini Festival is flanked by bands Burning of Rome (left) and Silver Skull (right), both appearing at 4 & 20 Blackbird Music Festival in Weed.

Two nutty festivals are a mere sampling of the deliciously entertaining activities happening this month in California.

• 4 & 2o Blackbird Music Festival (4and20festival.com) in Weed, Calif.,  is a fairly new event that appears to be the best Indie festival in California this year. There are over 100 bands performing August 4 & 5, 2012–most known throughout the Bay Area and popular around universities and the independent music scene. One of the unusual offerings at this concert you can appreciate if you’re a “Weed” is free admission tickets for anyone with a beard willing to have it shaved off at the festival. The promotion provides two free passes to the entire festival if you let their barbers shave it in front of the crowd!

• The 30th annual Hayward Zucchini Festival (haywardzucchini.org)  includes dancing, jumping, jiving and diving into platefuls of fried zucchini. Zucchini is that undervalued fruit (often thought to be a vegetable) that is pretty good when baked in breads, used in stews or fried and served with some sort of Ranch dressing dip. The Zucchini Festival takes place August 18 &  19, 2012.