Clover Park plays host to annual bash
CLOVER PARK — Those who failed to show here this past Saturday missed out on the public party of the year, as hundreds joined together to celebrate the rich history, culture and diversity of Santa Monica — all without having to pay admission.
Just about every square inch of grass at Clover Park was covered with blankets as families from the area and as far away as Ventura and Orange counties stretched out in the sun to soak in the 2006 Santa Monica Festival, an $80,000, solar-powered bash funded by City Hall — with a hand from corporate sponsors — to bring communities together and bask in everything that is Santa Monica. and it helps build a sense of community pride, as in ‘This is our festival. This is what makes Santa Monica so special,’” said Hamp Simmons, City Hall’s cultural affairs coordi-nator, who started organizing the free festival last September. “Hopefully, people leave feeling really good about their city and their community.”
Those who didn’t feel like sitting or eating freshly grilled tacos and ears of corn, got their kicks dancing to the wild clarinet of Bucovina Klezmer and the Afro-Brazilian rhythms of Viver Brazil Dance Company.
Others passed the time climbing a rock wall provided by sponsor REI, or found themselves browsing the scores of booths hosted by local merchants, non-profits and City Hall.
Under each white tent, representatives with bright smiles offered information on affordable housing, the arts, socially and environmentally responsible investing, protections against consumer fraud, alternative transportation, and much more.
“The festival really gives us a chance to get out into the community, let the people know what we do, and really just meet and greet the people we work for,” said Elaine Polacheck, City Hall’s open space manager, who helped run the Community and Cultural Affairs booth. At Polacheck’s station, festival-goers were able to get information on, and view models of, two new parks under development — the Airport Park and Euclid Park.
“I love seeing the great mix of people,” she remarked. “This event just shows the wonderful cross-section of people who live here. It’s always a great event.”
At the Santa Monica Museum of Art tent, 3-year-old Amelia Addes was with her mother, Ira Kaveladze, coloring in pictures for a book based on a character she created. After having attended last year’s festival, Kaveladze, a native of Georgia in the former Soviet Union, said she had to bring her daughter back again because she had “so much fun.”
“This is a really positive event, lots of nice people,” Kaveladze said, adding the $80,000 price tag was worth every cent. “In this day and age, it’s nice to have something like this where people can come together to feel like a part of the community. It’s great for families, for children.”
Over at the Santa Monica High School booth, 16-year-old sophomore Ran Zhang was with her father Yanjun, a chemist at UCLA who moved the family to Santa Monica about a year ago from Michigan. His daughter was at the festival representing Samohi artists and had several of her paintings up for display.
Zhang said he was enjoying the festivities because there was so much information readily available on so many topics, including driving, which is big on his list considering his daughter is seeking her driver’s license.
“I’m finding the festival very useful,” he said with a smile, as he looked towards his daughter. “The music has been fantastic, the different booths are very informative. I think this is a wonderful way to see our tax dollars at work.”
Ran Zhang said she was happy that Samohi artists were offered the chance to show how they can contribute to the rest of society.
“Oftentimes the youth is left out of events like this,” she said. “Many times it’s just mainstream artists or professional artists, but here we really feel as if we are a part of the community. We are part of the life, the culture of Santa Monica.”
Marking its 14th year, the festival was created with those goals in mind — to make everyone feel united as Santa Monicans. At first, the festival focused mainly on gang violence and the tension between African-Americans and Latinos, focusing on the two groups and their contributions to the city as well as their struggles for equality, said Simmons, who has been in charge of the festivals for more than six years. The festival was soon moved from the pier to Clover Park, where it evolved into a larger celebration of life in Santa Monica, including more cultures, different styles of art, food and dance.
The environment and conservation also began to play a greater role, Simmons said, eventually leading to the creation of the EcoZone, where people are challenged to transform unwanted waste from the city’s Recycling Center into a “Next Generation” art installation, demonstrating the need to recycle while challenge a child’s creativity.
“Our theme for this year, and really for the last several years, is ‘Where art, culture and environment come alive,’” Simmons said. “We chose that because all three play very important roles in Santa Monica and help determine who were are.”
The festival isn’t just for Santa Monicans. Vicky Shapiro drove to the festival with her daughter Talia from Sherman Oaks. A friend from North Hollywood and her daughter also joined them for the afternoon, which they spent doing arts and crafts.
“I heard about this last year in ‘L.A. Parent Magazine.’ We came out, had an amazing time so we came back,” Shapiro said. “It’s a perfect day to be outside in the sun having some good fun.”
While many visitors to Santa Monica complain about traffic and parking, Shapiro said she had no problems finding parking, praising the staff for a well-organized event.
“We got right off the freeway, drove straight over, no traffic, and found plenty of good parking,” Shapiro said. “It was easy.”
Plenty of free parking — for many Santa Monicans, that’s reason enough to celebrate.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 15, 2006. Read the original PDF.