It’s party time in Santa Monica this weekend.
Saturday marks the 12th annual Santa Monica Festival, one of the city’s largest community gatherings.
The event attracts thousands of people to Clover Park, which is located on Ocean Park Boulevard, between 25th and 28th streets.
Elementary school students will carry their own colorful handiwork and parade through the park. In past years, students have constructed giant jellyfish out of plastic bottles and named their parade “Creatures of the Sea.”
This year, the roughly 120 students, who crafted oversized processional pieces under the guidance of Michelle Berne, a local community celebration artist, will be accompanied by about 40 Brazilian dancers from Santa Monica College.
A handful of city officials will formally announce the beginning of the Santa Monica Festival at the end of the parade, launching the park into a day of food, music and art.
“It’s a great community event,” Councilman Ken Genser said. “It’s a great place for the community to come together.”
Event planners expect 10,000 to 20,000 people, depending on weather, but said the festivities will go on rain or shine.
And it’s free, except for the food. The centerpiece of the festival will be an installation by String Theory, a performance ensemble that will stretch the strings of its trademark “curve harp” to the top of the park’s 40-foot playtower.
Then they’ll play it. If you’re looking for Chinese, African, Mexican or other types of grub, Santa Monica Festival is the place to be. There will be nine food vendors cranking out plates all day long.
And once you’ve had your fill, you can bounce over to one of two stages, where a mix of musicians and performers will be putting on a series of shows that will last straight through until 6 p.m.
In past years, the festival has attracted the band Ozomatli and a performance by the San Francisco mime troupe, among others.
This year, the Orchestra Superstring will play post-modern jazz, Conjunto Jardin will play Mexican folk music and a handful of other groups will perform an opera and traditional Chinese and African music.
Then there are the performances by Amen Santos, a capoeira master, the American Academy of Dance & Kindred Arts and Kennedy Kabasares, who will present a staged reading of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written by Dai Sijie.
What’s more, students from Olympic High School, Santa Monica’s alternative school, will read their poetic works.
The entire day is a giant tribute to the city and to the environment, said Aaron Paley, who helped organize the event with the city’s cultural affairs department.
One local business will walk away with the Sustainable Quality Award, which is given to a local merchant recognized for sustaining the local economy, community and environment.
Several local organizations will be holding environmental demonstrations, including TidePool Cruiser’s storm drain exhibit, which shrinks revelers to the size of a worm and takes them below street level to see first-hand how cigarette butts, candy bar wrappers and coffee cups make their way into the streams and into the ocean.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 16, 2003. Read the original PDF.